1952–April 1953

Handwritten: Ꞑ-curium

GEORGE H. McFADDEN BLOOMFIELD VILLA NOVA PENNSYLVANIA

2 September, 1952Dear Fro:

I enclose statement of Curium Excavations accounts for the year ending June 30th, 1952.

During the last fiscal year excavations have continued on a greatly reduced scale in the Sanctuary of Apollo at no expense to the University. These have been necessary to enable work toward the publication of the main buildings there to go forward. In the meanwhile, at the expense of little of my own time, Joe Last has continued his excavations at the west entrance to the city site of Curium where he has uncovered the finest mosaics which we have found to date. As an inducement to have us continue our work there the Department of Antiquities has offered to share on a fifty per cent basis these and all other mosaics which the expedition may find.

If you should like to have a mosaic for the Museum one could be lifted and sent over to America at little expense. These excavations and those at Kaloriziki, of which I have already written to you, were carried out again at no cost to the Museum. Both digs have been exceptionally rewarding and have not interrupted the work toward publication at the Sanctuary of Apollo.

Some surprise has been expressed to me that I have spent so little time at Gordion, and that I am continuing the work of the expedition at Cyprus. There seems to be some misapprehension about the position there, for if I leave it is hard to see how the site can be published. The Museum need not feel that it is at all responsible for the publication of any new excavations, but we are under obligations to publish what has been done in the past. If I leave Cyprus work toward publications later on could continue only at considerable expense to the University. At present this work is going forward at no expense to the University, but if I have no help in personnel my own hands are going to be tied up for some years to come. If in the meanwhile I dig with Rodney at Gordion and help him there as I should like to do, what is to become of my foreman who cleans and mends, and a draughtsman who must be kept occupied and for whom we have plenty of work, but work which can not be continued without supervision. If we let them go now we risk the possibility of not being able to get them back when we need them to complete our … continues