R. Ross Holloway, 1934–2022

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Previous articleNext article FreeNecrologyR. Ross Holloway, 1934–2022Susan Heuck AllenSusan Heuck AllenDepartment of Classics. Brown University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMore Open Access.R. Ross Holloway, who, in the words of the Archaeological Institute of America, “revolutionized the study of Italian prehistory”1 through his archaeological work as a professor at Brown University from 1964 to 2007, died on Thursday, 30 June 2022, at his home near Princeton, New Jersey, at age 87.2 Holloway had trained as a classical numismatist, writing his 1960 Princeton University doctoral dissertation on the first bronze coins to be minted in Greece. Throughout his long career he continued to publish on Greek art and architecture, Greek and Roman coinage, and Roman historiography and archaeological topography. His great work, however, lay in the prehistory of Magna Graecia, where he conducted extensive excavations. Holloway was the first art historian trained in classical literature and art history, certainly in the United States, to recognize and treat the indigenous inhabitants of Magna Graecia as fully worthy participants in the classical age, decades before such reexamination of blinkered 19th- to 20th-century classicism became more widespread.3Robert Ross Holloway (who preferred to use his middle name) was born on 15 August 1934 in Newton, Massachusetts, the son of Charles T. Holloway II, a World War I aviator, and Mildred Evelyn Guthrie, daughter and granddaughter of Gloucester fishing schooner captains, from whom he inherited a lifelong passion for sailing. He had three older half siblings from his father’s first marriage, but, due to a significant age gap, was raised as an only child. Holloway was educated at home by his mother, with the Calvert School curriculum, through the eighth grade. He traced his interest in ancient art to sketching classes that he took at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as a young child. Asked whether his first interest in antiquity came from archaeology, art, or classics, Holloway was quick to answer that it was archaeology, but that the interest had begun so early he could not pinpoint an exact time. It might have been nurtured by the Explorers’ Club at the Museum of Natural History in Boston, where he gave his first archaeological lecture. But Holloway’s first excavation was far from the rarified world of ancient art: it took place in a pigpen in Scituate, Massachusetts, with the Massachusetts Archaeological Society.R. Ross Holloway in 1961 at the Morgantina Excavations (courtesy Visual Resources, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University).View Large ImageDownload PowerPointHe attended Roxbury Latin School, where the Greek master opened Holloway’s eyes to Graeco-Roman antiquity, introducing him to the world of university scholarship to which he devoted his career. This teacher handpicked him for the study of Greek, which ensured his membership in a privileged club where he read Plato, Homer, Xenophon, and Thucydides. Holloway showed his independent streak early on when, at a time when 12 out of 16 graduates of Roxbury matriculated at Harvard, he instead struck out for western Massachusetts and the “greener pastures” of Amherst College.4At Amherst, Holloway encountered his most important mentor, Charles Hill Morgan (1902–1984), founder of the Department of Fine Arts as well as the Mead Art Museum, and a scholar of vast interests who published books on Greek sculpture of the fourth century BCE as well as on Michelangelo and the Hudson River School. Holloway appreciated that Morgan had an “amazing gift” to offer in “the style of his scholarship,” which Holloway chose to emulate. When the college disposed of its 19th-century plaster cast collection, Morgan salvaged a few and had Holloway work on the iconography of the Eleusis relief of Demeter and Kore for a senior essay, research that resulted in Holloway’s first published article. In 1956, his senior year at Amherst, Holloway graduated first in his class and won a Fulbright Fellowship.5Holloway’s Fulbright gave him the opportunity to sample the wealth of archaeological activity at the University of Pennsylvania and its museum, where he took seminars with the “enormously stimulating” Rodney Young. While there, he took a graduate seminar in archaeology at Bryn Mawr College, through which he met Nancy Degenhardt, a student of Greek, whom he later married. Holloway earned his master’s degree from Penn in 1957. Meanwhile, Dorothy Burr Thompson encouraged him to migrate to Princeton, where he began his doctoral work on the coins of Aegina, a dissertation topic on which he had settled during a summer fellowship at the American Numismatic Society. Holloway first excavated in the Mediterranean at Morgantina, an ancient Greek city on the island of Sicily, where a Princeton University team, under the direction of