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The use of images: visual history and ancient history

R. R. R. Smith

in Classics in Progress: Essays on Ancient Greece and Rome

This chapter explores the visual aspect, a territory shared with archaeology and art history. The Greek and Roman world poured an astonishing amount of its surplus into expensive monuments and ... More

This chapter explores the visual aspect, a territory shared with archaeology and art history. The Greek and Roman world poured an astonishing amount of its surplus into expensive monuments and elaborate public images, and their study is naturally an important part of classical archaeology. Unlike many other archaeologies, this subject studies a world extremely well documented by abundant and diverse literary and textual evidence, and it is thus part of the wider classics project. The discussion explores some of the great gains made by recent work in this area and some of the remaining deficiencies. Gains have resulted from application of historically based questions, while deficiencies arise from the still largely untheorised nature of this subject's research and discourse.Less

John Nicolas Coldstream 1927–2008

Alan Johnston

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 166, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, IX

Nicolas Coldstream was a tall but not lofty person. His manner indeed was that of a quiet and thoughtful member of the old-school type, and this certainly was occasionally misinterpreted. Coldstream ... More

Nicolas Coldstream was a tall but not lofty person. His manner indeed was that of a quiet and thoughtful member of the old-school type, and this certainly was occasionally misinterpreted. Coldstream tended to couch his disagreements in terms well known from the Yes Minister repertoire: ‘I am not quite sure that I can follow you completely on that’. His deliberate and seemingly at times slow responses were however always to the point, and couched in readily understandable terms; his students always valued the meticulous detail that he could bring to their work, as he did in his publications. Academically Coldstream concentrated on the essentials of gathering physical evidence and interpreting them in historical terms, be they art-historical or broadly political. He regarded both his basic books, Greek Geometric Pottery: a Survey of Ten Local Styles and their Chronology and Geometric Greece as historical contributions; certainly nobody working in the field can afford to ignore either.Less

Robert Manuel Cook 1909–2000

John Boardman

in Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 115 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, I

Robert Cook was Laurence Reader then Professor in Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University. His Greek Painted Pottery, first published in 1960, was a standard student text and his Greek Art ... More

Robert Cook was Laurence Reader then Professor in Classical Archaeology at Cambridge University. His Greek Painted Pottery, first published in 1960, was a standard student text and his Greek Art (1972) was aimed at a general readership. Cook wrote widely on Ancient Greek archaeology and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1974. Obituary by John Boardman FBA.Less

Zooarchaeology: Reconstructing the Natural and Cultural Worlds From Archaeological Faunal Remains

Michael MacKinnon

in The Science of Roman History: Biology, Climate, and the Future of the Past

This chapter discusses zooarchaeological exploration that might be less familiar (but no less important) within the discipline's broader contribution to classical archaeology. Scientific ... More

This chapter discusses zooarchaeological exploration that might be less familiar (but no less important) within the discipline's broader contribution to classical archaeology. Scientific investigations and analyses of zooarchaeological materials from classical archaeological sites have grown rapidly since the 1980s. These are broadened further through initiatives taken not simply to understand biological and environmental components of the past (aspects that might, superficially, ally better with natural science), but to engage animals as markers of cultural complexity as well. Investigations today are increasingly conducted by zooarchaeologists who specialize in the scholarship of Greek and Roman antiquity, a tactic consequently helping to blur or dissolve traditional academic boundaries in classical studies that previously emphasized primacy to other categories of material remains, such as texts or art. Scientists now infiltrate classics, and vice versa.Less

Nationalism and National Traditions Before the Great War

Stephen L. Dyson

in In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

This chapter discusses how the defeat of Napoleon III by the Prussians at the Battle of the Sedan in 1870 ended the reign of one of the most archaeologically enthusiastic rulers in European history. ... More

This chapter discusses how the defeat of Napoleon III by the Prussians at the Battle of the Sedan in 1870 ended the reign of one of the most archaeologically enthusiastic rulers in European history. It also set off a succession of events that led to the creation of two new nations, the kingdom of Italy and the German Reich, and produced an intellectual and cultural crisis in France. Throughout the changing Western world, the ruling elites were united by a common classical education and the belief that much was to be learned from the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. The chapter finds that each of these developments played a significant role in shaping the course of classical archaeology down to World War I.Less

After World War II: Capitalism, Corporatism, and Marxism

Stephen L. Dyson

in In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

This chapter discusses the effect of World War II on classical archaeology. In May 1945, the war in Europe came to an end. Germany, the country that between the wars had been the greatest center for ... More

