Samothracian Connections

Essays in Honor of James R. McCredie

Olga Palagia, Bonna Daix Wescoat, Bonna Daix Wescoat

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781842178041
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Greek Ancient History
• Index: History

This volume of sixteen papers is dedicated to James R. McCredie in celebration of his outstanding contribution to the excavation and study of the sanctuary of the Great Gods on the Greek island of Samothrace. The papers focus mainly on the art and archaeology of Samothrace, while two contributions discuss Alexandria in Egypt and Florina in Macedonia, two areas that were closely connected with Samothrace in antiquity. The volume covers the latest research on the architecture, sculpture, pottery, epigraphy and cult of the sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothrace, and contains many original architectural drawings and photos of previously unpublished material.

1. James R. McCredie and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Irene Bald Romano

James R. McCredie has had a remarkable career of devotion to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) as a member and fellow (1958–59, 1961–62, 1965–66); Director (1969–77); Managing Committee Representative (1962–present), Executive Committee Member (1977–82), Chair of the Gennadius Library Committee (1997–2000); Managing Committee Chair (1980–90); Trustee (ex officio 1980–90; elected 1990–present), and President of the Board of Trustees (2001–2010). There is no one in the history of the School who has held all of these key positions, including Edward Capps who served the School in many capacities in the first half of the 20th century, but never as President or Chairman of the Board. Jim McCredie’s influence on the American School from the late 1960s to the present has been extraordinary.

Jim McCredie first came to the ASCSA as a Regular Member in 1958–59. In the spring of 1959, to fulfill the School’s Regular Member requirements, Jim and fellow student Arthur Steinberg carried out a survey on the Koroni peninsula in Attica. Returning in the summer of 1960 to excavate with Eugene Vanderpool, they identified the fortified camp of Koroni as a Ptolemaic fort used during the Chremonidean War of 268–262 B.C. Jim was again at the School as a member in 1961–62, holding the Charles Eliot Norton Fellowship from Harvard University. He worked on his doctoral dissertation, “The Fortified Military Camps of Attica,” and spent a further year at the School (1965–66) preparing this work for publication as Hesperia Supplement XI (1966). In 1962 he became field director for renewed excavations by New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts on Samothrace, an affiliated project of the ASCSA with which he has been closely associated since that time.

In 1969 the young, “thirty-something” Jim McCredie was tapped to succeed Henry Robinson as the Director of the School. Despite the unsettling times under the Junta in Greece and some general financial worries, the years of the McCredie directorship represented something of a “golden age,” with the School at the epicenter of archaeology and classical studies in Greece. The legendary Eugene Vanderpool (“EV”) was in his last years as the Professor of Archaeology (he retired June 1971), Charles Williams was Corinth Director, T. Leslie Shear, Jr. Director at the Agora (with John Camp as Assistant Director), and the charismatic Francis Walton (who retired in 1976) Director of the Gennadius Library.

Jim McCredie set a standard for the directorship during his eight years that has been difficult for subsequent directors to match. Quite simply, he did it all – at a time when the staff of the School was very small, requiring the Director to be pressed into service in every arena. He taught seminars on Greek architecture and led School trips, including memorable ones to northern Greece and Samothrace. He began the practice of inviting guest lecturers to make special presentations throughout these expeditions. Jim McCredie also took seriously his role as advisor and mentor to School students, and set high standards and had high expectations for the conduct of students in their everyday encounters in Greece as well as in the excellence of their reports, papers, and scholarship in general.

The American School in those days was at the center of social life in Athens, and Jim and Mimsy McCredie presided over elegant and carefully orchestrated weekly dinner parties in the Director’s residence that placed student and senior members of the School at the side of museum directors, members of the Archaeological Service, or directors of foreign archaeological schools, fostering important relationships for the School and individual scholars for future research in Greece.

With Jim McCredie as Director there seemed to be nothing – the staff, its activities, physical plant, and budget – of which he did not have complete command. His policy of even-handedness in matters relating to Greek politics and his consummate diplomatic skills steered the School carefully through some choppy waters during the days of the Junta. One of the many accomplishments of Jim McCredie’s directorship was the construction, with Frank Walton, of the east and west wings of the Gennadius Library, including the installation of the Stathatou Macedonian Room (dedicated in May 1972) and the Gennadeion’s subsequent reopening in February 1973.