Richard Stillwell in 1958 and 1959 and Eric Sjoqvist in 1961 and 1962, was turning up “bushels and bushels of coins.” While at Princeton, Holloway attended a summer session of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1958, but only after he had lost his heart to the Central Mediterranean. He earned his Princeton Ph.D. degree in history of art and married Nancy (Bryn Mawr ‘55) in May 1960.Bookended by seasons at Morgantina were two propitious years, 1960–62, which Holloway spent as a fellow in residence at the American Academy in Rome, courtesy of the Rome Prize in classical studies and archaeology. At the academy, he discovered that opportunities for foreign excavations were far more ample in Italy than in Greece. Whole areas, such as Lucania, had been virtually unexplored. Meanwhile, Holloway’s wife, Nancy, worked as the Morgantina excavation’s cataloguer, preparing them to go into the field as a team.The years in Rome enriched Holloway’s scholarship through postwar transatlantic scientific collaboration. An Italian Air Force training program in aerial terrain photography brought him together with young archaeologists from across Europe, many of whom would become lifelong friends. At a workshop on archaeology, photography, and illustration conducted by Dinu Adameştianu,6 Holloway met his great collaborator, Tony Hackens of the University of Louvain. He also met Gisela Richter, who had just retired to Rome in her late 70s after more than half a century at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where for over 20 years she had been curator of Greek and Roman Art. Richter maintained a kind of salon in her ground-floor apartment near the American Academy where, over tea and cakes, she introduced younger scholars to each other and provided friendship and moral support. Her prolific scholarship spanning Greece and Rome also set a powerful example for them, and Richter’s formative impact on Holloway and his work is reflected by the dedication of his first book to her memory.In 1964, after two years of teaching at Princeton and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the births of his two daughters, Holloway joined the classics department at Brown University, whose larger-than-life professor Charles Alexander Robinson, Jr., had long wanted a Brown University excavation in Athens. Holloway was able to realize this dream, but only after Robinson’s death, when Holloway conducted a six-week season of excavations in spring 1965 between the Agora and the lower slopes of the Acropolis under the auspices of Nicholas Platon, Antiquities Ephor of the Acropolis and Agora. Meanwhile, Holloway rose from assistant professor to associate professor in 1967 and full professor in 1970. In 1978, Holloway teamed up with Brown art historian Rolf Winkes and founded the Center for Classical Archaeology and Art at Brown University with the support of John Nicholas Brown II, a member of the Brown Corporation—one of the “Monuments Men,”7 and a lifetime member of the Archaeological Institute of America. Holloway directed the center from 1978 to 1987 and from 1994 to 2000. Through the beneficence of the Parker family, Holloway enriched the center’s offerings via a program of visiting scholars. In 1982, Holloway recruited archaeologist and benefactor Martha Sharp Joukowsky to teach a field methods class. When Joukowsky later joined the Brown faculty full time, she provided a role model for women students and expanded the scope of the center’s activities to the Middle East; its expanded area was reflected in its renaming as the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art.8Holloway focused his archaeological attentions on the central Mediterranean, “often on shoestring budgets and living in abandoned buildings, tents, or whatever else was handy and cheap.”9 With the encouragement of Adameştianu, now head of the Soprintendenza of Antiquities of Basilicata, who had recognized the importance of Satrianum through his topographic studies, Holloway directed major excavations at the site (1966–67). At Satrianum, his wife Nancy served as cataloguer and field editor; Anne Booth, his first graduate student, as illustrator; Dutch archaeologist Mariann Maaskant Kleibrink as architect; Barbara Pough as surveyor; Mario Jurca as restorer; Miriam Balmuth as ceramic analyst; Steven Ostrow and others as excavators; and benefactor sisters Elise du Pont Elrick and Gertrude du Pont were employed as architect and restorer.10 Holloway then excavated at Buccino (1968–75); at Trentinara; at La Muculufa (1982–83); and on the island of Ustica (1990s). Holloway’s career as a field archaeologist was distinguished, according to Stephen Dyson of the State University of New York at Buffalo, by his precise field methodology, early adoption of archaeometric analyses of finds, pioneering application of computer technology, and prompt publication of his finds.11Holloway’s publications are wide ranging, tracing Mediterranean civilization from early prehistory