Mediterranean Section-Classical Archaeology Department (CLARC)

In the early years of the Museum, until its administrative reorganization by G.B. Gordon in 1910, the Egyptian/Maditerranean Section was a semi-autonomous unit on the same level as the other two Sections (Babylonian, African/Other), each run by one curator who answered directly to the Museum Board of Managers. The curators often had other roles, and Board Members performed minor curatorial duties.

Classical Archaeology is a fairly recent phenomenon in the United States despite European interest in classical times from at least the Renaissance. Most American PhD programs date after World War II with the exception of the one at Bryn Mawr College.

In 1948, the Council of the Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania approved the establishment of a Group Committee in Classical Archaeology. It was discovered years later that this committee had never been approved formally by the Board of the Trustees of the University. But a de facto graduate program had been established, and in 1975 the "Pritchard Committee" recommended to the Penn Dean Vartan Gregorian that Classical Archaeology be recognized as a graduate group, to consist of the four classical archaeologists already on staff, plus additional members from other disciplines.

Dr. Rodney S. Young was appointed Associate Professor in 1948, promoted to Professor in 1950, and named chairman of the graduate group in 1955. Young provided the impetus for expansion of the group and drew substantial numbers of student to the Classical Archaeology program.

Keith Robert DeVries was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1958 with a degree in English, worked in publishing in New York and Rome for several years. In 1965, he began graduate study in classical archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Ph.D. in 1970. During this period he was active in excavations at Ischia (1966-1967) and at Corinth (1968), where he was a regular member (John Williams White Fellow) at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The following year he held the Edward Capps fellowship as an associate member. In 1969, he began teaching at Penn, where he offered courses in Anatolian archaeology and in Greek archaeology from the Bronze Age through the classical period.

It was Gordion, the Phrygian capital of King Midas in central Anatolia, that became his life's work. He first went to Gordion in 1971, where he worked under Rodney S. Young, director of excavations since 1950, and was thereafter a staff member of the excavation for more than thirty years. He served as director, following the death of Rodney Young, in 1974–1975, and then between 1977 and 1987. He wrote a series of significant articles which clarified the historical sequence of the site, in addition to his studies of the imported Greek pottery. Most recently, and up until the time of his death, he worked on the implications of the radical revision of the Gordion chronology, which now places the destruction of the Early Phrygian capital at c. 800 B.C.—a century earlier than previously thought. His analysis of both the archaeological record and the literary sources was crucial to this new understanding of the Gordion chronology.

In 1948, the Council of the Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania approved the establishment of a Group Committee in Classical Archaeology. It was discovered years later that this committee had never been approved formally by the Board of the Trustees of the University. But a de facto graduate program had been established, and in 1975 the "Pritchard Committee" recommended to Dean Gregorian that Classical Archaeology be recognized as a graduate group, to consist of the four classical archaeologists already on staff, plus additional members from other disciplines.

The records of the Mediterranean Section, Classical Archaeology Department (CLARC)consist of one archival box of twelve folders. The material is divided into two series, Correspondence and Administration.

The correspondence series holds letters, memos and meeting minutes of the department in five folders. The remainder of the correspondence is the alphabetical file of letters to and from students, most addressed to Keith DeVries.

The administrative series holds records related to reviews of the department, restructuring, course offerings and information regarding standards.

Publication Information: University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives, 6/3/2014

Finding Aid Author:

Use Restrictions:

Form(s)/Genre(s)

• Correspondence

Personal Name(s)

• DeVries, Keith, 1937-2006
• Iakovidis, Spyros, b. 1923-d. 2013
• Kohler, Ellen L., 1916-2008
• Pritchard, James B. (James Bennett), 1909-1997
• Wailes, Bernard, 1934-
• Young, Rodney S. (Rodney Stuart), 1907-1974

Subject(s)

• Classical Architecture