This chapter discusses the effect of World War II on classical archaeology. In May 1945, the war in Europe came to an end. Germany, the country that between the wars had been the greatest center for classical archaeology, was not only devastated but discredited by the crimes of the Nazis. In Italy the regime that had used classical archaeology for self-promotion was defeated and disgraced. The two principal victors, the Soviet Union and the United States, looked very differently at the classical past. Though their land had only limited contact with the Greco-Roman world through the Black Sea, the Russians had long been interested in classical archaeology, an expression of Russia's desire to identify with Western European culture. Those interests diminished markedly under the communist state, in which antiquity was studied mainly as a precapitalist social system that relied on the slave mode of production.Less

The Archaeology of Slavery Resistance in Ancient and Modern Times: An Initial Outlook from a Brazilian Perspective

Lúcio Menezes Ferreira and Pedro Paulo A. Funari

in Rethinking Colonialism: Comparative Archaeological Approaches

This chapter discusses slavery and resistance in Brazil and the role of classical archaeology in developing modern slavery archaeology in Brazil. After discussing the early studies on Maroon ... More

This chapter discusses slavery and resistance in Brazil and the role of classical archaeology in developing modern slavery archaeology in Brazil. After discussing the early studies on Maroon Archaeology, it then turns to recent developments and outlook of the discipline. The overall thrust of the chapter’s argument is that the colonized situation of Brazil enabled classical archaeology to play a unique role in shaping progressive archaeology, including the study of slavery and resistance.Less

A Paradigm Shift in Classical Archaeology?

Anthony Snodgrass

in Archaeology and the Emergence of Greece

This chapter sets the recent and partial transformation in the content and practice of classical archaeology against the background of Thomas S. Kuhn's well-known work, The Structure of Scientific ... More

This chapter sets the recent and partial transformation in the content and practice of classical archaeology against the background of Thomas S. Kuhn's well-known work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, first published in 1962. A word or two is in place about Kuhn's analysis of how revolutions happen in the sciences, noting his view that, on an initially small scale, they happen very frequently. A ‘paradigm shift’ is what occurs when, perhaps at first in only one small part of one discipline, new beliefs, values and techniques are embraced. Really important paradigm shifts are ones which seriously interrupt the progress of the other main element of Kuhn's antithesis, ‘normal science’. This chapter presents examples which illustrate how, usually in combination, some of the following themes have recently been raised: rural life, domestic life, neglected periods, dedications, burial and the more backward regions of Greece.Less

The Protohistory of Classical Archaeology

Stephen L. Dyson

in In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

This chapter focuses on the prehistory of classical archaeology. During the 1760s two developments arose in the states and smaller political entities of what became Germany that would profoundly ... More

This chapter focuses on the prehistory of classical archaeology. During the 1760s two developments arose in the states and smaller political entities of what became Germany that would profoundly shape the development of classical archaeology. One flowered on German soil and the other was the work of a German expatriate who spent his most productive years in Rome. The chapter reveals that the first involved the foundation of a “scientific” study of classics at the University of Göttingen. The chapter also discusses Johann Winckelmann (1717–68) whose legacy continues to shape and influence the field of classical archaeology the present. Along with other key figures such as Gotthold Efraim Lessing and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winckelmann helped lay the foundations for the long tradition of passionate German involvement with the classical Mediterranean.Less

The Opening of Greece

Stephen L. Dyson

in In Pursuit of Ancient Pasts: A History of Classical Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

This chapter focuses on the emergence of Greece as the archaeological center stage during the nineteenth century. This event was one of the most important changes in classical archaeology. At the ... More

This chapter focuses on the emergence of Greece as the archaeological center stage during the nineteenth century. This event was one of the most important changes in classical archaeology. At the start of the century, Greece represented a still little-known and rarely studied archaeological culture. By the end, the country was the focus of much of the best archaeological research. The chapter discusses the heightened archaeological interest in Greece re-inforced by two often contradictory cultural movements within Europe, neoclassicism and romanticism. Neoclassicism remained strong in the major European centers well into the early decades of the nineteenth century. The chapter also reveals that the romantic identity with Greece, especially its landscape, history, and people, began drawing a generation of travelers who were inspired by this Byronic vision.Less

Separate Tables? A Story of Two Traditions within One Discipline

Anthony Snodgrass

in Archaeology and the Emergence of Greece

Is there a problem with traditional classical archaeology, and if so, what is it? The effective loss of ‘ownership’, by British classical archaeology, of one of its former components, the archaeology ... More

Is there a problem with traditional classical archaeology, and if so, what is it? The effective loss of ‘ownership’, by British classical archaeology, of one of its former components, the archaeology of Roman Britain, gives some food for thought, regardless of any comparison with that of Roman Germany. The unification of Germany set in motion a whole series of schemes, backed by much-increased funding, in which archaeology played a much more central role than would be imaginable in Britain. In Britain, prehistory has for centuries been accepted as the dominant component of archaeology.Less

Anthony in Edinburgh

Keith Rutter

in The Archaeology of Greece and Rome: Studies in Honour of Anthony Snodgrass

A summary of Anthon’s career in Edinburgh, including not only the academic side but also his walking exploits in the highlands of Scotland.

