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The correspondence of A. J. B. Wace in the library of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Abstract
In 1986 a donation of books deriving from the library of A. J. B. Wace was presented to the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens. It was Wace's habit to keep some of his correspondence with scholars and friends in books either written by those scholars or closely connected with their work. Over fifty letters and other papers were tucked away in eight volumes, mostly dating from 1946–51 though including some earlier items. The correspondence deals with a wide range of subjects of some archaeological and historical interest, and includes several letters from Ernst Meyer, here transcribed in full. The correspondence is catalogued here, and indexes are provided.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1993
References
1 I am grateful to Lisa French for casting an eye over her father's correspondence, for providing some necessary background, and for illuminating a number of obscure passages. My thanks, too, to Robin Hägg and Berit Wells with regard to the correspondence of W.'s Swedish colleagues and friends. In preparing this paper I frequently consulted W.'s bibliography compiled by Waterhouse, H. in BSA 46 (1951), 232–43Google Scholar; 63 (1968), 327–9. For useful biographical information see Stubbings, F. H., ‘Alan John Bayard Wace: 1879–1957’, PBA 1958, 263–80Google Scholar; Blegen, C. W., ‘Alan John Bayard Wace (1879–1957)’, American Philosophical Society Yearbook, 1958, 162–71.Google Scholar The letters and other papers of A. J. B. Wace presented in this report are currently in the Sydney Library of the AAIA.
2 The donation was received by the then Deputy Director of the AAIA, Dr Jill Carington Smith; the books were entered on the accession list by her and by Ms Annette Keenan, then Fellow of the AAIA.
3 The books were presented by Dr E. B. French to the CAIA with the express proviso that duplicate volumes should go to the AAIA.
4 Most of the books from W.'s library presented to the CAIA were passed on to the AAIA. Mrs Maria Tolis (CAIA) informs me that none of the books in the CAIA contain correspondence of W.
5 See Stubbings (n. 1); Blegen (n. 1).
6 See 4 a–c below.
7 The relevant passage is transcribed in 4 b below.
8 W. was appointed Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology at Cambridge in 1934, succeeding A. B. Cook, and held the chair until he reached the age of retirement in 1944. He served, however, under GHQ, first in Athens, then in Cairo, on a tour of duty that lasted from 1939 to 1943. He stayed on in Egypt as Professor of Classics and Archaeology at Farouk I University, Alexandria, a position he held until 1952. He spent part of this latter period at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. See Stubbings (n. 1); Blegen (n. 1).
9 A selection of this correspondence was mounted in an exhibition at the Gennadeion in 1989, as part of the conference honouring W. and Blegen; see C. Zerner (ed.), Wace and Blegen: Pottery as Evidence for Trade in the Aegean Bronze Age, 1939–1989 (Proceedings of the International Conference, Athens, December 2–3, 1989) (forthcoming).
10 Blegen (n. 1), 168.
11 Cf. 3 a, addressed to W. in Cambridge but apparently forwarded to him in Alexandria.
12 Wace, A. J. B., A Cretan Statuette in the Fitzwilliam Museum: A Study in Minoan Costume (1927).Google Scholar
13 Prof.Fürst, C. M., anthropologist; author of, inter alia, ‘Über prähistorische Schädel aus Argolis’, Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für physische Anthropologie, 4 (1929) [1930], 3–14 Google Scholar; Zur Anthropologie der prähistorischen Griechen in Argolis, nebst Beschreibungen einiger älteren Schädel aus historischer Zeit (1930).
14 This should refer to N.-G. Gejvall's work on the fauna of Troy; see ‘The fauna of the different settlements of Troy: a preliminary report’, Bulletin de la Société des Lettres de Lund 1937–38, 2 (1938), 51–7; id., ‘The fauna of the different settlements of Troy, part I: dogs, horses and cattle’ (stencilled issue, 1946). For later publications see id., Lerna, i: The Fauna (Princeton, 1969), xiii–xiv.
15 Nilsson, whose handwriting is normally not unclear, appears to have written ‘Leverkuhn’, but may possibly be referring to the Leverhulme Foundation or Trust.
