Premier’s Westfield History Scholarship
Report: Contemporary perspectives on Ancient Greece
for the NSW History Syllabus
Sasha Jessop
De La Salle College Revesby
Sponsored by
Rationale and purpose
The purpose of this study was to extend and enhance Ancient History teaching and learning in New
South Wales by providing evidence based narrative around current practise in contemporary
archaeology in Greece, as well as the treatment of Greek artefacts housed in both Greek and
international collections.
The main points of focus for the study were:
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The Athenian Agora,
The New Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis Restoration Service,
Other sites in Greece that display collections of artefacts demonstrating Athenian power,
Museums outside Greece that display collections of artefacts from Athens.
Twenty-four sites were visited in the study.
The Athenian Agora
The Agora in Athens represents the political, mercantile, cultural centre of Athens and has 5000 years
of continual habitation and built up. It now sits in a popular area of modern Athens called Plaka. The
Agora has been under systematic excavation by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens
since 1931 following a deal struck with the Greek Government allowing the school to excavate for a
limited time each year. Everything recovered at the Agora excavation remains the property of the
Greek Government and kept together in the Stoa Attalos at the site, making it the most intact and
comprehensive research collection of Athenian artefacts in the world. Significant finds include material
relating to voting in the Athenian democracy, and conduct of the assembly.
Each year the excavation turns up new evidence that requires reinterpretation and debate. The Agora
is therefore an ideal historical case study for use in classrooms. In recent years the American School
of Classical Studies has been attempting to address the need for more information regarding the
excavation and material finds to be made accessible to the wider public, not just the academic
community. This movement has been in reaction to the broader interest in ancient history in general in
Greece and internationally. The Athenian Agora is well funded and managed with a mandate to teach
and publish both excavation season summaries and academic work, all of which are available on their
website. The website, www.agathe.gr is a fantastic resource, designed by Bruce Hartzler with finance
from the Packard Institute. It incorporates a database of each find from the excavation, with
accompanying maps and scans of relevant notebooks dating back to the early years, as well as 360
degree views of parts of the site. This material can be used with extension history, and Stages 4 - 6.
The Agora will continue to produce more accessible resources for classrooms.1
1
For photographs and other information regarding the Athenian Agora excavation see my website:
www.athensagoradig.com. I was invited and participated in the 2008 Summer Excavation Program at the
Athenian Agora run by the American School from May to September. I created a website whilst working as a
volunteer so that Australian school students could get a first hand sense of what it was like to work at an
excavation in Greece. It contains photos and information. Students can now access the website and my blog
http://athensagoradig.edublogs.org/ to ask questions, make comments and receive feedback. It is linked to the
HTANSW website.
Recent excavation and site management – the Athenian Agora
With the main area of the Agora excavated some time ago, the majority of recent excavation has been
North of Adriano Street, surrounded by cafes and other buildings. As an urban excavation, a number
of problems exist for site management, which is what I discussed with Craig Mauzy, Manager of the
American School of Classical Studies Excavation at Athens. During my visit, I saw significant
vegetation affecting the site, as well as rubbish in the trench area. As, at one time, I carefully
excavated this area personally, meticulous cleaning limestone blocks from the Stoa Poikile, I found it
distressing to see the neglect during the off-season. Due to the excavation agreement with the
Ministry of Culture nothing can be done. Before excavation recommences in June, Greek workmen will
spray to remove vegetation and use heavy equipment where necessary to scrape back surface earth.
Figure 1 shows one of the trenches at the Athenian Agora, with evidence of vegetation and
rubbish
Other issues affecting the site include the management of water, as the area can become
waterlogged. We also discussed the difficulties of digging ancient wells, which can be a rich source of
material, but dangerous to clear. Craig explained, “Digging wells is exciting, but I always groan
because you have to be prepared to … put kids down in a well – it’s dangerous, but you often find
lovely things. This year we had a well.… At the bottom of the well, what was nice, was they found a
sherd from a Panatheniac amphora, and on this sherd it happened to have a name, and, when you
have games and the amphoras are given as gifts, they always include the archons name, so it was a
very specific date that they could get from that little sherd.” We also discussed the liabilities of the
school, ownership, care and conservation of artefacts, and the complications of dealing with the
businesses that neighbour the excavation.2 These are issues for students to understand in managing
and conserving ancient sites.
