A Classical Archaeologists's Life: The Story so Far shows that a
scholar's life is not all scholarship, though much of this book is
devoted to the writing of books and, especially, travel to classical and
other lands. Boardman is a Londoner, born in Ilford and attending school
in Essex (Chigwell). His teenage years were spent often in air raid
shelters rather than with 'mates' (all evacuated). There are distinctive
'aunties', the rituals of daily life in a London suburb. The
non-scholarly figures live large in this account of his life, marriage,
children, new houses. At Cambridge he learned about classical
archaeology as a necessary addition to reading Homer and Demosthenes,
even being obliged to recite the latter. And those were the days of
Bertrand Russell's lectures in a university reawakening after the war.
Thence to the British School at Athens to learn about excavation
(Smyrna, Knossos, later Libya). His return from Greece was to Oxford,
not Cambridge, at first in the Ashmolean Museum, then as Reader and
Professor. A spell in New York gives an account of the city before the
troubles, when Petula Clark's Down Town was dominant. There is much
here to reflect on university life and teaching, and on the reasons for
and problems with the writing of his many books (some 40), with
reflection on the university, colleges and their ways. Travels are well
documented - a notable trip through Pakistan and China, in Persia,
Egypt, Turkey - with comment on what he saw and experienced beyond
archaeology. A lecture tour in Australia provides comment beyond the
academic. He visited Israel often, lecturing and publishing for the
Bible Lands Museum. Several tours in the USA took him to most of their
museums and universities as well many other sights, from glaciers to
alligators. This book is a mixture of scholarly reminiscence, reflection
on family life, travelogue, and critique of classical scholarship (not
all archaeological) worldwide, illustrated with pictures of travels,
friends, home life, and, for a historian, a reflection on experiences of
over 90 years.
