Английская Википедия:George E. Mylonas

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Шаблон:Good article Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use mdy dates Шаблон:Use American EnglishШаблон:Infobox academic George Emmanuel Mylonas (Шаблон:Lang-el; Шаблон:OldStyleDate – April 15, 1988)Шаблон:Efn was a Greek archaeologist of ancient Greece and Aegean prehistory. He is known for his numerous excavations, particularly at Olynthus, Eleusis and at Mycenae, where he made the first archaeological study and publication of Grave Circle B, the earliest known monumentalized burials at the site.

Mylonas was born in Smyrna, then part of the Ottoman Empire, and received an elite education. He enrolled in 1919 at the University of Athens to study classics, and joined the Greek Army, where he fought in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. He witnessed the destruction of Smyrna in September 1922, and was subsequently taken prisoner; he was recaptured after a brief escape, but eventually secured money from American contacts to bribe his way to release in 1923.

In 1924, Mylonas began working for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, with which he retained a lifelong association. He became its first bursar the following year, and took part in excavations at Corinth, Nemea and Olynthus under its auspices. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Athens in 1927, he moved to Johns Hopkins University to study under David Moore Robinson, his excavation director from Olynthus. Mylonas received a second Ph.D. the following year, then held a teaching post at the University of Chicago until 1930. After a brief return to Greece, during which he taught at a gymnasium and made his first excavations at Eleusis, he was hired by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1931, before moving to Washington University in St. Louis in 1933. He remained there for most of his career, becoming a full professor in 1938, serving as department chair between 1939 and 1964, and being promoted to distinguished professor in 1965.

Mylonas excavated and published widely, working at sites including Pylos, Artemision, Mekyberna, Polystylos and Aspropotamos. His approach to fundraising for his projects, involving intense engagement with the wealthier citizens of St. Louis and cultivation of the local press, has been characterized as both pioneering and highly successful. Along with Шаблон:Ill, he was given responsibility for the excavation of Mycenae's Grave Circle B in the early 1950s, and from 1957 until 1985 excavated on the citadel of the site. His excavations helped to establish the chronological relationships between Mycenae's structures, which had been excavated piecemeal over the preceding century, and to determine the function of the site's Cult Center, to which he gave its name. He returned to Greece in 1969, where he was prominent in the Archaeological Society of Athens and in efforts to conserve the monuments of the Acropolis of Athens.

Mylonas received numerous honours and awards, including the Order of George I, the Royal Order of the Phoenix and the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America, of which he was the first foreign-born president. His work at Mycenae has been credited with bringing coherence to the previously scattered and sporadically-published record of excavation at the site. At the same time, his practice of arguing for correspondence between the archaeological record and ancient mythical traditions, particularly concerning the Trojan War and the Eleusinian Mysteries, was controversial in his day and has generally been discredited since.

Early life

George Emmanuel Mylonas was born on Шаблон:OldStyleDate to a Greek-speaking family in Smyrna in Ionia, then part of the Ottoman Empire.Шаблон:Sfn According to a 1958 profile, he first took an interest in archaeology at the age of eight, when his father's gardener unearthed an ancient burial on the family property.Шаблон:Sfn Mylonas attended Smyrna's Evangelical School, considered the most important Greek school in the city, until 1915,Шаблон:Refn and subsequently graduated with a bachelor's degree from the American-run International College of Smyrna in 1918.Шаблон:Refn He entered the University of Athens in 1919, joining the second year of its course in classics.Шаблон:Refn where he was a classmate of Шаблон:Ill, later an archaeologist with the Greek Archaeological Service, and was taught by the archaeologist Christos Tsountas, who had excavated at the Bronze Age site of Mycenae and at prehistoric sites throughout Greece.Шаблон:Sfn

