The Fred Winter Collection

Rome, Forum of Trajan, view of the surviving portion of the Mercati Traianei (Professor Fred Winter, 1988)

What's new in the Cyclades?

I have a disclosure to make: Naxos and the small islands around it to the south and to the east are my most favorite places in all of Greece. The aromatic island landscapes, the tasty cuisine and the rich cultural heritage keep drawing me back over the years. So it should come as no surprise that our next Institute lecture on Wednesday, April 1^st is one that I am eagerly looking forward to!  At 7:30 PM in the Institute’s Library, Eirini Legaki, an archaeologist in the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs will give a lecture in Greek entitled, “Νεώτερα αρχαιολογικά δεδομένα για τη Νάξο και τις Μικρές Κυκλάδες”.

 Ms. Legaki is the Ephorate’s representative for Naxos and the “Small Cyclades”. In the course of her work over the past years she has been responsible for the testing of building plots and conducting rescue excavations throughout these islands in the central Aegean. In her lecture she will provide us with an overview of the many recent discoveries in these islands dating from the prehistoric period to the early modern period. Known sites and new sites will be visited in her lecture. Athenian audiences have not seen most of this material!

With Professor Tristan Carter’s (McMaster University) recent survey work at the massive chert outcrops and the extensive chipped stone tool production locale at Stélida on Naxos and his application for an excavation permit starting this summer, the Institute is very much interested in learning more about the archaeology of these islands.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

The Fred Winter Collection

Rome, Pantheon, view of the interior of the drum with sunlight shining in (Professor Fred Winter, 1988)

The 2015 CIG Graduate Student Conference at the University of Windsor

It’s been a while since my last blog for the CIG, which must have been at the end of my Fellowship in 2013! It is my pleasure to write a short blog about some of the CIG’s activities from this side of the ocean, thousands of kilometres away from Athens.

During the first weekend of February, the CIG, with the University of Windsor, hosted its biannual Graduate Student Conference at the University of Windsor in Ontario. There was a diverse group of participants from North America. There was a large contingent from Southern Ontario but there were also participants from Cincinatti, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Boston, Massachussets; and even the other Athens in Georgia. I myself flew from frozen Edmonton to an almost equally frozen Windsor.

The two-day conference started on Friday, 6 February, with an archaeological illustration workshop by Tina Ross, which everyone enjoyed, particularly since there were several participating undergraduate students who had never yet done any fieldwork and had never done any pottery drawing. Tina gave an excellent overview of why pottery is drawn and then gave us a hands-on experience of drawing some modern pot sherds that she herself had recently smashed. I had fun working on a sherd that was much larger than my head.

Shortly after the workshop, Dr Tim Winters of Austin Peay State University gave a lively keynote lecture on a survey of the archaeological sites on the island of Salamis. Earlier in his academic career, he was told that he would find nothing there in terms of archaeological sites, but as he showed, there is actually an abundance of sites on the island from many different time periods.

Many people would think something was wrong if I didn’t at least mention the food. After the keynote lecture, all the participants had dinner at an Italian restaurant. The best part of the evening was when I thought that dinner had ended, but it turned out that there were another course to be served. I was elated.

The next day was a full one with many presentations by graduate and undergraduate students. There were a good number of papers on Greek archaeology from the Bronze Age and later, including some new views on Minoan presence at Akrotiri, and several excellent philological papers. I myself presented on Thessalian religion, and one of the CIG’s former interns, Rachel Dewan, presented on the Mycenaean repurposing of Minoan religious symbols. I was very glad to catch up with my old travel buddy, Rachel, who interned at the CIG during the tenure of my fellowship in Athens. Prof. Gerald Schaus, the CIG President, was also in attendance and he brought many of his students from Wilfrid Laurier with him, which made the conference very lively.

It was a successful conference and some people need to be thanked. Jeffrey Banks, the CIG Treasurer, as well as Prof. Robert Weir from the University of Windsor, were essential to the planning of the conference and ensuring that everything ran smoothly. They were both very gracious in driving all of us around Windsor and some of us to and from the airport. It will be my turn to help plan and organize the next CIG Graduate Student Conference during the 2016/2017 school year and I now have many good ideas for this conference after having attended this year’s conference in Windsor. I hope that we can have the next conference in Edmonton at the University of Alberta and hopefully I will see many of you there!