16 Papers jointly written by W., and Blegen, prior to 1938 include: ‘The Pre-Mycenaean pottery of the mainland’, BSA 22 (1916–1918), 175–89Google Scholar; ‘Middle Helladic tombs’, Symbolae Osloenses, 9 (1930), 28–37; ‘The determination of Greek trade in the Bronze Age’, PCPS 1938, 169–71 (reprinted from Cambridge University Reporter, 23 Mar. 1938); ‘Pottery as evidence for trade and colonisation in the Aegean Bronze Age’, Klio, 32 (1939), 131–47. The last is the most likely one to have been sent to Nilsson as an abstract in 1938.
17 Wace, A. J. B., ‘The prehistoric exploration of the Greek mainland’, BCH 70 (1946), 628–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18 In his letter, Nilsson does not give specific details of the paper referred to. Such themes may have been discussed by him in any number of papers published in Swedish in the 1930s (i.e. fifteen years before 1948). For a complete bibliography of Nilsson's writings see Gjerstad, E. et al. , Nilsson, M. P. in Memoriam: A Complete Bibliography (1968), esp. ch. 3.Google Scholar
19 Nilsson, M. P., Geschichte der griechischen Religion, ii: Die hellenistische und römische Zeit (1950).Google Scholar In his foreword to the 1950 edition (p. vi) Nilsson states that the MS was submitted in Jan. 1947, i.e. a year prior to his letter to W. dated Jan. 1948. Nilsson not only lived to see the first edition of vol. ii (1950), but also the second, published in 1961 (see foreword to 2nd edn). He died on 7 Apr. 1967.
20 The most likely candidate is that in Klio for 1939 (n. 16), esp. the appendix (pp. 145–7), which provides a list of LH I–II vases found in Egypt.
21 There is specific mention of, among others, the Feldman books and the Jameson Collection.
22 Sites mentioned in the correspondence are listed in Index 3 below.
23 Persons mentioned in the correspondence are listed in Index 2 below.
24 Waterhouse's, H. publications on excavations in Ithaca include ‘Excavations at Stavros, Ithaca, in 1937’, BSA 47 (1952), 227–42Google Scholar, and (with Benton, S.) ‘Excavations in Ithaca: Tris Langadas’, BSA 68 (1973), 1–24.Google Scholar See further Waterhouse, H., The British School at Athens: The First Hundred Years (BSA supp. vol. 19; 1986), 32; 35; 38; 69; 90ff.Google Scholar; 127.
25 Cf. 4 b, W. to Richter.
26 Persson, A. W., New Tombs at Dendra near Midea (1942).Google Scholar
27 Waterhouse notes that ‘Mitsos is still in America, as far as I know’, and goes on to add the following postscript: ‘Marinatos is soon going to Germany to try and recover archaeological objects removed during the war.’ Marinatos was at that time rector of the University of Athens. Both Mitsos and Marinatos had worked on finds from Mycenae, Mitsos on some of the Greek inscriptions; see Wace, , Mycenae: An Archaeological History and Guide (1949), 141 Google Scholar; IG iv. 492–505. On Marinatosi contribution Wace writes, ‘Spyridon Marinatos in the lucid intervals of a winter of war in Athens in 1940–1941 collaborated unselfishly in the study of the façade of the Treasury of Atreus and the results achieved are as much his as mine’ (ibid. vi). Waterhouse further notes in her letter that the BSA is filling up for the summer, and that the (British) Embassy will be evicted from the Hostel at the end of the month.
28 This should refer to Phyllis Pray Bober, author of, among other works, Drawings after the Antique by Amico Aspertini: Sketchbooks in the British Museum (Studies of the Warburg Institute, 21; 1957); Bober, P. P. Google Scholar and R. Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture: A Handbook of Sources (1986).Google Scholar Also a regular contributor to AJA in the late 1940s and 1950s. It should also be noted here that although Ward Perkins's surname is sometimes hyphenated in its published form, it is not hyphenated in the correspondence or in most of his publications.
29 R. G. Goodchild (1918–68), excavator of Cyrene, Apollonia, Ptolemais and Taucheira (Tocra), Beida, and Lamluda, among other Libyan sites; author of numerous articles and monographs on Roman N. Africa. For bibliography see Reynolds, J. (ed.), Libyan Studies: Select Papers of the Late R. G. Goodchild (1976), vii–xx.Google Scholar G. and Ward Perkins co-authored a number of articles on Leptis (Lepcis) Magna, ; e.g. ‘The Limes Tripolitania in the light of recent discoveries’, JRS 39 (1949), 81–95 Google Scholar; ‘L'aggere di Lepcis: una risposta’, Archeologia classica, 4 (1952), 284–7; ‘The Roman and Byzantine defences of Lepcis Magna’, PBSR 21 (1953), 42–73; ‘The Christian antiquities of Tripolitania’, Archaeologia, 95 (1953), 1–82. Note also Perkins, Ward, ‘Severan art and architecture at Lepcis Magna’, JRS 38 (1948), 59–80 Google Scholar; ‘Excavations in the Severan basilica at Lepcis Magna, 1951’, PBSR 20 (1952), 111–21.