During the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, Mylonas joined the Greek Army and was deployed to Turkey as part of the Army of Asia Minor.Шаблон:Sfnm He was in Smyrna when the city was destroyed by the Turks in September 1922,Шаблон:Sfnm where delivered a Christian sermon in Greek on the morning on Sunday, Шаблон:OldStyleDateNY, for refugees who had sheltered in the chapel of the International College.Шаблон:Sfn While fleeing from Smyrna towards Samos, he was captured and imprisoned at Manisa and Smyrna;Шаблон:Refn he was tortured during his captivity and almost killed.Шаблон:Sfnm After escaping from the camp at Smyrna in early March 1923, he obtained passage on a French merchant ship, whose crew once again handed him to the Turks.Шаблон:Refn He was helped to survive by American friends, his former teachers at the International College,Шаблон:Sfnm who lent him money to pay bribes and secure his release.Шаблон:Sfnm

Early archaeological career

A slightly balding white man in a formal suit, seated, his head resting on his left hand
David Moore Robinson, Mylonas's early mentor and lifelong friend, photographed in 1909

After his release, Mylonas returned to Athens, arriving in April 1923.Шаблон:Refn According to Michael Cosmopoulos, who later studied under Mylonas, he may have suffered from post-traumatic stress in the early years after his release.Шаблон:Refn In the second half of 1924,Шаблон:Sfn he was hired as a translator at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), one of Greece's foreign schools of archaeology.Шаблон:Sfn The ASCSA had assisted in the evacuation and resettlement of Greek refugees from Ionia and employed many of them in the construction of its Gennadius Library, conducted under the architect W. Stuart Thompson between September 1923 and 1925.Шаблон:Sfn According to Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, later the archivist of the ASCSA, Mylonas may have been introduced to the school by Hazel Dorothy Hansen, an American archaeologist who probably studied with Mylonas at Athens.Шаблон:Sfn He acted as an interpreter for Thompson and wrote his own doctoral dissertation, The Neolithic Period in Greece, in his free time.Шаблон:Sfn From 1 July 1925, he worked as the ASCSA's first bursar on a part-time basis; he was also seconded as an assistant to Gilbert Campbell Scoggins, the librarian of the Gennadius.Шаблон:Refn

Mylonas worked on the excavations of Corinth under the ASCSA's director Bert Hodge Hill, who led them until 1926;Шаблон:Refn between 1923 and 1928, he worked with Carl Blegen, Hill's lifelong friend who also served as assistant and acting director of the ASCSA, at the sites of Nemea and Aghiorghitika.Шаблон:Refn He received his Ph.D. Шаблон:Lang from the University of Athens in 1927,Шаблон:Refn and taught at the same institution.Шаблон:Refn In 1928, he resigned from his bursary post at the ASCSA and emigrated to the United States to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under David Moore Robinson, the excavator of the classical site of Olynthus in the Chalkidiki region of northern Greece.Шаблон:Sfnm He was with Robinson as a representative of the ASCSA, in whose name the dig was conducted, for the Olynthus excavation season of February 17 to June 2, 1928.Шаблон:Sfn

Academic career in the United States

Mylonas was awarded his second Ph.D. by Johns Hopkins in 1928; his dissertation was published as the first volume in the series presenting the results of the Olynthus excavations.Шаблон:Sfn In the same year, he took a temporary teaching job at the University of Chicago, which allowed him to remain in the US until 1930.Шаблон:Refn On his return, he directed the excavations of the Mycenaean site of Aghios Kosmas in Attica,Шаблон:Sfn under the auspices of the Archaeological Service,Шаблон:Sfn which began in 1930 and continued in 1931.Шаблон:Sfn He also made a study of the topography of Attica and taught part-time at the Ioannis Metaxas gymnasium, a high school.Шаблон:Refn He was at Olynthus with Robinson for the 1931 excavation season,Шаблон:Sfn having been sent by the ASCSA in response to the school's dissatisfaction with Robinson's excavation methods.Шаблон:Sfn During the same season, Mylonas excavated at Eleusis alongside the Greek archaeologist Шаблон:Ill.Шаблон:Refn Mylonas returned to the United States later in 1931: he was hired by William Abbott Oldfather, the dean of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as a temporary assistant professor on an annual salary of $2,200 (Шаблон:Inflation).Шаблон:Sfnm Mylonas excavated at Olynthus in 1932 and 1933,Шаблон:Sfn and at Eleusis each year from 1932 until 1934.Шаблон:Sfn

