MARIA C. SHAW BECOMES SIXTH BRYN MAWR GRAD TO WIN
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA 'S TOP HONOR

At its annual meeting in Montreal early this month, the Archaeological Institute of America awarded its Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement to Maria Coutroubaki Shaw, Ph.D. '67, and her husband and excavation partner, Joseph W. Shaw. Maria Shaw, a scholar of Minoan wall painting who taught at the University of Toronto and since 1976 has supervised excavations at the village of Kommos in Crete, is the sixth Bryn Mawr alumna to win the award since it was instituted in 1965; two other laureates were Bryn Mawr faculty members.

Born in Egypt to Greek parents, Maria C. Shaw began her education in Cairo and completed a B.A. at American University of Cairo in 1960 before traveling to Bryn Mawr for graduate training. Her interest in wall painting, she says, was sparked by two legendary members of the Bryn Mawr faculty: Professor Emeritus of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Machteld Mellink and Paul Shorey Professor Emeritus of Greek Mabel Lang. She cites Rhys Carpenter Professor Emerita of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway as "an inspiring scholar and wonderful teacher," as well.

The AIA's award citation characterizes Shaw as "a leading expert on Minoan and Mycenaean wall painting" and the author of "ground-breaking studies on subjects ranging from Aegean-Egyptian interconnections to representations of natural landscapes in Aegean frescoes to the reconstruction of civic life in Crete."

The citation praises the scholarly contributions of each of the Shaws individually, but makes special note of their work together at Kommos, a Minoan and post-Minoan town on the south coast of Crete, where they "not only made significant discoveries that illuminated both Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations on Crete, but they proceeded promptly to publish both preliminary and final reports on the site." The Shaws have overseen the publication by Princeton University Press of a series of volumes on various aspects of the site that, according to the AIA, "number among the most important recent publications on Crete in North America." Kommos, the citation continues, "has emerged as a major emporium for trade moving into and out of the Aegean with contacts both to the east and to the west. The post-Minoan sanctuary at the site is recognized as a link between Phoenician and Greek cultures during a formative period of the classical world."

Bryn Mawr Professor and Chair of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology James C. Wright received some of his training at the Kommos site. He describes the Shaws as "models of responsible archaeological excavation," not only in their tireless efforts to make their findings available to scholars and students around the world, but in their "seamless integration of their excavation team into the village." Says Wright: "It was very important for us to realize that we couldn't just swoop in as experts, disrupt the local people's lives and then leave."

"We made wonderful friends in Kommos," Shaw says. "Of course, we hired local people to help with the excavations, and we met their families, because the people there are very hospitable and kind, and we grew very close. But we also made outreach efforts. We gave talks in the town about our findings, for instance, and we invited schoolchildren to our dig."

A major accomplishment of the Kommos project is the Shaws' marshaling of top scholars in many areas of expertise to work on the project and contribute to their publications. Much of the site's significance lies in its illumination of Bronze Age trade patterns. As a maritime center, Kommos held fragments of pottery from all over the ancient world, and the Shaws were careful to recruit scholars competent to work with ceramics of each of the varied periods and points of origin represented. "We had what we called the 'strange and wonderful box,' which is where we put any piece of pottery we excavated that we couldn't identify. Whenever someone with expertise in foreign pottery came by, we'd ask for help with the strange and wonderful box," Shaw says. "We tried all means at our disposal to get help from the international community of archaeologists."

Shaw is deeply committed to making all information about the excavation public and as accessible as possible. "It is important to make this information available to future generations of scholars, who might advance theories that are different from ours." The Shaws have scanned all of their books — as well as the daily records of the excavation, known as "day books" — and plan to make them available on the Internet through a University of Toronto server.

"I have stayed in touch with Bryn Mawr over the years, through lectures, conferences and contact with scholars," Shaw says. "I have never stopped admiring the passion for academic excellence that permeates the whole establishment and the faculty's enthusiasm for teaching."

Previous winners of the AIA's Gold Medal from Bryn Mawr:

• 1966 - Hetty Goldman, A.B. 1903, was the leading female archaeologist in Greece and Turkey in the early 20th century. She was the first female professor in the school of historical studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
  
• 1969 - Rhys Carpenter established classical and Near Eastern Architecture as an independent department at Bryn Mawr in 1914. Famous among both archaeologists and art historians for his work on Greek sculpture, he directed the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and founded its journal, Hesperia.
  
• 1977 - Lucy Shoe Meritt, '27, Ph.D. '35, did pathbreaking work on the study of architectural moldings on Greek, Roman and Etruscan buildings. Her careful classification of these theretofore-neglected architectural details was invaluable in establishing dates for many buildings and revealing the ways architectural motifs are transmitted from one place to another.
  
• 1987 - Dorothy Burr Thompson, '23, Ph.D. '31, did groundbreaking work on ancient terracotta figurines and was the first female Fellow of the Athenian Agora excavations. In 1936, she discovered the garden of the Temple of Hephaistos and became an expert on garden lore not only of early Greece but of Babylon, Egypt and Italy as well.
  
• 1988 - Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Ph.D. '58, was a disciple of Rhys Carpenter who transformed the study of Hellenistic sculpture by focusing on original works rather than a combination of textual sources and Roman copies, an approach that had resulted in many erroneous attributions and dates; as a corollary, she pioneered the study of Roman copies as art objects in their own right. She served as the editor of The American Journal of Archaeology.
  
• 1989 - Virginia R. Grace, '22, Ph.D. '34, vastly increased the understanding of economic exchange in the ancient world through her study of ceramic transport vessels.
  
• 1991 - Machteld Mellink joined Bryn Mawr's faculty in 1949. She was cited by the AIA as "'Dean' of American excavators in Turkey, preeminent scholar of Anatolian cultures, tireless defender of 'the Record of the Past' and of ethics in archaeology." She served as president of the AIA between 1980 and 1984.

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