30 For a brief account of Ward Perkins's activities in N. Africa during the war, see Reynolds, J. and Pallottino, M., ‘John Bryan Ward Perkins 1912–1981’, PBSR 48 (1980), xiii–xviiiGoogle Scholar, esp. xiii. The results of his Abu Mina survey were in part published in his ‘The shrine of St Melas in the Maryût’, PBSR 17 (1949), 26–71, esp. 60 ff.; pls. 3–11.
31 This should refer to the Mrs Bober mentioned in 1 h (see n. 28).
32 This appears to refer to the Spanish-born Paulus Orosius, who fled before the Vandals to Africa in AD 414 and became a pupil of Augustine. If so, then the ‘passage’ mentioned should refer to his Commonilorium de Priscillianistarium et Origenistarium. See K. Zangenmeister's edn (1889); RE xviii. 1 (1942), 1185–95 (F. Wotke).
33 2 c and d were cut from the same sheet of green paper which, to judge from the printed text on the reverse, was originally some form of bank statement.
34 Probably of no relevance to W., being nothing more than a scrap of paper the reverse of which was used by him due to the paper shortage following the war. I have listed these names at the end of Index 2.
35 I am grateful to Lisa French both for identifying the author and deciphering his handwriting. Thomas Whittemore (1871–1950), founder and director of the Byzantine Institute, is best known for his work on the mosaics of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul. See his The Mosaics of St Sophia at Istanbul, published in four volumes labelled Preliminary Reports, 1 (1933); 2 (1936); 3 (1942); and 4 (1952), published posthumously.
36 I have decided to transcribe, in full, all three of Meyer's letters to W. (a, c, d), since the flood of modern scholarship on Schliemann continues unabated and these letters contain potentially useful information. M.'s extensive contribution to Schliemann studies paved much of the road to further research, but he represents the ‘pro-Schliemann’ camp, as, it would appear, did W. (see a, paragraph 1). M.'s letters, particularly a, provide insights on his work on Schliemann in a form not found in his published work. For recent work on Schliemann, including comments on M.'s contribution, see e.g. Easton, D. F., ‘The Schliemann papers’, BSA 77 (1982), 93–110 Google Scholar; Lehrer, M. and Turner, D., ‘The making of an Homeric archaeologist: Schliemann's diary of 1868’, BSA 84 (1989), 221–68Google Scholar, esp. 221 n. 2. A useful bibliography of work on Schliemann during 1972–86 was published in Calder, W. M. III and Traili, D. A. (eds), Myth, Scandal and History (1986), 261–3.Google Scholar In the German text which follows, passages in square brackets are my own.
37 i.e. William Ewan Gladstone (1809–98).
38 Schliemann's daughter and the eldest of his two children by Sophia Engastromenou. Married Leon Melas; see Easton (n. 36), 93.
39 This should refer to Meyer, E., Briefwechsel von Heinrich Schliemann, i: 1842–1875 (1953)Google Scholar; ii: 1876–1890 (1958). M.'s other books on Schliemann include Briefe von Heinrich Schliemann (1936) and Heinrich Schliemann: Kaufmann und Forscher (1969).
40 Wace, A. J. B., ‘Exploring the city of Agamemnon; this year's excavations at Mycenae’, ILN 207 (1950), 1041 ff.Google Scholar
41 Wace, A. J. B., ‘Mycenae, 1950’, JHS 71 (1951), 254–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42 A Handbook of Greek Art (1st edn, 1959). The ‘prehistoric part’ she refers to is ch. 1, ‘The Forerunners’; both Blegen and W. are accordingly acknowledged in her preface.
43 Attic Red-figured Vases: A Survey (1st edn, 1946; 2nd edn, 1958); the book in which this letter was found is a copy of the first edition.
