Eugene Vanderpool

Eugene Vanderpool (born August 3, 1906 in Morristown , New Jersey ; died August 1, 1989 in Athens ) was an American classical archaeologist . He was professor from 1947 to 1971 and from 1971 to 1989 Professor Emeritus of Classical Archeology at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Life

Eugene Vanderpool was the son of Wynant Davis Vanderpool and his wife Cornelia Grinnell, nee Willis. He studied Classics at Princeton University and obtained a BA in 1929. He then traveled to Greece, where he continued his studies for a year at the American School of Classical Studies , before going to the University of Illinois for a year in 1931 , to teach classics . In 1932 he became an employee, and in 1947 he was deputy head of the newly started excavations on the Athens Agora under Homer A. Thompson - a position he held until 1967.

This long period was interrupted in 1941 when Vanderpool was imprisoned by the German occupation as one of the last Americans to remain in Greece during the Second World War . He spent his captivity in Laufen , Bavaria , where an internment camp was set up in the castle for some American civilians who could not leave Europe quickly enough because the United States entered the war . During this time he held lectures on ancient Greek history as part of the educational events organized by the prisoners themselves, which he designed based on a Thucydides edition in his pocket when he was arrested . Book donations from the British Red Cross and the YMCA enabled him to read about Herodotus , Xenophon and Aristotle , among others .

As part of a prisoner exchange, Vanderpool was released in 1944 and went to Princeton to the Institute for Advanced Study , where he did research until 1946. He returned to Greece that year as part of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration . In 1949 he was appointed professor at the American School of Classical Studies and taught there as a full professor until 1971, after which he worked there as professor emeritus until his death in 1989 . In honor of the "Mr. American School, the Eugene Vanderpool Fellowship was established, first awarded in 1971/72 and aimed at sophomores proposed by the American School's director.

Research and Teaching

In research and teaching, Vanderpool covered the entire breadth of ancient literature and classical archeology. Problems of Greek vase painting , Greek and Roman architecture , ancient sculpture and epigraphy found equal consideration in his research. Between 1953 and 1965 he regularly published the “News Letter from Athens” in the American Journal of Archeology , in which he briefly presented the results of recent research and excavations at the American School in Athens and Attica . His own most important research, which he published in numerous articles, concerned the topography and the inscriptions of Athens and Attica. In this context, it is worth highlighting his cautious identification of the remains of a building southwest of the Athens agora as the state prison in which Socrates was imprisoned before his death.

His constant touring and wandering through Greece made Vanderpool an intimate connoisseur not only of the topography, but also of the flora and fauna of Greece. For his achievements he was awarded the gold medal of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1975 , he was also a holder of the Greek Order of the Phoenix , a member of the Athens Archaeological Society and the German Archaeological Institute .

Fonts

A bibliography of around 100 scientific articles by Eugene Vanderpool is compiled in: Studies in Attic Epigraphy, History, and Topography. Presented to Eugene Vanderpool (= Hesperia . Supplement 19.) American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ, 1982, ISBN 9780876615195 , pp. Vii – xii.

literature

Lucy Shoe Meritt : A History of the American School of Classical Studies, 1939-1980. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ, 1984, passim, esp.p. 105 f. ( Online ).
Eugene Vanderpool . In: Princeton Alumni Weekly , December 20, 1989 ( full text ).
John McK. Camp : Eugene Vanderpool . In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 94, 1990, pp. 291-292.

Web links

Obituary in the New York Times , August 3, 1989

Remarks

^ Lucy Shoe Meritt : A History of the American School of Classical Studies, 1939-1980. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ, 1984, p. 105: "When he retired on June 30, 1971 many missing as if" Mr. American School "had indeed gone."
^ Eugene Vanderpool: The State Prison of Ancient Athens. In: Rodney S. Young, Keith DeVries (Eds.): From Athens to Gordion. The papers of a memorial symposium for Rodney S. Young, held at the University Museum, the third of May, 1975. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 1980, pp. 17-31; see. about Hans Rupprecht Goette , Jürgen Hammerstaedt : Ancient Athens. A literary city guide . Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51665-3 , p. 166.

personal data
SURNAME	Vanderpool, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH	Morristown , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	August 1, 1989
Place of death	Athens

[1] Lucy Shoe Meritt : A History of the American School of Classical Studies, 1939-1980. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, NJ, 1984, p. 105: "When he retired on June 30, 1971 many missing as if" Mr. American School "had indeed gone."

[2] Eugene Vanderpool: The State Prison of Ancient Athens. In: Rodney S. Young, Keith DeVries (Eds.): From Athens to Gordion. The papers of a memorial symposium for Rodney S. Young, held at the University Museum, the third of May, 1975. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 1980, pp. 17-31; see. about Hans Rupprecht Goette , Jürgen Hammerstaedt : Ancient Athens. A literary city guide . Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51665-3 , p. 166.