| Description | The James Copland Thorn Papers comprise of a compilation of Thorn's own observational drawings and notes, and (most prominently) copies of archive material which Thorn used for research in support of his publication 'The Necropolis of Cyrene: Two Hundred Years of Exploration' (2005). Many of the series within the fonds are connected to Alan Rowe, who led the original 1952–7 excavations from the University of Manchester, and whom Thorn chooses as his main focal point of analysis in his publication. This material has been collated by Thorn through means of contact with key individuals and/or museums associated.
D26 also contains additional information, notes, illustrations and photographs relating to the historiography of the excavations in Cyrene, and provides a record of Thorn's research methodology, alongside the progression of his thesis. |
| Extent | 105 files, 196 items, 1,707 photographs, 248 negatives, 3 illustrations, 2 plans, 4 AV items, 1 box of newspapers |
| AdminHistory | James Thorn first visited Cyrene in 1981, whilst working as an archaeological illustrator fo Professor Donald White of Pennsylvania University recording architectural fragments discovered during excavation of the Demeter Sanctuary.
It was not until 1988 that Thorn returned to Cyrene, this time working alongside Professor Barri Jones (Manchester University) on a sponsered project to study the excavations of Alan Rowe in the 1950s.
From 1989 onwards Thorn worked to record all surviving artifacts in the necropolis to give a visual record, and to search for associated finds labels to enable Rowe's original register to be rebuilt through filling the gaps in the assemblages. This was then followed by the study of tombs and sarcophagi surveyed and excavated by Rowe.
Source: James Copland Thorn, "The Necropolis of Cyrene: Two Hundred Years of Exploration", (L'erma di Bretschneider, 2005). |