FIVE-YEAR REPORT (199l-1996)*

*For a full discussion of the history of PASP through 1990 and a fuller description of its aims and resources, cf. T.G. Palaima. “Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory: 5-Year Report on the Activities of the PASP at the University of Texas at Austin (1988-1991),” in J.P. Olivier ed., Mykenaika (BCH Suppl. 25: Paris 1992) pp 643-648.

PASP will be host of the 11th International Mycenological Colloquium in the year 2000.

The Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory is a graduate research program in the Department of Classics at University of Texas at Austin, the largest Classics program in the United States. The department itself has specialists in papyrology (Martinez); numismatics (Kroll); Greek epigraphy and the history of Crete (Perlman); early Greek law and legal inscriptions (Gagarin); sculpture and Italian/Greek colonial archaeology (Carter); Etruscan art history (Edlund-Berry); Mycenaean pottery, Linear B, field survey and Greek prehistory (Shelmerdine); Mycenology (Emmett L. Bennett, Jr.); and Homer (Cook). In addition other departments have experts in Roman wall painting and Roman sculpture (Clarke and Davies in Art History); Near Eastern archaeology (Schmandt-Besserat in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies); Hittite language and culture (Kimball in English; Polomé, emeritus in Oriental and African Languages; Justus in the Center for Linguistic Research and Classics); Indo-European Studies (Win Lehman at the Center for Linguistic Research) and other fields such as the inscriptions, language and religion of India (Schopen) and Mayan scripts and culture (Schele in Art History).

PASP contains a very full archives of 1:1-scale photographs of Aegean and Cypriote inscriptions. These are systematically filed. In order to do research on Mycenaean/Minoan/Cypriote texts, PASP has its own reference library, an extensive offprint collection going back to the turn of the century, microfilm of the Pylos and Knossos excavation notebooks, and selected original papers of scholars like Alice Kober, Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., and Michael Ventris. PASP has photocopies of such materials as the correspondence of Arne Furumark, the memoirs of Carl Blegen, the Beattie seminars.

PASP is extremely grateful for the cooperative exchange of books and journals which the following institutes and journals have worked out with it: Ziva Antika, the Institute of Classical Studies University of London, and the Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici.

PASP does not grant its own degrees, but provides graduate students in the UT program who are receiving broad training in all areas of Classical civilization with the opportunity to do specialized research at a high level in areas of Aegean and eastern Mediterranean prehistory and archaeology pertaining to inscribed or marked materials. PASP thus serves as the prehistoric complement to the Institute of Classical Archaeology, a longstanding program of excavation and interdisciplinary research in southern Italy and now the Crimea directed by Professor Joseph Carter. The department grants graduate degrees in Classics with specialization in archaeology. Prospective graduate applicants should consult the materials sent by the department’s graduate adviser for degree requirements. Given the focus of PASP, basic knowledge of Greek and Latin is required of all students. Strong applicants in archaeology in the past have been able to acquire this knowledge during the course of graduate training. The department has long offered successful intensive summer courses in both languages, and most requirements are flexible.

The department of Classics offers regular graduate support in the form of assistantships and the university offers first-year preemptive fellowships to people according to a formula based on GRE scores. Two assistantships are reserved for work in PASP. PASP offers supplemental summer fellowships (currently an unrestricted stipend of $1,500) to one or two students who have an interest in working in some area which it covers.

PASP also encourages shorter-term visits by senior scholars or graduate students at any level (especially foreign students) who can make good use of its resources. PASP can provide some financial help with transportation and lodging. Planning as much in advance as possible maximizes the likelihood of receiving some form of financial help. During the period 1991-96 some of the longer-term visitors have included:

PASP also organizes frequent lectures, conferences and colloquia. From 1991 to 1996, PASP held two major meetings of scholars. A conference in December, 1993 on “Kingship and the Organization of Power in Greek Society” brought together as participants: Robert Stieglitz [Rutgers], Raphael Sealey [UC Berkeley], Carol Thomas [University of Washington], Pierre Carlier [Université de Nancy], Carin Green [University of Iowa], Hal Haskell [Southwestern University], John Lenz [Texas A&M], Kent Reilly [Southwest Texas State University], and from various departments at UT Austin: Kevin Cauley, Michael Gagarin, Peter Green, Greta Ham, Sara Kimball, Jackie Long, Tom Palaima, Cynthia Shelmerdine. A smaller colloquium in September, 1991 focused on trade in Mycenaean palatial culture. Participants were Robert Laffineur [University of Liège], Eric Cline [California State University at Fresno], Fred Hocker [Institute of Nautical Archaeology], Shelley Wachsmann [Institute of Nautical Archaeology], Leah Himinelhoch [PASP] and Nicolle Hirschfeld [PASP]. Many of these papers have been published in Minos 25-26. (1990-91).

Among many scholars who have given talks with PASP funding during this period are: the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project team, Jonathan Shay, John Killen, Michael Cosmopoulos, Nanno Marinatos, Soren Dietz, Nikolai Kazansky.

Since 1993, PASP and its director have participated in and helped to support financially the publication of the monograph series Aegaeum. The director of PASP is co-editor of the journal of Aegean linguistics Minos. PASP, under the editorial direction of Elizabeth Sikkenga and with the cooperation of the Mycenaean seminar at Cambridge University, now produces the revived Studies in Mycenacan 1ncriptions and Dialect (SMID). For fuller information contact:

http://www.dla. utexas.edu/depts/classics/pasp/smid.html

The director of PASP also serves on the editorial board of the Spanish Classics journal Faventia and sits on the Mycenological Commission of the Austrian Academy and the Centro Internazionale Ricerche Archeologiche e Storiche. He also has close ties with the archaeology program of the University of Uppsala as an honorary doctor of that institution.

PASP requests that all Aegcanists please put it on their offprint mailing list. This will facilitate the research of scholars who come to work in PASP. It will also make sure your own ideas come to the attention of those who work here and are not missed in the future volumes of SMID. Please also remember that a major aim of PASP is to be an archives of work done by scholars over their careers. If you are approaching retirement and have valuable papers relating to the history of scholarship in Mycenology please get into contact with us. We have done what we can by purchasing such things as books annotated by Leonard R. Palmer – you may be able to visit and surmise what this late Mycenologist really thought of your ideas! But we cannot do this effectively if we react after the fact, when collections have been sold or dispersed without a proper eye to preserving the history of our field.

Nicolle Hirschfeld has compiled at PASP a data base of Cypriote inscriptions (forthcoming as a Minos supplement) and she now works with Joanna Smith at producing a corpus of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions. In summer of 1994 the physical facilities of PASP were fully remodeled to maximize space and facilitate work and storage. The area is a pleasant haven from the cares of the outside world, even the University of Texas at Austin itself, and those who have worked here have found the atmosphere very conducive to work and enjoyment. PASP wishes to thank sincerely all who have supported its work and development during the last 5 years. The director does not dare to list all the names. The catalogue would be too long, and he would run the risk of leaving someone out. But he would particularly like to thank the following student assistants who have helped during this time: Elizabeth Sikkenga, Susanne Hofstra, Susan Lupack, Nick Dobson, Kathleen Cox, Kate Walsh, Jason Railsback, Peter van Alfen, Kevin Pluta.

PASP is indebted to the Office of the Dean of Liberal Arts of The University of Texas at Austin for its continuing support for over a decade. The director thanks personally Dean Robert King, Dean Standish Meacham and Dean Sheldon Ekland-Olson for their willingness to hear his periodic pleas and justifications for support and Assistant Dean Debbie Fuller for her shrewd advice on the managing and use of PASP funds.

Please note the new e-mail for PASP that here follows. Please be aware that e-mail numbers and even telephone numbers are subject to change. A good old-fashioned letter is often the best way to communicate. Thank you.

Thomas G. Palaima, Director
Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP)
Department of Classics
WAG 123
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin. TX 78712-1181
tel.: 512471-5742 fax: 512 471A111 e-mail: pasptgp@mail.utexas.edu