Agora - Relevance to syllabus
The Agora allows detailed consideration of issues such as conservation, ownership, evidence and
interpretation. Study of the Agora, (and Kerameikos3) provides evidence of Athenian power. The
Agora excavation shows development of the area over time, and is relevant to History Extension
Stage 6 where students are required to examine “the Problems of Archaeology of an ancient site,
investigating changing interpretations”. Reinterpretation, identification and classification of the Stoa
Poikile and the Stratgeon have recently taken place.
2
A podcast of this interview is available on my website.
Keramiekos is another urban Athenian site excavated by the German Archaeological Institute that incorporates
sections of the city wall and the Diplyon Gate, both mentioned in several ancient texts referring.
3
I was also able to interview Anne Hooton, an Australian who has been working for many years at the
American School of Classical Studies Excavation at the Athenian Agora. She is a highly respected
artist who is the site illustrator, and her work is important in the process of recording and interpreting
material culture. The objects she works with range from “pottery, ceramics, glass, metal to organics
from human to animal and anthropological remains to other organic materials which could be cloth,
seeds, botanical… from the microscope through to broad, big objects. And then the architectural side.”
She explains why her role is different from photography and digital recording methods. “If you have a
full profile (sherd)…, you can even tell if (the piece) is wheel made, and where it sits in the vessel”.
From her illustrations, reconstruction drawings can be made. They are an invaluable resource for
researchers and students to help visualise the connection between remnant pieces and whole objects,
and are an important part of the continuum from object to history.4
Also of note is that Craig Mauzy and Professor John Camp, Director of the American School of
Classical Studies Athenian Agora Excavation, have published several excellent books on the
excavation that are still being used as key texts in archaeology. A new edition of The Athenian Agora
– New Perspectives on an ancient site was released in December 2009.
The New Acropolis Museum and British Museum
The New Acropolis Museum makes no secret that it has been designed to ultimately house the “Elgin”
Marbles, roughly a third of which are currently in the British Museum. Many of the New Acropolis
Parthenon displays make direct reference to the removal of frieze, metope and pediment statuary from
the Parthenon in 1801 by Lord Elgin, using emotionally loaded terms such as “vandalism”. There is a
strong sense of expectation here: that the material will be given to Athens by the British Museum. This
seems to me a misguided perspective. The British Museum houses a major collection of ancient
Greek antiquities. The room that houses the relief and pediment sculptures from the Parthenon at the
British Museum is one of its major displays. It has much of the three-dimensional East and West
pediment sculpture, all in excellent condition and well explained, as well as large sections of marble
relief carved frieze depicting a procession and numerous relief carved metopes depicting mythological
battles scenes. The British Museum space lends considerable gravitas to the sculptures from the
Parthenon and it is well signposted. As a major hub of tourism, the British Museum makes these
works extremely accessible to the wider community.
British culture is self-consciously aware of its debt to ancient and classical Greece, with neo classical
monuments throughout the UK, and Parthenon display pays homage to this debt. The display does
not hide the debate regarding the argument for repatriation (the term now used is “restoration”) of the
so-called “Elgin Marbles”. It has two side galleries that lay out both sides of the argument, as well as
extensive information on their website. Their version of the history behind the Museum’s acquisition of
the sculptures is presented in a comfortable and logical manner. They argue for maintaining the status
quo, and that the marbles to remain in London. They argue that the works are highly visible in London
and therefore the public benefits greatly from their display. They argue that the British Museum does
not have all of the pieces, as implied elsewhere, and, that the sculptures were obtained legally by Lord
Elgin in 1801 who obtained them with permission from an Ottoman Sultan and then purchased by the
British Museum in 1816 after a Parliamentary Select Committee investigation. They remind us that the
changing fortunes in Europe’s history have often resulted in the movement of works of art. The
museum information is respectful of their Greek colleagues, yet not yielding. My feeling is that the
British Museum will remain steadfast in their determination not to permanently remove the Parthenon
Marbles at any time in the future.
4
To hear this interview in full, please listen to the podcast on my website.
