pella at woo

PellaPod can be found on our Soundcloud, Pella @ Wooster

Resources:

Director’s Progress Report for the period March 15-December 15, 1966 (College of Wooster Special Collections)

Director’s Progress Report of the First Season, 1967 (College of Wooster Special Collections)

Pella Newsletter (College of Wooster Art Museum Collections)

Handbook of General Information, 1967 Season (College of Wooster Art Museum Collections)

Special thanks to Dr. Marianne Wardle for allowing us to share the last two resources publicly!

Transcript:

Hello everyone, and welcome to PellaPod, a podcast dedicated to sharing information about the Pella at Wooster project. My name is Leo Daoud, and I am a sophomore research assistant in the Museum Studies department and I’ll be hosting today’s episode. Last episode was a short overview introducing our goals surrounding the Pella collection and how it exists today, as well as an explanation of how the excavation began. Today, I’d like to elaborate more on the timeline and happenings of the excavation itself.

A group of interested professors drafted and submitted a proposal for an expedition to Pella December 11, 1964. On March 3, 1965, the expedition was approved as a pursuit by Dean Drushal and President Lowry, and it became an official College of Wooster research project. This approval meant that spring of 1965 was populated with policy meetings by the Archeological Advisory Committee, which voted yes on a $5000 grant to fund Smith’s preparations in Jordan. However, prior to his travel to Jordan, Smith spent his time visiting archeologists and other specialists across the East Coast to gather information on methods, tools, and funding. This work also served as part of his efforts to recruit staff for the excavation, who came from other institutions outside the College of Wooster. While Smith did look into some sources of funding for the expedition, this task fell primarily to G.T. Smith from Development, and Professor Arthur Baird from the religious studies department.

In May, the College submitted an application to the Jordanian government for a license to start their excavation. Paperwork documenting this process says that “[LD1] [LD2] Throughout these proceedings, the College has been in close touch with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, from which it has received advice and encouragement.” This relationship between the department and the college came through director Robert Smith’s previous academic relationship with its head, Awni Dajani.

On July 1, 1965, Smith began his travels. Before he arrived in Jordan, he visited England, Rome, Israel, and Lebanon, where he connected with experts, some of whom agreed to work on the expedition. In Jordan, he contacted their Department of Antiquities, and gained approval for both his preparatory work and an extension on the College’s permit to excavate to December of 1967.  At Pella itself, he hired a surveyor to draw up maps, and a meteorologist to arrange for a year of weather observations. He was also able to obtain pre-existing maps and aerial view, which he supplemented with his own photographs and videotapes. Some logistical work was completed, including securing accommodations and devising a method for the future excavators to process items. The end of the summer, and therefore this phase of the project, culminated in a Director’s Report published September 26, 1966, which is currently found in COW’s Special Collections. This report estimated that $65,000 would be necessary for the 1967 season alone, an amount that has the same purchasing power as half a million would today.

From September 1966 to February 1967, Smith worked with the Development Department to obtain funding, briefed staff on relevant information, and equipment was shipped to Jordan. In December, final approval by the Jerusalem Committee of the American Schools of Oriental Research was secured; side note, the school is now the American School of Overseas Research. From February to April, Smith was on leave from teaching obligations to continue preparations in Jordan, while the six students selected to join the expedition studied Palestinian archeology and conversational Arabic at ASOR. Previously, the first season was to be divided into a spring session from March 27^th to May 18^th, and a summer session between June 19^th to August 11^th. However, because of rainy weather, illnesses among the staff, and delayed shipments of equipment caused by the holidays Eid ul Adha and Easter, the excavation was not able to start until April 9^th, 1967. Work on the site focused primarily on 2 different locations: a church in the West, and a cemetery in the East.