As Managing Committee Chair Jim McCredie’s greatest concerns were budgetary: salaries, rising costs and inflation in Greece as well as maintenance of the buildings and space needs – themes that recur throughout the history of the School. It was during the period of Jim McCredie’s stewardship as Managing Committee Chair that the Centennial of the School was celebrated and the Blegen Library new wing was built providing for increased stacks, as well as space for the School Archives, a new archaeological laboratory, computer laboratory, and seminar room.

In his capacity as a Trustee and President of the Board of Trustees, Jim McCredie has been the keeper of School traditions, as well as its champion as it moves into different times. Encomiums, especially lengthy ones, are not Jim’s style, yet there is no denying his extraordinary and inspirational generosity of spirit, of material resources and time, his long volunteer service to the American School, and his dutiful loyalty to his students, colleagues, friends, fellow Trustees, and to the institution he clearly loves.

2. James R. McCredie and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Mariët Westermann and Patricia Rubin

James McCredie is one of those fortunate people whose talents, interests and career naturally aligned. Since 1961, the Institute of Fine Arts has rejoiced in sharing that fortune through Jim’s multiple roles at the Institute as professor, archaeologist, director, mentor and friend. To those who have known him through the years, his self-effacing personality and wry sense of humor are memorable, as are his quiet generosity, gentle dignity and above all, his complete devotion to the field of classical archaeology. During his tenure and as part of his legacy, he has been dedicated to building, expanding and strengthening classical archaeology for future generations.

Three key institutions have been integral to Jim’s professional life. First, he is a Harvard man. His undergraduate and graduate work were completed there and culminated with his dissertation on “Fortified Military Camps in Attica.” As an archaeologist, he has also been closely involved with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, where he studied early in his career and later became its Director. His academic career belongs to the Institute of Fine Arts, where he was Director from 1983–2002. He came to the Institute in 1961 as an Instructor, he rose to Professor in 1978, was named Sherman Fairchild Professor in 1988 and became emeritus in 2002. This span of nearly fifty years also includes his on-going position as Director of the Samothrace excavations, a role he assumed in 1966.

Such a brief outline of a remarkable man’s career can only give a glimpse of his accomplishments. Indeed, it would not be possible to know or to recount the full impact Jim has had, directly and indirectly, on those he has touched throughout his long and committed involvement with academia and classical archaeology. We would like to make special note, however, of a few highlights that point to the very real differences he has made during his years at the Institute.

Jim brought many exemplary qualities to his role as Director, not least his accessibility and even-handedness in working across the organization to ensure that the needs of professors, students and administrators were approached fairly and met equably. Always working to maintain the high standard of education for which the Institute is renowned, his tenure witnessed a number of milestones. For example, the Conservation Center relocated from the Duke House into its own home, the newly renovated Stephen Chan House at 14 East 78th Street. Major academic appointments were made: Linda Nochlin, Jean-Louis Cohen and Robert Lubar in Modern art, Jonathan J.G. Alexander in Medieval European art, Jonathan Hay in Chinese art, Roland R. R. Smith and Katherine Welch in Roman art and David O’Connor in Ancient Egyptian art. In addition, there was a significant expansion in the archaeological excavations sponsored by the Institute – Jim brought Aphrodisias to the Institute from the NYU Classics Department and when David O’Connor joined the faculty, the Institute joined in the sponsorship of the Penn-Yale-IFA Expedition to Abydos, one of the longest-running and most important foreign-sponsored excavations in Egypt. These prestigious projects continue to make outstanding contributions to their respective fields.

As a teacher, one of Jim’s greatest gifts to his students, literally hundreds of them, has been the opportunity he has given them to work under his direction during one or more summer seasons at his beloved site, the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, on the remote Greek island of Samothrace. Many of them have gone on to influential teaching, research, and scholarly appointments in a wide range of fields, for Jim trained students whose interests ranged from archaeology and ancient art to modern art and architecture. So, for example, Andria Derstine, a scholar of early modern art who spent four summers working at Samothrace, has told us of Jim’s exceptional generosity, how he patiently taught them the art of archaeology, made sure they ate well and provided his car, nicknamed Sylvester, for local outings. A true teacher, he created the best possible environment, one that allowed for open engagement, curiosity and a sense of well being, in order to bring out the best in his students and allow them to flourish. He brought these same qualities to the classroom in New York, but for many of his students the experience of working with him on Samothrace remains a special memory.