Repatriation – A distraction from the real issue?
I expected to find open and receptive discussion regarding the issue of repatriation of the Parthenon
Marbles at the New Acropolis Museum and in the Greek academic community. However, what I found
was a reluctance to talk “on the record”. As such, I have little to report that can be published here. The
New Acropolis Museum presents an emotional argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.
Others refuse to comment.
The attitude of several people I spoke to in education and in the wider academic community in Greece
was that these matters were less relevant than the problems faced by other less high profile sites.
There are many sites in Greece, and there are valuable antiquities in all of these sites. They remain
vulnerable whilst there is no adequate funding to conserve or display all material. In this context, the
repatriation debate seems less relevant. It is important to raise the issue in classrooms to help
students appreciate the complexity of the issue, but also to see it in the wider context.
Acropolis Restoration Project – Online and other educational resources
I spoke to Dr Cornelia Hadzialslani, Head of the Department of Information and Education of the
Acropolis Restoration Service. Whilst reluctant to discuss the debate over the Parthenon Marbles, she
was generous with information regarding Acropolis restoration and education projects. They believe
that “the best restoration is preventative restoration, and the best preventative restoration is education”
hence this work comes under the Acropolis Restoration Service banner. The educational strategies
employed by YSMA, “combine a hands on approach with a virtual approach…trying to use the texts,
the photography, the video – the virtual and the objects”. Staff there have been overwhelmed by the
response to the New Acropolis Museum and were pleased with the launch of a “virtual museum”
www.parthenonfrieze.gr. This could be described as an online learning resource, and shows a
representation of the Parthenon sculptures in their entirety. Also in the past YSMA has made several
educational kits, which are presently loaned to schools in Greece.5
Figure 2 shows one of the YSMA teaching kits on display in the education centre at the New
Acropolis Museum
An employee at YSMA also told me that the organization will begin to make 3D movies aimed at the
general public about the Acropolis, the Parthenon and close-by temples. They will not be specifically
educational resources, however, will nevertheless be of considerable benefit to teachers and students
of History who have fewer possibilities to access this material directly.
The New Acropolis Museum – Building
5
In 2007 three of these kits were donated to NSW schools as part of the University of Sydney Summer School
under Dr Lesley Beaumont. Teachers who wish to borrow these kits should get in touch with the University of
Sydney library, Annandale Public School or St Mary’s Cathedral School.
The New Acropolis Museum is so impressive that I visited it several times during the tour. Since the
opening in July 2009 it has been extremely popular. In August of 2009 they had over 500,000 visitors.
This created problems, resulted in overcrowding and danger to the artefacts that are displayed openly
in the galleries with no barricades. As a result an embargo was placed on photography anywhere
inside the museum to maintain traffic flow. My information is that this decision will be reviewed
periodically.
The museum itself is a monolith of concrete and glass, adjacent to the Acropolis precinct. Its three
floors contain galleries dealing with Acropolis finds, grouped by provenance and age. The building
stands over an open excavation of an ancient building, which is viewed through toughened glass
floors. In one position, one is standing between layers of glass, with patrons walking both above and
below. At night, the galleries are illuminated, and one can see the sculptures displayed beautifully
through the glass from the outside.
Figure 3 shows the entrance to the New Acropolis Museum standing over an open excavation
of an ancient building
The Museum replicates the structure of the Acropolis: lower galleries are devoted to the lower slopes
of the Acropolis through all periods. The central galleries display the Archaic pediment and free
statuary buried for safekeeping after the sack of Athens by the Persians. These works carry a
wonderful mystery and exotic beauty. Colourful pigment is evident. Less documentary information
exists about these works, and the Archaic Athens is a growing area of scholarship. These galleries are
extremely light filled, with floor to ceiling glass on the Southern side of the building, and indeed very
exposed to sunlight. The statues are presented in sympathetic way to how they would have been in
the original period, with people walking around the sculptures at ground level.
At the top level, with incredible views across to the Parthenon and the Acropolis, is a four-sided gallery
that houses the majority of what remains of the Greek collection of the Parthenon Frieze and pediment
statues. The display within the gallery is designed to the exact proportions as the Parthenon, and a
replica antefix gives a sense of the scale of the building. It is noteworthy that the friezes were,
originally eighty metres above the ground, so it is impressive to be able to see the detail present in
each relief carving.
