On Oct. 16–17 the Department of Art and Archaeology, with the collaboration of Classics and the Program in Hellenic Studies, honored the decisions to retire by three classical archaeologists whose teaching and research have influenced the education and lives of numerous Princeton graduates in the last 40 years.
I expected that PAW somehow would acknowledge this event, a symposium titled “The Eye and the Trowel,” for three main reasons: the distinguished contributions of all three to archaeology and the University, the fact that all three are retiring within three years, and because their departures will mark a major turning point in the history of a department in which classical archaeology came into its own as a discipline in the United States. I would recommend that PAW editors take quick action covering (or at least taking note of) this important development for the University before it is too late. Two of the retirees are distinguished Princeton alumni (Professor W.A.P. Childs ’64 *71, excavator of Marion in Cyprus, and Professor T.L. Shear Jr. ’59 *66, excavator and director of Athenian Agora excavations for many years), whereas the third is a most eminent scholar in the field (Professor Hugo Meyer).