Field School

Summer Field School

In summer 2022, Bard Graduate Center launched its first field school in archaeology and material culture on the Cycladic island of Antiparos. Working across a small channel on the adjacent island of Despotiko, students participated in a project to excavate and rebuild the sixth-century BCE Sanctuary of Apollo using ancient craft ways.

Paros and Antiparos exported marble to centers like Athens— some of the earliest statues from the Acropolis were made of Parian marble—and current work on the site bears directly on our knowledge of the material’s enduring cultural significance. Professor Caspar Meyer, who has been working on the site since 2017, leads the new field school. Since its discovery in the early 2000s, the sanctuary on Despotiko has produced an uninterrupted string of finds, including votive deposits under the temple floor and domestic buildings pre-dating the sacred structures. The site has become key to understanding the connections between seafaring, craft, and religion that shaped Greek culture for centuries.

All first-year BGC students have the opportunity to add the field school to the existing BGC travel program to Berlin and Paris. This year, thirteen students participated in the new program. Professor Meyer and the students first spent two days visiting important ancient sites in Athens and then traveled to Antiparos for six days of work and study. Mornings were devoted to the dig and evenings to discussions led by Professor Meyer.

The purpose of a field school is to take students out of the classroom so they can test what they have learned there against practical, first-hand experiences. Excavation and conversation make powerful teachers.

BGC Study Trip. Photo courtesy of Caspar Meyer.