Research

Curtis Runnels Papers

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

Collection Number: GR ASCSA CR 113
Name(s) of Creator(s): Curtis Runnels (1950 - )
Title: Curtis Runnels Papers
Date [bulk]: 1975-2003
Date [inclusive]:1830-2003
Language(s): English
Summary: This is a growing body of archival material that contains the personal archaeological papers of Curtis Runnels, as well as a collection of items of interest to its creator, whose main interests lie in Modern Greek history, as well as the history of American Archaeology in Greece. 
Quantity: 
Immediate Source of Acquisition: Gift of Curtis Runnels, 2006, 2008, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023.
Information about Access: The collection is available for research after consultation with the Archivist.

For more information, please contact the Archives:
The American School of Classical Studies at Athens
54 Souidias Street, Athens 106 76, Greece
phone: 213-000-2400 (ext. 425)
Contact via E-mail

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Curtis Runnels is Professor of Archaeology, Anthropology, and Classical Studies at Boston University.  He has conducted research in Greece and neighboring regions in the eastern Mediterranean (e.g., Albania and Turkey) since 1973 on a wide range of subjects ranging from the early Palaeolithic occupation of the region, to the origins of agriculture, and the emergence of warfare in the Neolithic. In addition, Runnels has been an editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology,  Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Senior Associate Member at the American School of Classical Studies. In 2019, he was awarded the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement by the Archaeological Institute of America.

CONTENT LIST

Series I: Archaeological Papers

Note: The # numbers were given by Curtis Runnels

BOX 1 Personal Papers and Dissertation

Folder 1

  • #1. Notebook dated 1975 with word lists and ethnographic notes on the manufacture of flaked glass tools by Greek woodworkers made while CR was a graduate student at Indiana University. 8 x 13 cm. About 40 unnumbered pages.
  • #6. Notebook dated 1981. Post PhD research while CR was at Stanford University. Includes the Southern Argolid Survey, Paleolithic sites, and lithics. It has a table of contents. 17 x 25 cm. 158 pages.
  • #7. Notebook dated 1986 with a table of contents and notes on travel in Greece while CR was at Stanford University. 13 x 20 cm. 66 pages.
  • #9. Map of Corfu (1984) noting places investigated by Augustus Sordinas with Paleolithic artifacts, which were visited with Sordinas when CR was looking for a place to do Paleolithic research.

Folder 2

  • #17. Folder with [15] photographs documenting the use of flaked glass tools in the manufacture of a carved wooden shepherd’s crook (glitsa) by Ioannis Seretis of Didyma village, Argolid, in the 1970s when CR was a graduate student at Indiana University and doing research on glass toolmaking by Greek woodworkers and other crafters. Photos in four 24 x 27 cm sleeves.
  • #37. (Albania). Notebook (disbound) and undated (but 1996) with notes on CR’s trip to southern Albania to examine sites in the company of Muzafer Korkuti (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania). 15 x 21 cm. page 119 to 140.
  • #49. Five notebooks dated 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2016 and labeled Crete or Greece. Field notes on the Plakias Survey and observations in Mochlos Bay. 9 x 14 cm.

Folder 3

  • #2. Dissertation. Notebook dated 1976 with notes on proposed PhD dissertation research on ground stone tools (querns and millstones) while CR was at Indiana University. Also contains ethnographic notes on glass toolmaking. 10 x 15 cm. 91 pages.
  • #3. Dissertation. Notebook dated 1977-1978 with notes on PhD dissertation research, a trip in the Peloponnese, and ethnographic notes on the stoneworker Ioannis Maltezos on Aigina who quarried and crafted olive crusher stone wheels using traditional methods. 10 x 15 cm. 112 pages.
  • #4. Dissertation. Notebook dated 1978 with notes on ground stone technologies. 10 x 15 cm. 195 pages.
  • #5. Dissertation. Notebook (PhD dissertation) dated 1977. Notes on research on ground stone tools and ethnographic observations. This notebook has an index that also covers notebooks date 1975, 1976, 1966-1978. 17 x 25 cm. 195 pages.

BOX 2 Dissertation

Folder 1

  • #41. Dissertation. PhD dissertation  archive. Original photographic plates illustrating CR’s dissertation. 24 x 31cm. Multiple unnumbered pages.
  • #42. Dissertation. Binder with petrographic thin sections utilized in the analyses of ground stone raw materials (prepared by IGME, Athens) for CR’s dissertation. 23 x 29 cm. Unnumbered pages.

