Sterling Dow (1903-1995), John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology from 1949 to 1970, was a specialist in Athenian political and social institutions, Homeric poems, religious calendars, and early writing and literacy. After receiving his master's degree from Harvard in 1928, Dow participated in an archeological field trip to Greece (1931-1936) where he helped advance the study of early Greek writing by developing a method of making "squeezes" or portable paper impressions of stone inscriptions; reconstructed a kleroterion, a machine used to randomly select Athenian state officers and juries; and deduced that tablets (later known as Linear B tablets) found in Knossos, Mycenae, and Pylos were inscribed with an early form of Greek, a deduction which was later found to be correct in 1953. Dow returned to Harvard in 1936 as an Instructor in History and remained on the faculty until 1970. During his career at Harvard, Dow authored more than 150 articles, reviews, and several books on ancient Greece. After Dow's retirement from Harvard, he taught for seven years as a Distinguished Professor at Boston College and in 1978 as Blegen Distinguished Professor at Vassar College.
From the description of Photographs of Sterling Dow, ca. 1950s-1960s. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 772982646