44 For W.'s published accounts of excavations in Alexandria, and related work in Egypt, see ‘A grave stele from Naucratis’, Bulletin de la Société Archéologique d'Alexandrie, 11 (no. 36) (1943–4), 26–32; ‘Alexandrian and Roman art: an altar from the Serapeum’, ibid. 83–97; ‘Alexandrian notes’, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Farouk I University, Alexandria, 2 (1944), 1 ff.; ‘Greek inscriptions from the Serapeum’, ibid. 17 ff.; ‘Recent Ptolemaic finds in Egypt’, JHS 65 (1945), 106–9; ‘The sarcophagus of Alexander the Great’, Bulletin … (as above), 4 (1948), 1 ff.; ‘Excavations on the Government Hospital site, Alexandria: preliminary report’, ibid. 5 (1949), 151 ff. See also Wace, A. J. B., Megaw, A. H. S., and Skeat, T. C., Hermopolis Magna, Ashmunein: The Ptolemaic Sanctuary and the Basilica (1959), published posthumously.Google Scholar
45 Blegen, C. W., ‘Athens and the early age of Greece’, in Athenian Studies Presented to William Scott Ferguson (HSCP supp. vol. 1; 1940), 1–9.Google Scholar
46 ‘CAH chapters’ refers to the 2nd edn. W.'s contributions to the ist edn are ‘Prehistoric Greece’, CAH i (1923), ch. 4 §4 (pp. 173–80); ‘Early Aegean civilization’, ibid. ch. 17 (pp. 589–615); and ‘Crete and Mycenae’, CAH ii (1924), ch. 16 (pp. 431–72). ‘Mycenae Guide’ refers to Wace (n. 27).
47 Hetty Goldman did in fact return to Tarsus in 1947. World War II interrupted the work there in 1939, but it was resumed on a much smaller scale in 1947–9 for the purposes of study and supplementary exploration. See Goldman, H. (ed.), Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus, i: The Hellenistic and Roman Periods (1950), p. v.Google Scholar
48 This letter is dated a little over a year after the last of the three by Nilsson presented above (1 a–c). There is no reference to any ‘information’ requested in 1 c.
49 This will be an earlier visit to Princeton than that noted in 3 e.
50 Erik Sjöqvist, then teaching at Princeton University.
51 See n. 46.
52 Nilsson, M. P., The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion (1st edn, 1927 Google Scholar; 2nd edn, Dec. 1949).
53 This letter was written while Beazley was at Berkeley as Sather Professor; see Beazley, J. D., The Development of Attic Black-figure (Sather Classical Lectures, 24; 1951).Google Scholar
54 I had originally assumed that the Axel who signed this postcard was A. W. Persson. This was pardy due to a published report of P.'s postcards which seemed not unlike that addressed to W.; see Nördquist, G., ‘Axel W. Persson's vykort’, Hellenika, 54 (1990), 15 Google Scholar; further, E. J. Holmberg, ‘Axel W. Persson, såsom vi minns honom’, ibid. 44 (1988), 3–7. P. was born in 1888 and died suddenly in 1951, in which case if the card was indeed written by him it would have been one of his last; for a bibliography of his writings see E. Gren, ‘Bibliography of the writings of Axel W. Persson’, Op. Ath. 1 (1953), 224–36. Lisa French is of the firm opinion that the card was not from Axel Persson but rather Axel (C. A.) Boëthius. Although principally known for his work on Roman architecture, B. took part in some of W.'s early campaigns at Mycenae; see Wace, , ‘Excavations at Mycenae’, BSA 24 (1919–1921), 188 Google Scholar; 25 (1921–3), 3. B.'s contributions on Mycenae include ‘Hellenistic Mycenae’, BSA 25 (1921–3), 408–28 (in three parts: (1) ‘A new inscription’, (2) ‘The ruins’, (3) ‘Its history’); see also ‘Mycenaean Megara and Nordic houses’, BSA 24 (1919–21), 161–84. Born in 1889, B. died in 1969; vol. 1 (1954) of Opuscula Romana is dedicated to him.
55 Valsarfs and Björkhagen are referred to by Boëthius as ‘our snowy log cabins’. The scene on the obverse may therefore represent a personalized depiction of one of Boëthius's ‘log cabins’ in Dalecarlia.
56 See. n. 40.
57 Or ‘meetings’? Handwriting not clear at this point.
58 Stamp and postmark not preserved; top r. corner of envelope torn off.
59 I am grateful to Lisa French for the identification.