Michael H. Jameson, 1924–2004

Abstract

was in Palo Alto, where he spent his last busy years as a professor emeritus at Stanford University (from 1990), writing and occasionally teaching and directing graduate students. But Mike had many homes throughout his life and never remained in any one place for very long. Following his retirement, he was a visiting fellow of the National Research Council at Odense University in Denmark (1993), Langford Visiting Professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee (spring 1994), D.M. Lewis Memorial Lecturer, Oxford (1996), and Alexander B. Onassis Foundation Fellow, Athens (1997). Throughout his life he preferred the informal to the formal, Mike to Michael. This informality never interfered with the rigor of his scholarship, however, but facilitated its communication. Mike's peripatetic journeys characterize his scholarly life as well. He traveled through many diverse academic disciplines and, like Aristotle, made significant contributions in each while also revealing their interrelationships. Mike was an archaeologist, ancient historian, classical philologist, epigrapher, English translator of ancient Greek, and a cultural anthropologist expert in Greek religion and ritual, economy and society, and daily life in the ancient polis. Mike recently summarized his own work in this way: My research has focused on bringing together the archaeology and the social history of ancient Greece, especially its economic and religious aspects, and placing them in the context of the longue duree of Greek ecology. I have had a special interest in the use of inscriptions for throwing light on obscure corners of ancient Greek culture. I initiated the excavations at Halieis