Folder 2

  • #43. Dissertation. Notebook dated 1977-1979 with notes on CR’s PhD dissertation fieldwork (exploration for raw material sources, visits to museum collections), and ethnographic descriptions of quarries on Poros and Aigina (including notes on Maltezos the stoneworker). 20 x 25 cm. 75 pages.  
  • #44. Dissertation. File folder dated 1977-1979 with fieldwork notes for CR’s PhD dissertation (same subjects as found in item 43). Loose pages in folder.
  • #45. Dissertation. Folder with [18] contact prints of photographs taken for CR’s PhD dissertation research. Images are identified on the back of the sheets. Negatives apparently lost.
  • #47. Dissertation. Archival box with petrographic thin sections (slides) made by the IGME lab in Athens to document raw materials used for querns and millstones in CR’s PhD dissertation. Original hand samples of rock types used to manufacture querns and millstones from the Mesolithic to early Modern times that were collected from sites such as Aigina, Poros, Methana, Melos, and Nisyros in 1977-1978 for CR’s PhD dissertation research are stored in the Fitch Laboratory of the British School at Athens. 10 x 10 x 4 cm box.

BOX 3 Surveys

Folder 1

  • #8. Berbati-Limnes. Notebook dated 1989 with notes on the Berbati-Limnes Survey (1989-1991) with the Swedish Institute at Athens. CR was an associate director of the survey. 12 x 18 cm. 93 pages.
  • #8a. A file folder with a list of the archival materials deposited with the Swedish Institute at Athens. One page in folder.
  • #10. Argolid Survey. File folder with correspondence (2004) concerning the Southern Argolid Survey (Stanford University, 1979-1983). 2 pages in folder.
  • #11. Argolid Survey. Notebook dated 1980 for the Southern Argolid Survey. 17 x 24cm. 39 pages.

Folder 2

  • #12. Argolid Survey. Notebook without a date, but 1980s for the Southern Argolid Survey. 20 x 26 cm. 78 pages.
  • #13. Argolid Survey. Notebook dated 1982 for the Southern Argolid Survey. 20 x 25 cm. 34 pages.
  • #14. Argolid Survey. Notebook without a date, but 1980s, with records of lithic artifacts from the Southern Argolid Survey.  16 x 23 cm. 33 pages.

Folder 3

  • #15. Argolid Survey. Notebook dated 1982 (missing cover) with notes on lithic artifacts from the Southern Argolid Survey. 18 x 24 cm. 105 pages.
  • #16. Argolid Survey. Folder with lithic artifact recording forms from the Southern Argolid Survey. 23 x 32 cm. Loose pages.

Folder 4

  • #18. Thessaly Survey. Notebook recording lithic artifacts from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey of the Peneios River, Thessaly, carried out from 1987 to 1991. 19 x 24 cm. 97 pages.
  • #19. Thessaly Survey. Notebook with notes on the Takis Tloupas’ collection of Palaeolithic artifacts in Larissa, Thessaly in the 1980s (when CR was at Stanford). Tloupas is the noted photographer. 19 x 25 cm. 19 pages.

Folder 5

  • #20. Thessaly Survey. Notebook dated 1991 with site descriptions from the Palaeolothic and Mesolithic Survey of Thessaly. 19 x 25 cm. 45 pages.
  • #21. Thessaly Survey. Notebook (undated) with table of contents, with material from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey of Thessaly. 20 x 25 cm. 217 pages.

BOX 4 Surveys

Folder 1

  • #22. Thessaly Survey. File folder with documents (e.g. permit copies) from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey of Thessaly. 23 x 30 cm. Loose papers.
  • #23. Thessaly Survey. Large portfolio with maps, original photographs, and line drawings of lithic artifacts from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey of Thessaly. 27 x 35 cm. Loose papers.