The spring session of the first season was fruitful in the eyes of Robert Smith. In addition to many artifacts, his team was able to uncover mosaics in the church, and multiple tombs at the cemetery. One of the tombs was believed to belong to an official in late Byzantine times. However, there were a few concerns that came from a fellow College of Wooster professor, Arnold Lewis from the Art Department, He was able to visit due to his proximity to the area, since he was on sabbatical in Beirut. In a letter to Dean Drushal, he detailed some of the challenges Smith and his team were facing socially. Firstly, there was some tension in the archeological community due to previous interest in the site, which was arguably the richest unexplored location in the country. Some felt that it was unfair that a school that didn’t even have an archeology program was allowed to stake their claim over the site first, purely because they were able to first secure funding and legal permission. Additionally, some of the staff at ASOR in Jerusalem were apparently a bit hostile to Wooster students because of their lack of expertise and prior training, leading to some tense moments and frustration, especially among the female-identifying students.

Lewis’ letter also foreshadowed some logistical problems that remain challenges for the collection. The college was in too deep—as a small liberal arts college, its resources were not well matched with a major archaeological dig. Typically, research-intensive institutions with graduate students and big grants undertake these kinds of projects. Lewis also worried about the artifacts from the dig, as there was no guarantee how many of them they would be able to keep. And if they were allowed to keep the artifacts, how would they be kept and displayed? At the time, Wooster did not have an art museum or museum storage facility.

These concerns were especially critical because the 1967 season was to be only the first of 5 dig seasons that were supposed to happen every two years over the next decade, per the 1966 proposal. But all Smith’s meticulous planning could not account for the disruptions the dig faced.

The biggest disruption was the outbreak of the Six-Day War. On May 20, the spring session of the 1967 season was supposed to temporarily halt for a month while Smith and the students took a break in Jerusalem. By May 28, Smith sent word back to the United States that he wouldn’t be resuming the summer session as expected. He reported on the escalation of the situation, saying that near the end of the spring session, American and British news sources described military parades which took place in Israel in celebration of 19 years since its establishment as a nation. In response, Egypt wanted UN peacekeeping forces kept at the Israel-Egypt border to withdraw.

Historically, there had been tensions between the two parties, so many of the other Westerners that stayed at ASOR in Jerusalem did not find the American Consulate’s encouragement to leave the area to be urgent. However, the situation seemed to get more and more serious as the Straits of Tiran were blockaded by Egyptian forces, which would prevent Israel from accessing waterways from the South. This would potentially be grounds for war. Relations between Jordan and Syria also deteriorated, as a Syrian car rigged with explosives was detonated at the Jordanian border, killing 16. The resulting closure of the Syrian border, and the potential blockage of Jordan’s access to the sea due to Egyptian efforts to halt shipping to Eilat, Israel limited potential escape routes. By then, it was clear that sending the students away was the best choice to ensure their safety. They were sent to Beirut – to be guests of Professor Arnold Lewis, who was there conducting research on his sabbatical. The six students stayed with Professor Lewis for a short time before they rerouted back, eventually, to the US. Meanwhile, Smith stayed to properly close down the site for the season, where he documents soldiers setting up artillery before he was airlifted to Tehran, Iran, on June 12, 1967.

Smith fully intended to return to the site, though there was no updated timeline to when this would occur. Jordan’s signature of a mutual defense pact with Egypt on May 30 made sure that they were actively involved in the Six Day War, which began on June 5. However, political upheaval was not the only factor in these delays. Dr. Howard Lowry, president of the college, and a powerful supporter of the expedition died suddenly on the 4^th of July 1967, shortly after Smith returned stateside. Even in the best of times, it is an extraordinary feat for a small liberal arts college to successfully undergo such an expedition. Gathering resources—whether this be manpower, knowledge, or money—is difficult to do on such a scale. With this sudden loss compounding the political upheaval of the Six Day War and the cancellation of the second half of the first Pella season, the fate of Dr. Robert Smith’s beloved endeavor was grim – but this isn’t the end of our Pella story.

And with that, I just want to thank you all for listening to the continuation of PellaPod and shoutout our other social media, on which we’ve had some super cool updates on the most recent steps we’re taking with this journey. Our Instagram is @pellawooster, and our TikTok is @pella.wooster. As with last episode, we have some of our resources in the show notes, and tune in to our next episodes to learn more about Dr. Smith’s next steps in his journey with Pella, and Wooster’s return to Pella after the Six Day War.