to the rise of Christianity. In addition to his promptly published excavation reports, he wrote Influences and Styles in the Late Archaic and Early Classical Greek Sculpture of Sicily and Magna Graecia and the classic history of the bronze coinage of Syracuse,12 and he was the first scholar to use evidence from Morgantina for dating the Roman denarius. Over the course of his career, Holloway published 33 books, 151 articles, and 50 book reviews.13 He was awarded a named chair as Brown’s Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor in 1990.Holloway was an associate curator of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, where he also served as general editor of volumes on its classical collection; a fellow of the American Numismatic Society, New York; a fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, London; cofounder and president of the Association for Field Archaeology: a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Field Archaeology and the American Journal of Archaeology; and a founder, coeditor, and editor of the monograph series Archaeologia Transatlantica: A Series in Mediterranean Archaeology.Holloway’s intellectual descendants honored him with two festschrifts: Interpretatio Rerum: Archaeological Essays on Objects and Meaning, edited by Susan S. Lukesh14 and Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, edited by Derek B. Counts and Anthony S. Tuck.15 The editors’ preface in the latter festschrift describes Holloway’s “recognition of the significance of traditionally underappreciated indigenous cultures within the wider milieu of trans-Italian and trans-Mediterranean contact [as providing] a framework within which many later studies have been situated…. Today, such thinking is central to innumerable discussions of economic, demographic and social complexity of the Mediterranean. And yet, the very ubiquity of this approach today underscores its profound and revolutionary impact [as postulated by Holloway] when the idea of the classical world was far more narrowly defined than it is now.”Perhaps as a result of his transatlantic collaborations, Holloway was recognized abroad early in his career. Elected to the Sodalizio tra Studiosi dell’Arte, Rome, in 1962, and at age 33 as a Corresponding Member of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, in 1967; he was elected the first foreign member of the Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria in Florence and was also a foreign member of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici. He served as president of the Centro Internazionale di Studi Numismatici in Naples, was an honorary member of the Société royale de numismatique in Belgium, and received an honorary degree from the Université catholique de Louvain, in Belgium.16In 1989–90, the Archaeological Institute of America selected him as their Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer and in 1995 awarded Holloway the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement, its highest honor. Looking back on the circumstances that led to his being awarded the Gold Medal, Holloway credited the strong mentorship of Morgan, opportunities presented by the Rome Prize, and the support of his colleagues. Along with Nancy, these included his elder daughter Anne, who illustrated his later finds, Susan Lukesh, his student and later colleague in ceramics and cutting-edge computer applications, and Ned Nabers of Vanderbilt University in photography.Holloway’s daughters, Susannah and Anne, who accompanied their parents on digs, remember many exciting dangers from their time living in the Certosa di Padula—now a UNESCO World Heritage site, but then an abandoned baroque monastery, used most recently as an allied POW camp, where Holloway had set up housing for his family and staff in the 1960s and early 1970s while excavating Buccino. “It was really magical! Daddy loved that [we] got to live there and explore it as children. [Our] parents gave us a lot of freedom there so we really wandered and played all over, in the gardens, taking the tours every day with the tourists of the old library, kitchens and chapels, and riding our bikes around the big courtyard and going to the bell tower in the evenings. Every cell had a garden and one of the most beautiful cells was occupied by a lovely woman who was the mistress of the caretaker and she had a beautiful rose garden in her cell so that, when she had us over for tea, we could smell the roses as we climbed the stone staircase to her cell.”17 “Carefully shaking out their shoes every morning, in case of scorpions; avoiding the cholera-contaminated tap water; keeping away from the garbage burns, for fear of exploding glass bottles; and riding their bicycles through the deserted cloisters, while steering clear of rooms with rotten floors that could drop you to a cellar below,”18 were everyday occurrences. Happily, the carefully guarded anti-venom serum was only used once, when a teenage American