This gallery could be seen as rather a missed opportunity, in that no reference is made to the vivid
colour on the original Parthenon, and the friezes and metopes are not given interpretation. The
austerity of the space is perhaps less interesting than expected, however, the connection with the
reconstructed Parthenon ruin on the Acropolis is impressive. The location of missing frieze blocks is
marked using plaster casts of the originals in their correct place. It is a strongly pointed message. A
documentary animation that retells the tumultuous history of the Acropolis is played in the gallery.6
During our interview Mrs Hadziaslani revealed that there is continued debate over whether the
surviving metopes on the Parthenon should be removed to undergo conservation. Several remain in
place, but only five will be taken from the building, as the others are far too damaged and eroded.
I also met Dr Ian Jenkins, Head Curator of Antiquities from the British Museum who was in Athens for
a lecture at the British School at Athens on colour pigment on the Parthenon. His visit to Mrs
Hadziaslani reveals the continued contact and mutual respect between the two institutions.
Seeing crowds line across the extensive courtyard was gratifying, and testament to the popularity and
continued interest in Ancient Greece, and that this museum represents considerable investment for a
country that relies heavily on tourism. Given Greece’s recent financial hardship, the New Acropolis
Museum will play a major role in its recovery.
Wider Greece - Management of sites
I visited several sites in Greece that are classified as rural and therefore subject to pressure from the
environment. The Sanctuary of Zeus, at Olympia, was threatened by fires in 2008. Fire destroyed
nearby farming land and houses, and, although damage to site was minimal, evidence of burning is
present on large trees. Cleared stumps of adult trees, and new plantings, highlight the real danger to
rural archaeological sites. Also, the stadium at Delphi has been closed due to danger from falling
rocks. Rural sites near Thessaloniki, such as Vergina and Dion are also subject to natural elements.7
Also in Thessaloniki, the new metro excavation is unearthing considerable material from the Hellenic
and later periods. The excavation in the downtown area requires much rescue archaeology.
Teaching collections
The best museums I found in this study for use in teaching Greek history were those that sought not to
overwhelm the viewer with masses of finds (such as The Louvre), but those that chose pieces to
display selectively, such as the collection at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Altes
Museum in Berlin. The Ashmolean Museum was reopened December 2009, after extensive
redevelopment. This museum combines interactive displays with the selection of individual artefacts to
illustrate teaching points and is a brilliant resource.8 The strategy, named “Crossing Cultures Crossing
Time”, demonstrates the deep connections between ancient and modern societies using thematic
interrelation between world cultures. The result is highly satisfying, with five floors of fascinating
material. Of significance was the display of recent work done in the Oxyrhynchus Project. Multi
Spectral Imaging (MSI) is used to allow researchers to read sections of the papyri collection held in
the Sackler Library (including, a play by Euripides) that had been previously unintelligible.9
The Museum of Cycladic Art10 is another museum in Greece that produces quality exhibitions and
resources. In 2007 they displayed material found during the extensive Athens Metro excavation. The
6
A version of the documentary presented in the New Acropolis Museum relating to the Parthenon can be found
on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rFgq7MsRe8&NR=1.
7
For more a more detailed report on the sites around Thessaloniki, go to my website.
8
Also of note is the connection between this museum and Sir Arthur Evans, who excavated and reconstructed
Knossos on Crete. He was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1884-1908, so much of his personal
collection and notes are housed there.
9
More information about the MSI project at the Sackler and the Oxyrhynchus Papyrii collection can be found at
www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk.
