CARTAS SOBRE EL ANFITEATRO TARRACONENSE.

Edited by William J.Bryant '25. Meetingwaters Publications.137 pp. Photographs and sketches. $8.

Mr. Bryant enjoys unique distinctions. He is not only an authority on Spanish archaeology but also a leading force in uncovering below ground by esoteric techniques churches, villas, pottery, and coins. One would hardly expect that a man with so solid a background of Vermont pioneer ancesters should become so deeply involved in Spanish-Greek-Roman history. As a Dartmouth undergraduate the civilizations of Rome and Greece seemed to him infinitely remote, but in 1924 during his first visit to Europe he was struck with their proximity because of the excitement engendered by his visits at Roman remains in Southern France: Aries, Nimes, Fréjus, and Orange. In 1933 Rome seemed even closer With Roman walls encircling Tarragona, Spain. He could almost catch a glimpse of the retreating backs of Roman builders. Established on a 300-foot acropolis with a spectacular view up and down the coast, Tarragona overlooks also the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre under some 50 feet of debris with the vestiges of an ancient Romanesque church on the arena.

Adventures in Archaeology containing only 103 pages and three maps but no fewer than 134 colored illustrations tells the story of how Spanish authorities were persuaded to explore and study the amphitheatre site of Tarragona, a project lasting ten years. Completely unexpected, the most important find was the remains of a Visigothic Church beneath the ruins of the visible Romanesque edifice.

Over 1000 coins were unearthed (the images and inscriptions were recovered by an electrolytic process devised by a Spanish professor) and, also, numerous Christian burials and lettered marble blocks forming a monumental inscription around the top of the podium.

Ingenious and adaptive, Mr. Bryant engaged the Spanish air force to help him locate architectural sites. Though unsuccessful in pinpointing the undiscovered city of Calliopolis, he was rewarded elsewhere by a Roman villa with a large and perfect mosaic floor, 11 by 15 feet, depicting various species of Mediterranean fish.

As the first underwater archaeologist in Spain, with the help of aqualungs and the Spanish Navy he probed more than 20 miles of coastline off Mallorca, which resulted in increased knowledge about Roman harbors and the recovery of amphorae, Roman ballast, and several wrecks.

Imaginative and indefatigable, Mr. Bryant helped to form advisory groups of scholarly Americans and Spaniards, which evolved into the Spanish-American Archaeological Center for the Balearic Islands. Surprised at the non-existence of reference books on Spanish pottery he undertook the organization and publication of such a series. Thus a two-volume work on Spanish Terra Sigilata appeared in 1961 and in 1963 a second on Greek pottery in Spain. He also furthered the use of the proton magnetometer for locating material underground. And so techniques, excavations, and discoveries continued: Alcudia, Pollentia, Porrós, and Ampurias. Prof. Norman A. Doenges of Dartmouth College directed in 1964 and 1965 work in Ullastret, a walled city on the Costa Brava with much Greek material. To assemble all scholarly conjectures on the problem of Tartessus, the "lost civilization" in Southern Spain, an International Symposium was held jointly by the Institute of Prehistory of the University of Barcelona and the Bryant Foundation at Jerez de la Frontera in 1968. More than 30 papers, read by scholars from eight countries, are now published in book form. Manhattan College conducted from 1969 to 1971 a summer school at Alcudia Port with courses in Painting, Sculpture, Spanish, and Archaeology. The "Casa Bryant" was made available for some classes with students benefitting by their first-hand experiences in excavations.

The second book, edited by Mr. Bryant, will enable persons able to read Spanish to become more fully informed about the Roman Amphitheatre at Tarragona. There are letters written to him by Samuel Ventura y Solsona in his capacity of Director of the William J. Bryant Foundation and additional letters in Spanish and English by Jose G. Guijarro, a law student whom Mr. Bryant sent to England to learn English and improve his career in Madrid. Eventually Senor Guijarro moved to Tarragona to act as attorney and agent for the William J. Bryant Foundation.

Unique is a lead roll with an Iberian inscription uncovered in La Serreta, a hilltop village near Valencia. The man from Vermont, famous for marble and Yankee insularity, has been honored with the lead roll being classified as PLOMBO BRYANT. Lead in Spain with a leader may outweigh gold.