Folder 2

  • #24. Thessaly Survey. Notebook (undated) with table of contents, with notes on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Survey of Thessaly. 11 x 16 cm. 28 pages.
  • #25. Nikopolis Survey. Notebook 1991 with notes on the first season of the Nikopolis Survey, Preveza, Epirus,  Boston University, carried out from 1991 to 1995, on the plans for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic research. Records discovery of handaxe at Kokkinopilos. Two notebooks with the formal records of the Palaeolithic/Mesolithic research for this survey are stored with the James R. Wiseman archives at Boston University in the Archaeology Program (as of 2021). Memoranda detailing the obligations of BU to curate the Wiseman archive is filed with the program office. Copies of the Wiseman memoranda are filed also with the Office of Faculty Actions in the College of Arts and Sciences, Boston University. 10 x 15 cm. 210 pages.
  • #26. Nikopolis Survey. Notebook dated 1993 with study notes on Palaeolithic artifacts and sites from the Nikopolis Survey. 16 x 24 cm. 78 pages.
  • #27. Nikopolis Survey. Notebook dated 1992 or 1993 with notes made in the University of Cambraidge (UK) on a dating program (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) for the Palaeolithic sites on the Nikopolis survey. 16 x 20 cm. Unnumbered pages.

Folder 3

  • #28. Nikopolis Survey. Notebook dated 1995 with notes on Mesolithic stone tools from the Mesolithic survey. 12 x 19 cm. 105 pages.
  • #29. Nikopolis Survey. Large portfolio (undated) with maps, original line drawings, and photographs from the published Palaeolithic sites of Spilaion, Kokkinopolis and other Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites from the Nikopolis survey. 27 x 34 cm. Loose pages.
  • #30. Bosphorus Survey. Notebook dated 1997-1998 with notes on the study of Palaeolithic artifacts at Istanbul University, Turkey, from a survey of the Bosphorus area by Mehmet Ozdogan in the late 1980s. 27 x 34 cm. 153 pages.

BOX 5 Surveys

Folder 1

  • #31. Bosphorus Survey. Notebook (undated) with notes on the Bosphorus Palaeolithic survey artifacts (ca. 1998). 14 x 21 cm. 43 pages.
  • #32. Bosphorus Survey. Notebook dated 1998 with notes on lithics from two surveys, Ozdogan’s Bosphorus survey, and Palaeolithic artifacts from the Langada survey in Macedonia, Greece, directed by Kostas Kotsakis and Stelios Andreou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. 20 x 25 cm. 64 pages.

Folder 2

  • #33. Bosphorus Survey. Folder/portfolio with original line drawings of lithics and photographs for the Bosphorus Palaeolithic survey; also contains a file folder with materials on the site of Goksu in Istanbul provided by Art Jelinek of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Jelinek’s study of the site was in the 1960s. 27 x 33 cm. Loose pages.

Folder 3

  • #34. Langadas Survey. File folder ca 1998–1999 with original line drawings of Paleolithic lithic artifacts, photographs, and copies of reports on the artifacts from the Langadas survey, Macedonia, Greece prepared for Kostas Kotsakis and Stelios Andreou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Copies of these materials were deposited with the survey directors in Thessaloniki. Loose pages.

Folder 4

  • #35. Corfu. Notebook dated 1984 with notes on Paleolithic sites on Corfu studied by Augustus Sordinas, including reported lithics on the east coast of Corfu. 20 x 26 cm. 39 pages.
  • #36. Mallakastra Survey. Notebook dated 2003 with notes on CR’s participation in the survey of Mallakastra  and Apollonia in southern Albania directed by Jack L. Davis (University of Cincinnati) and Muzafer Korkuti (Institute of Archaeology, Tirana Albania). Details of the study of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic artifacts for publication were deposited in the archives of the directors of the project. 9 x 14 cm. 45 pages.
  • #38. Kandia Survey. Notebook dated 2003 with director’s notes on the Mesolithic Survey of Kandia (Argolid) co-directed with Eleni Panagopoulou (Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Athens). 9 x 14 cm. 36 pages.
  • #39. Argolid Mesolithic. Notebook dated 2007 with a record of CR’s return to the Southern Argolid Survey storerooms in Porto Cheli, Argolid to re-examine lithics from the survey to identify Mesolithic sites for publication. 9 x 14 cm. Unnumbered.