Wide shot; several open graves can be seen with the citadel of Mycenae behind
Grave Circle B at Mycenae, excavated by Mylonas and Papadimitriou in 1952–1953

In 1933, Mylonas was hired on a permanent basis at Washington University in St. Louis as an assistant professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology.Шаблон:Refn Robinson had previously tried to manoeuvre another of his students, James Walter Graham, into the position. Mylonas wrote to Robinson, crediting him with securing him the position through his influence and contacts.Шаблон:Sfn Mylonas became a naturalized US citizen in 1937, though spent most of his time in Greece.Шаблон:Sfn By 1938, he had been promoted to full professor.Шаблон:Sfnm He served on the ASCSA's managing committee between 1937 and 1939,Шаблон:Sfn returned to Olynthus as co-director of the excavation with Robinson in March–June 1938,Шаблон:Sfn and made exploratory excavations at Mekyberna – the port of Olynthus – Polystylos and Aspropotamos, all in Greek Macedonia, in the same year.Шаблон:Sfn

Mylonas became chair of Washington's Department of Art History and Archaeology in 1939.Шаблон:Sfn He returned briefly to the University of Illinois for the 1939–1940 academic year, before resuming his post at Washington.Шаблон:Refn During the Second World War, he orchestrated the founding of the Greek War Relief Association, a charity which raised money to alleviate poverty in Greece.Шаблон:Sfn He also delivered lessons to officers of the United States Army on the Eastern Mediterranean, and wrote An Introduction to the History of the Balkan States, which aimed to make a historical case against the legitimacy of the annexation of Greek Macedonia by Bulgaria and was published in 1946.Шаблон:Sfn He returned to the ASCSA's managing committee in the same year.Шаблон:Sfn

The Greek government suspended all archaeological investigation in the country after the war, a state of affairs which persisted until 1952.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn Mylonas spent the 1951–1952 academic year on a Fulbright scholarship, teaching at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (as the University of Athens had been renamed).Шаблон:Sfnm Simultaneously, he served as an annual professor at the ASCSA,Шаблон:Sfn of which he was elected vice president in 1951,Шаблон:Sfn and led its 1951–1952 "Summer Session" for visiting archaeology students.Шаблон:Sfn Once the ban on excavation was lifted, Mylonas entered what Vogeikoff-Brogan calls "an excavation frenzy", working at Pylos under Blegen,Шаблон:Sfn at Aghios Kosmas,Шаблон:Sfn and at Eleusis in the same season.Шаблон:Sfn In November 1951, he visited what would become known as Grave Circle B at Mycenae,Шаблон:Sfn which had been discovered by the ephor Seraphim Charitonidis during restoration of the nearby Tomb of Clytemnestra.Шаблон:Sfnm In July 1952, along with John Papadimitriou, he was given responsibility for the full excavation of the Grave Circle,Шаблон:Sfn which commenced on July 3 and continued until September, by which point seven tombs had been uncovered.Шаблон:Sfn He also directed, in September of the same year, a return excavation of the underwater shipwreck first discovered at Artemision in 1926.Шаблон:Sfnm Mylonas and Papadimitriou returned to Grave Circle B in the summer of 1953, uncovering eight more tombs.Шаблон:Sfn