---

PellaPod can be found on our Soundcloud, Pella @ Wooster.

Resources:
1964 Pella Proposal (College of Wooster Special Collections)
1966 Pella Proposal (College of Wooster Special Collections)
Pella: Return to Oblivion (College of Wooster Special Collections)
Newspaper clipping of Robert Smith (College of Wooster Special Collections)

Music:
Adventure, Darling by Gillicuddy, accessed through the Free Music Archive and licensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Germany License

Transcript:

Hello everyone, and welcome to PellaPod, a podcast dedicated to sharing information about the Pella at Wooster project. My name is Leo Daoud, and I am a sophomore research assistant in the Museum Studies department and I’ll be hosting today’s episode, which will be an introduction to the project and its goals, as well as a brief overview of our main events and characters. To do that, I’d like to first pass it off to Dr. Beth Derderian, who is an assistant professor in both the anthropology and museum studies departments, as well as Dr. Siavash Samei, visiting assistant professor of archeology, anthropology, and MENA studies, who will put everything in context for us.

“The news blew up recently when someone leaked that the British Museum was thinking about returning the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. Repatriation has become a huge issue recently, as there is a growing awareness of the systemic problems inherent in the troubling, even violent history of museum collections. According to the Sarr-Savoy Report, for example, 90-95% of ALL Africa’s cultural heritage is in European museums. 
This issue is not just limited to well-known objects like the Parthenon Marbles or the Benin Bronzes and extends to lesser-known collections in art and natural history museums across Europe and North America. While museums are increasingly moving toward repatriation, the motivations behind their decisions and the processes of repatriation are rarely shared with the public. It is also unclear exactly what these museums have, how much of it they have, what is the history of the objects in their collections, and who and how one can access them for research or reclamation. Museums rarely talk about these issues.”

“So four of us at the COW in Ohio  – Dr. Beth Derderian, Dr. Olivia Navarro-Farr, Dr. Siavash Samei, and Dr. Marianne Wardle– started a project to work on this question of transparency, repatriation, and the difficulties of working with inherited collections. We are working on a legacy collection from the archaeological site of Pella in modern Jordan. Pella is an ancient city that has been inhabited since the Neolithic era, about 6000 BCE, and until the Middle Ages. Former religious studies professor at COW Robert Smith excavated Pella between 1967 and 1985. The collection is mostly ceramics but also includes metal objects, human remains, and accompanying documents, correspondences, field notes, and reports. Smith’s collection now sits in various parts of the College following his retirement. This includes the archaeology lab the archives, the library’s Special Collections, and the College art museum’s storage.

The goals of P@W are simple:  to fully catalogue the collection and make that database public, and to start a public conversation around the history of these objects, and the processes and motivations behind Wooster’s involvement in Jordanian antiquities. Through our work, we are still learning much about the collection, and we are also engaging students in this, hoping to mentor a new generation of ethically minded archaeologists and museum practitioners. We are also documenting every step of our project and the dilemmas and challenges we face working with this collection.”

As Dr. Samei has just said, this podcast is part of these public conversations that we believe are necessary in improving the ethics of archeological and museum practices, as well as our other public facing work such as the pellawooster Instagram, and pella.wooster TikTok accounts.

Now to elaborate on some of the things that the professors have touched on. Professor Robert Smith is the guy that this story circles around, as he was the lead in proposing and executing the logistics of the excavation, and later played a role in revamping the way that the items collected were stored. At the time of the project’s inception, the college actually didn’t have any programs or professors dedicated specifically to the study of archeology, with Robert Smith himself being part of the religious studies department. However, Smith did have previous experience studying archeology at ASOR (which was then the American School of Oriental Research à and is now Overseas Research) in Jerusalem. Smith participated in archeological excavations from 1959-64 in Jordan and Palestine, overlapping with the end of his doctoral studies and early into his time teaching at the College of Wooster. At Wooster, Smith taught a class about Biblical archeology. Another professor, Sibyl Gould, from the art department, also had field experience in cataloguing and repairing pottery.