student working with Holloway in the field went into suffocating anaphylactic shock after eating some fruit. Holloway plunged the syringe into the boy’s neck, deciding that “it couldn’t kill him any faster and might possibly help,” as they were hours away from a doctor. The student recovered.19Preceded in death by his wife, Nancy, in 2010, Holloway is survived by his two daughters and five grandchildren. Holloway’s youngest grandson is currently studying field archaeology at Durham University in England.20Notes[email protected]1 Archaeological Institute of America, “Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement,” 1995 R. Ross Holloway; www.archaeological.org/grant/gold-medal-award/.2 This necrology is an expanded version of Allen 2009.3 Studholme 2022 (used with permission). In this, as in his choice of sites, Holloway was likely influenced by Dinu Adameştianu who “propose[d] (notably anticipating later studies) the existence of forms of cohabitation between Greek and indigenous groups, distinct from the stereotypical colonial model”; Giardino 2004, trans. at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinu_Adame%C8%99teanu.4 Unless otherwise noted, quotations in this essay come from the words of R. Ross Holloway in a taped interview with the author on 18 February 2009, published in Allen 2009.5 Holloway was recognized by Amherst College with an honorary degree in 1976.6 Giardino 2004.7 Brown joined the MFAA Branch of the U.S. Group Control Commission for Germany and served as the official Advisor on Cultural Matters to the Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Lucius D. Clay, in 1945; www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/brown-john-nicholas-ii.8 Winkes 2009. In 2006, the center was renamed the Artemis A.W. and Martha Sharp Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.9 Studholme 2022.10 Holloway promptly presented his preliminary reports in the AJA in 1967 and 1968, then published his final report (Holloway 1970) with the help of Lois Atwood of Brown University Press as editor.11 Studholme 2022.12 Holloway 1975 and 1969, respectively.13 www.archaeological.org/grant/gold-medal-award/. For Holloway’s full curriculum vitae, see Cova 2009.14 Lukesh 1999.15 Counts and Tuck 2009.16 Cova 2009.17 Susannah Holloway, pers. comm., 1 November 2022.18 Studholme 2022.19 Studholme 2022.20 Studholme 2022.Works CitedAllen, S.H. 2009. “Introduction: A View of Classical Art: Iconography in Context.” In Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, edited by D. Counts and A. Tuck, 1–3. Joukowsky Institute Publication 1. Oxford: Oxbow.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarCounts, D.B., and A.S. Tuck, eds. 2009. Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway. Joukowsky Institute Publication 1. Oxford: Oxbow.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarCova, E. 2009. “Curriculum Vitae of R. Ross Holloway.” In Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, edited by D. Counts and A. Tuck, xiv–xx. Joukowsky Institute Publication 1. Oxford: Oxbow.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarGiardino, L. 2004. Omaggio a Dinu Adameşteanu, www.iccd.beniculturali.it/getFile.php?id=385.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarHolloway, R.R. 1967. “Excavations at Satrianum, 1966.” AJA 71(1):59–62.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar———. 1968. “Excavations at Satrianum, 1967.” AJA 72(2): 119–20.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar———. 1969. The Thirteen-Months Coinage of Hieronymos of Syracuse. Berlin: De Gruyter.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar———. 1970. Satrianum: The Archaeological Investigations Conducted by Brown University in 1966 and 1967. Providence: Brown University Press.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar———. 1975. Influences and Styles in the Late Archaic and Early Classical Greek Sculpture of Sicily and Magna Graecia. Louvain: Institut supérieur d’archéologie et d’histoire de l’art.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarLukesh, S.S., ed. 1999. Interpretatio rerum: Archaeological Essays on Objects and Meaning. Providence: Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarStudholme, A.L.H. 2022. “R. Ross Holloway—Archaeologist ‘Revolutionized the Study of Italian Prehistory.’” Unpublished obituary by Holloway’s elder daughter.First citation in articleGoogle ScholarWinkes, R.M. 2009. “The Making of Archaeology at Brown: A Tribute.” In Koine: Mediterranean Studies in Honor of R. Ross Holloway, edited by D. Counts and A. Tuck, xi–xii. Joukowsky Institute Publication 1. Oxford: Oxbow.First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 127, Number 2April 2023 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 118Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/724557 Views: 118Total views on this site Copyright © 2023 by the Archaeological Institute of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.