Sir John Boardman (1927-2024)
The British School at Athens mourns the passing of classical archaeologist and Greek art specialist John Boardman.
To his students, colleagues and admirers, John Boardman was a heroic figure. Arguably the most prolific Greek art scholar of his generation, his name came to define the subject for several decades. His introductory handbooks have been translated into many languages, ensuring their exposure to students, museum goers, antiquarians and enthusiasts across the globe. Although all aspects of Greek art were not of equal interest to him, all were given their due in his writings. He would readily admit that jewellery and gems had as much or more to teach than figure-decorated vases and sculpture. His devotion to gems was especially long-standing, culminating in the series of publications he produced later in life with the help of a former student, Claudia Wagner. Iconography, the Parthenon, burial customs, nostalgia, and Alexander the Great were also part of his repertoire. Eventually, he expanded his reach beyond the Mediterranean to explore moments of diffusion, engagement and intersection in The World of Ancient Art (2006), The Relief Plaques of Eastern Eurasia and China (2020), and The Greeks in Asia (2015).
Like others at the time, John never pursued a doctorate – a decision he attributes to the influence of Robert Cook while reading Classics at Cambridge. Cook encouraged him instead to spend time in Greece, which he did for two years following the completion of his undergraduate studies (1948-50) using the School as his base. Although he described the BSA in his memoirs as ‘a strange place’ (p. 37), he always had a soft spot for the School, later encouraging his own students to frequent it. He was appointed Assistant Director (1952-55), taking up the position moments after his marriage to Sheila Stanford, his wife of more than 50 years, who assisted with the photographs in the School’s Collection while he was in office. This was a formative time in his career during which he acquired the skills of working with excavation pottery and also devoted himself to the proper cataloguing and identifying of objects in the School’s collections. He would go on to hold other administrative positions at the School; a long standing member of the Managing Committee/Council from 1979-2005, only missing one year in those 26 years, as well as one of the Vice Presidents from 1998 until his passing.
John was a field archaeologist early on in his career, excavating at Old Smyrna (Baykarkli) alongside Sinclair Hood, a Protogeometric cemetery Knossos first dug by Tom Dunbabin, the Archaic, Classical and Late Roman levels at Emporio on the island of Chios, and at the site of Tocra in Libya. For each of these projects he published material and site reports, and each made a direct and lasting impact on his research. In no place would this become more evident than in his landmark publication The Greeks Overseas (multiple editions, 1964-1999), where he explored connections between the Greeks and their neighbours using visual and material evidence. Ultimately, he preferred careful looking, museums, library research and writing to time spent in the field. Nevertheless, he encouraged his students to seek fieldwork experience, to gain first-hand exposure to sites and collections, and to find opportunities to publish both recently discovered and legacy material. He was an early advocate for using scientific methods in the study of pottery production and distribution. His choice of term ‘material culture’ in 1988 for the title of an entry on archaic Greek society in the Cambridge Ancient History (IV.2) was rather unusual in classical archaeology at the time, yet indicative of his commitment to understand ancient objects and images within an archaeological framework.
Oxford became John’s academic home, first as Assistant Keeper in the Ashmolean Museum, then as Reader in Classical Archaeology and Fellow of Merton College, and eventually as the Lincoln Chair of Classical Archaeology. He credited his success in both teaching and research to the resources readily available: the Ashmolean Museum, the Ashmolean Library (now the Sackler), the Cast Gallery (where he was curator), and the Beazley Archive. As a postgraduate supervisor he was somewhat hands-off. Tutorials with him ranged from extended explication on a single pot sherd or image, to stories and advice about travel or seemingly irrelevant discussions of favorite literary works (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein on one memorable occasion). At the time of his retirement from Oxford in 1994 he still had a large number of doctoral students. It was the height of the Oxford-Cambridge battle to define the field of classical archaeology. Although a Cambridge man, he fell squarely into the Oxford camp being a fan of neither theory nor statistics. But he came to realize the potential of digital technology for the field, allowing one to spend more time saying something interesting about the ancient past than methodically gathering data. About specific antiquities and the discipline in general, he never shied away from making value judgments or sharing controversial and at times unpopular opinions. That being said, he enjoyed collaboration, welcomed debate, loved conversation. Even post-retirement, students and colleagues knew when to expect his daily walk through the library, the time of his morning coffee in the Beazley Archive and the Classics Centre, and his preferred lunch spots in Oxford and Woodstock. Two Festschriften and other volumes in his honour stand as testament to the many lives he touched as a mentor and the numerous careers he helped forge.
John was the recipient of many accolades. He was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Member of the British Academy who awarded him the Kenyon Medal, Professor of the Royal Academy, and Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Institute of America. He was the recipient of the Onassis Prize for Humanities, honorary doctorates from University of Athens and the University of Paris, and most memorably a knighthood in 1989. His 2020 autobiography, A Classical Archaeologist’s Life: The Story so Far, fills in gaps about personal and family life, provides reflections on people and places, and reveals his sense of humour, deep intellect and unparallelled accomplishments.
Tyler Jo Smith
4 June 2024