Folder 5

  • #46. Kolonna, Aigina. File dated 1982 with notes, drawings, a report, and correspondence relating to querns from the first Austrian excavations at Kolonna on Aigina by Gabriel Welter. CR was asked to study and prepare a report on these materials from the G. Welter excavations by Franz  Felten. This was done and the report submitted to the Austrian excavators in the 1970s–1980s but remains unpublished by them. A-4 pages.
  • #48. Thessaly Survey. File folder with original line drawings of lithic artifacts and photomechanical transfers (PMTs) from the 1987–1991 Palaeolithic and Mesolithic survey of the Peneios River, Thessaly. A list keying the artifacts to findspots on the survey map (map in item 23) has not been found. Some of these images appear in the publications of the survey results in the Journal of Field Archaeology (1988 and 1993; see CV). The remaining images include pieces from the collection of Takis Tloupas the noted photographer in Larissa, and all other pieces were found (like Tloupas’ collections) at findspots along the Peneios River in secondary deposits dated to ca. 44–30 kyr. All the artifacts pictured in these images belong to the same archaeological culture. Artifacts are housed in the Larissa Archaeological Museum. A-4 pages.

BOX 6 Slides

Four archival boxes (40 a-b) with Kodachrome slides taken by CR from ca. 1976 to 2008 documenting original research. These slides document sites from different projects and surveys, as well as artifacts and topics such as the stone working done by Maltezos on Aigina, who also made the replica millstones for the cargo of the experimental ship Kyrenia II constructed  by Michael and Susan Katzev). Boxes are organized by project (labelled) and individual slides are identified.

  • Slide box 40a: Nikopolis Survey, Kandia Survey.
  • Slide box 40b: Thessaly Survey, Berbati Survey, Lerna, Corfu, Melos.
  • Slide box 40c: Aigina/Poros (dissertation), 1970 Technology, Franchithi Cave.
  • Slide box 40d: Argolid Survey, Macedonia Palaeolithic. 

Series II: History of Modern Greece

Box 1

Folder 1 [flat storage]
Archive of New England newspapers (10 items) relating to the Greek War of Independence and other news from Greece (in chronological order).

  • --The Salem Gazette, Friday Morning, Juy 27, 1821. Vol. XXXV, no. 60.
  • --Connecticut Courant, Hartford, Tuesday, August 20, 1822. Vol. LVIII, no. 3004 (article about the Chios Massacre)
  • --Boston Recorder, Congress Street, Boston, Saturday, September 21, 1822. Vol. VII, no. 38 (article titled "Egypt. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Pliny Fisk, on his return from Egypt to Malta"
  • --New Hampshire Gazette, Portsmouth, Tuesday, October 22, 1822. Vol. LXVII, no. 48 (article titled "The Greek Victory.")
  • --Salem Observer, Court Street, Salem, Mass[achussets], Saturday Morning, April 10, 1824. Vol. II, no. 15 (Article titled "Description of a Grecian Temple: Recently Discovered Under-ground near the Ciy of Corfu, in the Ionian Islands."
  • --Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, March 31, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 21 (Article titled "Good News from Greece.")
  • --Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, June 23, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 25. (Article titled "Missolonghi Fallen!")
  • --Boston Recorder and Telegraph, Congress Street, Boston, Massachussets, Friday, June 30, 1826. Vol. XI, no. 26. (Article titled "More Greek Youth.")
  • --New_Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette, Concord, New-Hampshire, Monday, December 31, 1827. Vo. XIX, no. 978. (Article titled "The Turkish ad Egyptian Fleet Destroyed.")
  • --United States' Telegraph, Washington City, Tuesday, January 12, 1830. Vol. V,  no.4

Folder 2
Letter from the Swedish Ambassador in Constantinople to Sir Stratford Canning (1786-1880), written on December 8, 1827, in relation to the repercussions of the Battle of Navarino (1827).

Folder 3
Packet of letters by and from Michael Iatros, Nauplion, 23 items, ca. 1851-1858. Iatros was city counselor of Nauplion in the time of Ioannis Kapodistrias and King Otto. He played a part in the 1862 rising of the Nauplion garrison that led to King Otto's abdication.

Folder 4
Panorama of Athens, ca. 1836, titled "ATHENS. Published under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. From the Authorities of Colonel Leake and C.R. Cockerell Esq[i]re." Scale 1/4 of a Mile.