The College had formed an Archeological Advisory Committee, which worked towards the success of this expedition, and was headed by Dean Garber Drushal. Dr. Arthur Baird, then head of the religious studies department, had made a comment about wanting an excavation led by the college to the Holy Land in 1964. It was then that Smith joined the team, as well as Eugene Tanner, another religious studies professor, Vivian Holliday from Greek and Latin, Donald Mackenzie from the arts, and a Mr. G.T. Smith from the Development Department.

Professors in these various disciplines believed that this would be an asset to their studies, and would meet the needs of their students who wanted to acquire field experience. This is especially because archeology is inherently a pretty interdisciplinary endeavor, and would offer a wide range of opportunities for involvement and future development for the college. This includes an increased range of objects for display, and opportunities for classroom or research use, which is especially important considering our culture surrounding senior Independent Study, and the participation of students in research. This culture is still apparent and has even very recently driven the creation of interdisciplinary positions at the college. This includes the museum studies department that the Pella project has come out of, and my job as a student research assistant. There was an element of competition as well, as other comparable schools like Haverford and Wheaton had already successfully completed their own expeditions.

Pella was chosen as a site because of its legacy as one of the ten cities that was part of “The Decapolis,” a name that referred to prominent commercial cities that were part of the Roman empire. The city persisted through the Byzantine period and part of the Middle Ages, making it an incredibly rich location. Additionally, as you may have guessed from Dr. Baird’s initial interest in the Holy Land, and the number of professors involved with a religious background, the potential for the advancement of Biblical archeology was an important factor. The professors’ study of previous literature led them to believe that Jesus preached in Pella, and that his followers settled there when they left Jerusalem. On the topic, Baird says that “while Old Testament sites have been excavated in considerable numbers in Palestine, with a corresponding diminution of returns, New Testament and early Christian sites have been generally neglected.”

Not to mention, Jordan was simply a more cost-effective location. As an added bonus, Smith had befriended the director of the Jordanian Ministry of Antiquities and their relationship facilitated the issuing of the College’s excavation permits in 1965.
Though there was cross-departmental interest in archeology, it’s important to keep in mind the College of Wooster’s legacy as a Presbyterian affiliated school. The formation of the committee in 1964 by the recommendation of a religious studies professor, and Smith as a religious studies professor becoming director, both happened before the college became non-sectarian in 1969. This is a testament to the power of the religious studies department at the time, which explains the context around the strong Christian values present in the goals of the excavation, and possibly even the success that Smith had in funding such an ambitious project.

Smith anticipated a first phase that involved preliminary investigation of the site and the publication of initial results, a second phase involving around 3 seasons of field excavation in earnest, and a third phase dedicated to the publication and distribution of findings. An estimate of 75K was expected to be spent during these phases, though this was a conservative budget, as it was expected to cover the expenses of multiple seasons’ worth of travel expenses, hiring outside specialists, equipment, shipping back of artifacts, and more. However, this was not to be part of regular expenses for the college, and instead provided for by special gifts and grants. Smith was able to secure funding from—among others—the National Geographic, the National Endowment for Human Research, and the Great Lakes College Association, allowing work to continue until 1985.

Currently, mostly intact pieces from the excavation are housed in CWAM collections, with pottery fragments being placed in the archeology lab. Paper documentation, including maps and photographs, have been placed in yet another location, in COW Special Collections under the jurisdiction of librarian Denise Monbarren. Though there is a wealth of information that Smith and his team recorded, the spread of these materials is part of what makes puzzling out a complete story about the Pella excavation difficult. This is especially so as most of the people involved have left Wooster, and have unfortunately passed away in the past few years, making it difficult to draw on their knowledge. These factors are exactly why this process has focused so much on inventory and interviewing those who were at the college at the time.

Trying to build transparency and bridges with these items’ country of origin is impossible to do without having a coherent history to trace, and even compromises the original goals of the excavation as a basis for which others can complete research. We’d love to have you along for our journey navigating this information, which you can catch here on PellaPod or on our previously mentioned socials: Instagram @pellawooster or TikTok @pella.wooster. Further information on what I’ve covered in the podcast regarding our sources can also be found in our show notes. Thanks for listening!