10
The Museum of Cycladic Art is a private museum run by the Goulandris Foundation in Athens.
program book The City Beneath the City showed the extent of the Metro excavations and some of the
significant finds and may be very useful to teachers.11
Perhaps the most impressive of the institutions is Greece for me was the underrated Hellenic Cosmos
run by the Foundation of the Hellenic World. The foundation was instituted to preserve and promote
Hellenic history. I met historian Dr Ionannis Georganas and Dr Cleopatra Furla, Director of the
Foundation, who showed me around the facility. There is a strong educational philosophy
underpinning the displays, which are highly interactive. This centre focuses on Greek and Athenian
history and is aimed at school students.12
Australians in Greece
Numerous Australians are participating in the work to preserve, conserve, document and research
ancient Greece within Greece. Of particular note is Dr Stavros Paspalas Deputy Director of the
Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens. During our interview we discussed recent developments
on several excavations, including Toroni, Kithera as well as Zagaros. It is hoped that the AAIA will
develop an online learning resource in the near future that could be used with NSW History Syllabus.
Issues raised by the study
In history classrooms, material culture, or, the “object oriented” study of history, is important to balance
with documentary history. Students should be increasingly aware of the bias often present in
documentary sources, given the rare and often political nature of ancient writing. Good history learning
has foundations in archaeology, and in the appreciation of objects as sources in that they inform us
about the lives of people in early cultures. From that awareness, students should gain a sense of the
strong connections between people across ages.
It is important also for Australians to keep reminding themselves of the continuum in Western cultural
traditions who align themselves with ancient Greek origins. European museums house the majority of
material in relation to ancient Greece, and it is displayed with varying degrees of success. The best
museums are those that seek to make the material more accessible for the average viewer, whether
by making displays easy to interpret and understand, or supplementing actual displays with online and
remote resources. They should also seek to present the most recent findings in relationship to
previous interpretations, so that the general public has a sense of how objects have arrived in their
destinations. These museums highlighted to me the isolation we Australians experience, where,
without visiting such sites we may fail to grasp the sheer amount of material that is available to
European viewers. Thinking back over the last decade, in Australia we would be lucky to see more
than one hundred such pieces gathered together for any travelling exhibition. Promoting student
involvement in overseas study tours is essential.
In the absence of large museums to look at in Australia, or expensive trips, teachers would be best
served by taking advantage of the growing interest in online learning resources produced by various
institutions, such as the British Museum, Athenian Agora and the Foundation of the Hellenic World.
Also the teaching museums of the University of Sydney and Macquarie University can provide a taste
A temporary exhibition at the Cycladic Museum opened in December called “Eros: from Hesiod’s Theogony to
Late Antiquity”. This exhibition gathered together an extraordinary amount of material from museums all over
Europe, including the Louvre in Paris and the Naples Archaeological Museum. The focus of the exhibition how
Eros has been regarded and how interpretations have changed over time. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Eros displays
Apollonic attributes. In the Hellenistic period, Eros has adopted Dionysian mannerisms. This is an important shift
to recognise, as it does reinforce the way in which context can affect interpretation, especially of religious
material.
12
The website www.fhw.gr/cosmos will give a good idea of what they have created and has many excellent
resources that can be used in schools. The Tholos or Dome Theatre features an interactive animation that
simulates the development and decay of the Athenian Agora throughout centuries and was a particularly
impressive display.
11
of the type of hands-on learning students could access at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
As far as the argument for repatriation of artefacts from the numerous museums throughout Europe
who have them, the matter is highly complex and emotive and requires considerable thought. There
are vast amounts of material that are displaced for whatever reason. The most important thing for the
moment is that museums responsibly connect objects to their provenance. It is essential to bring these
debates into modern classrooms, and to encourage students to engage with all sides, as it places
them within the larger global context of Western cultural issues.
Dissemination
This study tour was a fascinating and wonderful experience, where I learned a great deal. It is my
intention to continue to explore this material and to present it to teachers and students in order to
enhance their love of ancient Greek history. I will do this by maintaining my website, presenting at the
History Teachers Association Conference and publishing work in the Teaching History journal. This
report also serves as one aspect of dissemination of the knowledge gained in the study. I also
maintained a blog throughout the study, which provides a more candid record of the tour. The blog
address is: http://athensagoradig.edublogs.org/ and is open for comment. For more detailed reports,
please look at my website www.athensagoradig.com over the coming months where images,
podcasts, pdfs and documents will appear.
Thanks
I wish to warmly thank the efforts of the Premier’s Teaching Scholarships staff, and also the generous
sponsors of the History Scholarship, Westfield. I also need to thank my family and friends for their
ongoing support and encouragement throughout the study.