Gino Canlas
Student Representative, CIG Board of Directors

The Fred Winter Collection

Bergama Museum (Professor Fred Winter, 1988)

Life and Death in Thebes after 335 BC; You're Invited to a General Assembly!

This coming Wednesday is our third lecture this month! We are very pleased to welcome to the Institute on the 18^th Dr. Alexandra Harami, the Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities at nearby Thebes in Boiotia. Dr. Harami is the Director of the ongoing excavations at ancient Eleon (modern Arma) in eastern Boiotia along with Co-Directors Professors Brendan Burke (University of Victoria) and Bryan Burns (Wellesley College). This is a synergasia of the Institute and the Ephorate.

The title of her illustrated lecture that will be given in Greek is, “Η Μετά-Αλεξάνδρεια περίοδος στην πόλη των Θηβών μέσα από την μαρτυρία των νεκροταφείων της”.  In her lecture she will relate what we know about this famous city after its total destruction in December, 335 BC by Alexander III of Macedon (destined to be “the Great”) as a reprisal for its revolt from his control. Only the relatives of Philip II’s Theban hosts when he was held there as a hostage as a boy and the descendants of the poet Pindar and his house in Thebes were saved from destruction, death or slavery. Now that’s being vindictive!

As often was the case a destroyed city located at an important historical, economic and geographical nexus is eventually rebuilt. This is what happened at Thebes. The city continued to be a regional center into the Byzantine period and beyond. This means that the remains from the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods are buried underneath later constructions, especially of the modern town. Nevertheless, excavations, mostly of cemeteries, by the members of the Ephorate since the beginning of the 20^th century have revealed evidence for the lives and deaths of the inhabitants from the third century BC through the fourth century AD. Dr. Harami will share with us the results of her study of the Hellenistic burial assemblages in the graves of the Northeast Cemetery of Thebes. Here’s an excellent opportunity to learn more about a little known period of ancient Thebes.

You’re invited to the General Assembly of the Syllogos Filon on the 15^th!

This coming Sunday, March 15^th starting at 10:30 is the annual General Assembly of the Syllogos Filon tou Istorikou Archeiou tis Archaiologikis Yperesias. The General Assembly will be held at the Historical Archive at Psaromylingou 22 on the cusp between the Kerameikos and Psyrri Districts. Attendance at the General Assembly is open to all members of good standing for 2015. You can pay your membership fee at the door. For details please call me, the President of the Syllogos Filon’s Board of Directors, at 694.72.72.153 or send me an email: drupp@brocku.ca. The Thesio Train Station is the closest train/Metro station.

In addition to reports of the Syllogos Filon’s activities since the last General Assembly a year ago there will be an election for members of the new five-person Board of Directors who serve a two year term. Come and re-elect me!!!

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

The Fred Winter Collection

ASCS Blegen Library and Main Building from Loring (Professor Fred Winter, 1987)

In Memoriam: Ion Vorres; Re-scheduled Lecture

A week ago the Institute, Canada and Greece lost a loyal friend and generous benefactor. Ion Vorres died in his 91^st year. Ion was best known in Greece for his Vorres Museum of Contemporary Greek Art in Paiania in eastern Attica. There his extensive collection of Greek art is on display in the many exhibition spaces and in its courtyards and gardens. His rustic sprawling house attached to the museum was decorated in an eclectic fashion with Greek art and artifacts dating from the 17^th through 19^th centuries. He lent the Institute these delightful spaces for many of our events over the years. Ion’s support for the Institute and its activities from the beginning was steadfast. A frequent visitor to the Institute’s lectures and events he cast a quiet presence and offered sincere interest. I had the honor of attending the ceremony in 2009 at his Museum when he was awarded the Order of Canada by the Governor-General Michaëlle Jean during her official State visit to the Hellenic Republic.

The Canadian Institute in Greece and its members will miss him.

The Re-scheduled Institute Lecture by Lana Radloff

I wish to remind you that the Lana Radloff’s Institute Lecture that was originally scheduled for February 18^th but cancelled for technical reasons has been re-scheduled. Lana will give her lecture, entitled  “Ideology, Identity and Power: Harbor-Agora Connectivity at Hellenistic Miletos”, this coming Wednesday, March 11^th at 7:30 PM in the Library of the Institute.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

The Fred Winter Collection

The endless plain of the Anatolian steppe. (Professor Fred Winter, 1987)