Folder 5
Ten cabinet photographs of Athens, ca. 1875-1878.
-01. Πανόραμα Αθηνών - Panorama d' Athènes [from Mount Lycabettus]
-02. Πανόραμα Αθηνών - Panorama d' Athènes [from the Acropolis)
-03. Ακρόπολις - Acropole [from the southeast]
-04. Καρυάτιδες - Caryatides
-05. Ναός Αιόλου και Αγορά - Temple d' Éole avec l' Agora
-06. Θησείον - Temple de Thesée
-07. Θέατρον Ηρώδου του Αττικού - Théatre d' Herode Atticus
-08. Ναός Ολυμπίου Διός - Temple de Jupiter
-09. Ακαδημία - Academie
-10. Έλληνες στρατιώται - Soldats grecs

Folder 6
Map of Greece, ca. 1870s, titled "ΧΑΡΤΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΕΚ ΤΟΥ ΑΤΛΑΝΤΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΗΡ. ΛΑΖΑΡΙΔΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΣ"

Folder 7
Four manuscripts which once belonged to William Jenks (1778-1866), a minister, and a professor at Bowdoin College, and the author of the Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Biblie (1835-1838). Three of the manuscripts dated in 1818 are related to Nikolaos Tziklitiras, a native of Navarino (modern Pylos) in the Peloponnese and originally a merchant who moved to Boston where he taught Greek. The fourth manuscript is a letter to Ioanni Zygomala (Chiote) from his mother (1830).   

Folder 8
Three colored postcards from the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922
-01. "Ο Ελληνοτουρκικός Πόλεμος 1912-1913. Ο λόχος των Κοζανιτών φυλάσσων τα λάφυρα". Photo Copyright by "Atlantis", Inc., Station E., New York. Printed in Germany.
-02. "Η Κατάληψις της Σμύρνης".  "Atlas," 25 Madison St. - New York. Printed in England.
-03. "Η Ελλάς εν Σμύρνη". "Atlas," 25 Madison St. - New York. Printed in England.

Folder 9
Postcard, black and white, depicting Heinrich Schliemann's house in Athens. On the front: ΑΘΗΝΑΙ. ΙΛΙΟΥ ΜΕΛΑΘΡΟΝ. ATHENES. PALAIS D' ILION. 54. Handwritten: Madame Schliemann. On the back: ΕΛΛΑΣ - GRECE. ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΕΛΤΑΡΙΟΝ. ΠΑΓΚΟΣΜΙΟΣ ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΙΚΟΣ ΣΥΝΔΕΣΜΟΣ. CARTE POSTALE. Union universelle des Postes.

Autograph of Heinrich Schliemann dated in 1869, found in a Greek Lexicon (now at the Gennadius Library) belonging perhaps to one of the guests at Schliemann's wedding. Read also: Who Went to Schliemann's Wedding?

Note
For a gift of a letter by John Gennadius to Lady Katherine Monkswell (?), see Joannes Gennadius Papers, Box 6, folder 1

Series III:  History of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Folder 10
Three items relating to the Director and Members of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
--Herbert Wing's identity card for use in the Greek Railways (20 September 1913) - Φύλλον ταυτότητας του Χ. Ουιγγ. Εταιρία των Σιδηροδρόμων Περιαώς-Αθηνών-Πελοποννήσου, 20 Σεπτεμβρίου 1913. [Herbert Wing was Regular Member in 1913-1914]
--Postcard depicting the American School of Classical Studies, from Director Bert Hodge Hill to Katherine Greene (εις το ατμόπλοιο Ισμήνη), 16 January 1913
--Postcard from Arthur S[toddard] Cooley to Amos R. Wells, Athens April 2, 1933. Cooley (1869-1956) was a member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1897-1899.

Folder 11
Art sketchbook (82 pages) with watercolors depicting scenes in Crete and other places of Greece (Mykonos, Ios) in 1905; some later sketches date in 1915. It has been argued that it might have belonged to Charles Henry Hawes, husband of archaeologist Harriet Boyd. See The Cretan Idyl of Harriet Boyd and Charles Henry Hawes and The Cretan Enigma.

Folder 12
About 68 black and white snapshots from Greece (Athens,Corinth, Delphi, Samos, Rhodes) depicting antiquities but also refugees (1922-1923).

Note
For material relating to Harold N. Fowler, member of the ASCSA in 1882-1883, (a notebook entitled "Trip in the Peloponnesos. April 14th-30th 1883"; a preprint of an article by Fowler entitled "The Temple on the Acropolis Burnt by the Persians," AJA 1893; and one typescript page "Memories of the Founding of the Archaeological Institute of America" by Harold North Fowler), see the Harold N. Fowler Papers.