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!