Mylonas held a Fulbright Professorship at Athens in 1954,Шаблон:Sfn and spent periods throughout the 1950s at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.Шаблон:Sfn His M.A. students in the late 1950s included the Anglo-American archaeologist Elizabeth Schofield, later known for her work at Knossos, at Lefkandi and on the island of Kea.Шаблон:Sfn Between 1952 and 1957, he directed the excavation of the Western Cemetery of Eleusis,Шаблон:Sfnm which uncovered the Eleusis Amphora, considered among the finest examples of proto-Attic art, in 1954.Шаблон:Sfn From 1957 until 1985, he led excavations on the citadel of Mycenae.Шаблон:Refn He re-excavated most of the acropolis of the site: Tsountas had cleared it in the late nineteenth century, but died before publishing the results of his work.Шаблон:Refn Much of Mylonas's work on the acropolis concerned the establishment of a chronological sequence for its various constructions, particularly the palace and the fortifications surrounded it; he traced the initial fortification of the site to the fourteenth century BCE, with further development throughout the thirteenth century.Шаблон:Sfn He also investigated the site's Cult Center,Шаблон:Sfn to which he gave its modern name,Шаблон:Sfn and areas of settlement to the north and west of the citadel.Шаблон:Sfn He served as president of the Archaeological Institute of America between 1957 and 1960,Шаблон:Refn becoming the first foreign-born person to hold the post,Шаблон:Sfn and held a visiting professorship at the ASCSA in 1963–1964, during which he conducted a tour of Crete and offered a course in Mycenaean civilization.Шаблон:Sfn In 1964, he stepped down as department chair at Washington; he was made the inaugural Rosa May Distinguished Professor in the Humanities in 1965.Шаблон:Refn

Return to Greece and later life

A marble tomb in a churchyard, with a prominent Christian cross decoration
Mylonas's tomb at Mykines

Mylonas retired from Washington in 1969 and returned to Greece.Шаблон:Sfn He served on the council of the Archaeological Society of Athens, a learned society with a prominent role in the excavation and conservation of archaeological heritage, between 1969 and 1971, was its vice president from 1978 to 1979, and its secretary general from 1979 until 1986.Шаблон:Refn He also served as chairman of the Committee for the Preservation of the Acropolis Monuments, a pressure group which aimed to raise official awareness of the threat from air pollution to the monuments of the Acropolis of Athens, between 1978 and 1986.Шаблон:Sfn He died in Athens, two weeks after suffering a heart attack at his home, on April 15, 1988.Шаблон:Refn He was buried at Mykines, the modern village adjacent to the site of Mycenae.Шаблон:Sfn

Mylonas appeared in Michael Wood's televised series, In Search of the Trojan War, in 1985. In an interview conducted at the citadel of Mycenae, Mylonas spoke of coming to the site by night to converse with the mythical king Agamemnon.Шаблон:Refn He once said that the task of the archaeologist was to "infer from withered flowers the hour of their bloom".Шаблон:Sfn A Шаблон:Lang in his honour was published in four volumes by the Archaeological Society between 1986 and 1990.Шаблон:Sfn

Personal life

Mylonas met Lena Papazoglou, another Greek refugee from Ionia, shortly after his return to Greece in 1923; the couple married in 1925.Шаблон:Sfn Mylonas remained a friend of Robinson, his former doctoral advisor, throughout his life; upon his death in 1958, Robinson left Mylonas a Greek vase from his collection and $20,000 (Шаблон:Inflation) towards his research.Шаблон:Sfn According to the Canadian archaeologist Mary Ross Ellingson, who excavated with Mylonas at Olynthus, he was formal and aloof in his manners, preferring to address fellow excavation staff by their surnames and as "Mr." or "Miss."Шаблон:Sfn

Mylonas had a son, Alexander, who died in a car accident in 1959.Шаблон:Sfn He also had three daughters,Шаблон:Refn one of whom, Ione Mylonas Shear, became an archaeologist,Шаблон:Refn and frequently assisted her father in his excavations at Mycenae.Шаблон:Sfn Another daughter, Eunice Hale, married the artist and teacher Robert Beverly Hale.Шаблон:Sfn Lena Mylonas died in 1993.Шаблон:Sfn