When Jim retired from the Institute the difficult question of finding a suitable means to mark the occasion was answered in the most fitting way possible – friends and colleagues came together to establish The James R. McCredie Summer Grant Program, which supports at least two Institute students annually to work at one of the Institute’s archaeological projects. Today, this wonderful program both honors Jim’s commitment to training the next generation of archaeologists and continues his legacy as a teacher and true advocate for classical archaeology.

As Jim’s successors and on behalf of the Institute of Fine Arts, we are very honored to be part of Jim’s life, career and legacy and to join in celebrating him with this Festschrift.

3. James R. McCredie and Samothracian Architecture

Bonna D. Wescoat

Nothing demonstrates James (Jim) R. McCredie’s contribution to our understanding of Samothracian architecture more vividly than a comparison of the plan of the Sanctuary in 1962, the year he became field director of excavations, with the current plan of the Sanctuary published in this volume (Figs 3.1–3.3). Through 46 years of excavation and research, Jim McCredie has more than doubled the number of known structures within the Sanctuary. Prior to his investigations, the Eastern Hill, which would yield the complex of monuments around the Theatral Circle, was known only as a sacred glen (Figs 3.2–3.3, nos. 24–25); the monuments on the terrace to the north of the Stoa were intimated chiefly through spolia in the walls of the Byzantine fort (Figs 3.2–3.3, nos. 1–4, 29); and, only the occasional remnant of a terrace wall signaled what was to emerge as the complex sets of rooms immediately east and north of the Stoa (Figs 3.2–3.3, nos. 7–10). And even though earlier excavators had concentrated considerable effort on the monuments in the heart of the Sanctuary, Jim McCredie’s reexamination of this area has led to architectural discoveries that continue to inform our understanding of the function of the cult and the history of the Sanctuary.

Figure 3.1. Restored plan of the Sanctuary reflecting research as of 1960. After Samothrace. A Guide to the Excavations and the Museum. 2nd edition, 1960. A. Anaktoron. B. Sacristy. C. Rotunda of Arsinoe. D. Temenos. E. Hieron. F. Hall of Votive Gifts. G. Altar Court. H. Theater. I. Nike Fountain. J. Stoa. K. Propylon of Ptolemy II. L. Ruinenviereck (Byzantine fort).

Figure 3.2. Actual state sketch plan of the Sanctuary as of 2000. Buildings numbered in figures 3.2 and 3.3: 1–3. Unidentified late Hellenistic buildings; 4. Unfinished early Hellenistic building A; 5. Byzantine fort; 6. Milesian Dedication; 7. Dining rooms; 8, 10. Rooms adjacent to the Theatre; 9. Archaistic niche; 11. Stoa; 12. Nike Monument; 13. Theater; 14. Altar Court; 15. Hieron; 16. Hall of Votive Gifts; 17. Hall of Choral Dancers; 18. Sacred Way; 19. Sacred Rock; 20. Rotunda of Arsinoe II; 21. Orthostate Structure; 22. Sacristy; 23. Anaktoron; 24. Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV; 25. Theatral circle; 26. Propylon of Ptolemy II; 27. Southern Necropolis; 28. Doric Rotunda; 29. Neorion. Drawing John Kurtich.

Throughout his tenure as director, Jim McCredie has taken especial interest in the architecture of the site, working closely with the architects on all aspects of the reconstruction of the monuments and every detail of the drawings, including the block studies, the actual state plans, and the richly articulated reconstructions. Rarely conventional, Samothracian buildings have required painstaking scrutiny and bold interpretation in nearly every aspect of their design in plan, elevation, and ancient restoration. Gifted at both modes of thinking, Jim McCredie has shown a confidence of interpretation that has quite literally shaped our knowledge of Samothracian architecture and consequently expanded our understanding of Hellenistic architecture. The drawings gathered here represent a small sample of one of his richest legacies, for they highlight the extraordinary inventiveness, diversity, conceptual flexibility, and fine ornamentation of Samothracian architecture. Many of the drawings are in the hand of the late John Kurtich, the excavation’s chief architect who worked in close collaboration with Jim McCredie for over 30 years.

Each decade of Jim McCredie’s leadership not only brought important new material to light but also transformed earlier ideas on the architecture of the Sanctuary. The campaigns of the 1960s included large-scale excavations concentrated especially on the plateaus that frame the central Sanctuary to the east and west.¹ Minimally explored by the early excavators, these regions had not been the focus of Karl Lehmann’s research efforts during his tenure as director fro...