Showing off Archaeological Knowledge

Kate Nichols

in Greece and Rome at the Crystal Palace: Classical Sculpture and Modern Britain, 1854-1936

Chapter 2 explores the relationship between the Victorian entertainment industry and the emergent ‘professional’ classical archaeological establishment at mid-century. It offers the first overview of ... More

Chapter 2 explores the relationship between the Victorian entertainment industry and the emergent ‘professional’ classical archaeological establishment at mid-century. It offers the first overview of the role that classical sculpture and architecture played in nineteenth-century shows of London, spanning actors posing in bodystockings, medical wax work museums, casts at Madame Tussauds, and the Regent’s Park Colosseum. It provides the first detailed assessment of the public display of classical sculpture in 1850s Britain, at the British Museum and beyond, and situates these displays within the history of classical archaeology. It features detailed discussion of 1850s archaeological engagements at the Crystal Palace, looking at polychromy and the relationship between Greek ‘originals’ and Roman ‘copies’ of sculpture. It argues that in 1850s London, ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’, ‘entertainment’, and ‘education’ ought to be seen in tandem, rather than as polar opposites. It foregrounds the Crystal Palace as a prime location for exploring such connections.Less

Two Overlooked Attic Inscriptions

G. E. Malouchou

in Epigraphical Approaches to the Post-classical Polis: Fourth Century BC to Second Century AD

This chapter examines two inscriptions from Athens that have been totally neglected since their discovery in the nineteenth century by Kyriakos Pittakes, the father of archaeology in Greece. The ... More

This chapter examines two inscriptions from Athens that have been totally neglected since their discovery in the nineteenth century by Kyriakos Pittakes, the father of archaeology in Greece. The first text is an unpublished fragment of the so-called phialai inscriptions, which have been traditionally thought to record manumitted slaves, their professions, and the bowls they dedicated to commemorate their confirmed free status following lawsuits. The second inscribed monument is a mortgage-horos of a piece of property that was probably owned by a woman. Amongst other remarkable aspects of this text, one should mention the identification of the creditor as a member of the liturgical class and the occurrence of a very unusual verbal form. The re-discovery of both inscriptions was based on close study of the archive of the nineteenth-century Greek archaeologist P. Eustratiades, a good reminder of the importance of scrutinizing the scholarly production of the early stage of Classical archaeology.Less

Entombing Antiquity: A New Consideration of Classical and Egyptian Appropriation in the Funerary Architecture of Woodlawn Cemetery, New York City

Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis

in Housing the New Romans: Architectural Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World

Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City, is home to some of the United States’ most prominent Neo-Antique mausolea, which used Classical and Egyptian motifs in their architecture and decor. ... More

Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City, is home to some of the United States’ most prominent Neo-Antique mausolea, which used Classical and Egyptian motifs in their architecture and decor. Using the lens of Classical archaeology, this paper undertakes a formal analysis of funerary architecture in specific tombs belonging to Jay Gould, Francis Garavan, William Leeds, the Goelet Brothers, Jules S. Bache, and F.W. Woolworth. This discussion examines the architecture of these tombs and their reception of ancient architecture alongside archival material. It also discusses individual patrons’ and architects’ motivations for requisitioning such forms. Finally, this analysis demonstrates that through the appropriation and redeployment of ancient architecture and motifs and through the landscape design of the tombs in Woodlawn, these mausolea were rich nexuses of public and private self-fashioning and place-making, and were an expression of elite culture.Less

The Frieze As Art

Martin Beckmann

in The Column of Marcus Aurelius: The Genesis and Meaning of a Roman Imperial Monument

This chapter shows that, “compared with the noble Column of Trajan, that of Aurelius is in all ways inferior.” This was the opinion of Percy Gardner, professor of classical archaeology at Oxford ... More

This chapter shows that, “compared with the noble Column of Trajan, that of Aurelius is in all ways inferior.” This was the opinion of Percy Gardner, professor of classical archaeology at Oxford University in the late nineteenth century. Gardener's views on the value of the art of the Column of Marcus Aurelius were shared by many of his contemporaries. Eugen Petersen, even after becoming intimately acquainted with the column through many weeks spent on a platform hanging from its capital, still concluded that in comparison to the richness of Trajan's Column, “the art of the Marcus Column seems poor and sober, restricted to only the most essential components.” In the eyes of these early critics the sole redeeming feature of the Column of Marcus Aurelius was that it was Roman.Less