Honors, legacy and assessment

Mylonas was a prolific writer and lecturer, publishing around 150 articles in academic journals and delivering over 1000 public lectures.Шаблон:Sfn At Mycenae, his excavations uncovered tombs and structures outside the citadel and established the function of the Cult Center within it. His investigations of the citadel's fortifications established their date, while his excavations of the approach-routes to the palace revealed the full extent of the structure. Шаблон:Ill, who succeeded Mylonas as director of the excavation of Mycenae, credits him with connecting the work of Tsountas, which was prolific but largely unpublished, with that of Alan Wace, who excavated various areas of the site throughout the first half of the twentieth century.Шаблон:Sfn His 1927 dissertation has been called the first publication to systematically synthesize the Neolithic material from the Greek mainland and the island of Crete.Шаблон:Sfn

Vogeikoff-Brogan has called Mylonas a pioneer in archaeological fundraising; without the large institutional budgets of colleagues like Blegen, Mylonas cultivated relationships with wealthy members of St. Louis society, encouraged his financial supporters to visit and participate in his excavations, and reported his work energetically in the St. Louis local press. Between 1963 and his retirement in 1969, he led archaeological cruises to Greece, whose ticket price included a donation to his excavation work.Шаблон:Sfn During his time at Washington University, Mylonas established the philanthropic Mycenaean Foundation with support from American friends and students. The foundation opened an archaeologists' hostel, known as McCarthy House, and a cultural centre and medical clinic, known as the Mycenaean Melanthron, in the village of Mykines in 1969.Шаблон:Sfn He also played a role in the establishment of a new museum at the archaeological site of Mycenae.Шаблон:Sfn A scholarship for undergraduate humanities majors at Washington University is named in Mylonas's honor.Шаблон:Refn

Ancient Greek vase-painting of the cyclops Polyphemus being blinding by several men, who drive a wooden stake into his single eye.
The "Eleusis Amphora", discovered by Mylonas in 1954, showing the blinding of Polyphemus

Mylonas believed in the essential historicity of the Greek mythical tradition; in his work on Mycenae, he attempted to establish chronological dates for the reign of Agamemnon and the Trojan War.Шаблон:Sfn At Eleusis, he claimed to have followed the directions of the Greek geographer Pausanias and to have discovered the tombs of the mythical Seven against Thebes.Шаблон:Refn More recent study has suggested that the tradition that the Seven were buried at Eleusis may significantly postdate the supposed date of their existence,Шаблон:Sfn and most modern scholars reject the suggestion that the myths of Agamemnon and Troy can be connected to any archaeological material.Шаблон:Sfn A contemporary review of his 1966 book, Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age, described his practice of using the mythological tradition to reconstruct historical events as "a dangerous procedure at best".Шаблон:Sfn Similarly, Mylonas's contention that he had discovered a Bronze Age temple to the goddess Demeter at Eleusis, following the narrative of the ancient Homeric Hymn to Demeter by which the goddess ordered the construction of her first temple at the site, is now considered unsupported by the available evidence.Шаблон:Refn

Mylonas was awarded honorary degrees by Washington University, the University of Thessaloniki, Ohio University and Southern Illinois University.Шаблон:Refn He received two Guggenheim Fellowships, the first in 1955 and the second in 1968.Шаблон:Refn In 1955, he was made a Commander of the Order of George I by King Paul of Greece;Шаблон:Refn he also became a Grand Commander of the Royal Order of the Phoenix.Шаблон:Sfn He was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America's Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in 1970.Шаблон:Sfn He was also made an honorary citizen of Eleusis and Mycenae, and presented with a golden key to the city of Washington, D.C.Шаблон:Sfn He became a member of the Academy of Athens, Greece's national academy, in 1970,Шаблон:Refn and served as its president in 1980.Шаблон:Sfn He was elected an honorary fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1978,Шаблон:Refn and was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Шаблон:Refn

Selected works

As author

As editor

Footnotes

Explanatory notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Works cited

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Further reading

  • Шаблон:Cite web (Personal archives and cross-references at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens)

Шаблон:Authority control