It has come to my attention that Danielle Parks never served as a trustee of the
Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. This is of no particular consequence to me so I have no interest in fact-checking the details of what others say about her. There is a general interest, however, in not only speaking well of the departed, but also in speaking accurately.
For its part, the
ACCG has made much of the late Dr. Parks' perceived connections to CAARI on its
website:
...ECA's consultations with the late Professor Danielle Parks (a CAARI-Trustee) about coins BEFORE Cyprus even made a formal request for their inclusion... (2nd paragraph; accessed July 9, 2008)
1 comment:
Sebsstian- The error about Dr. Parks as a CAARI Trustee was corrected on the ACCG website.
I posted this on the Museum Security list serve in response to a post from Ellen Herscher, who is the CAARI VP.
In response to Ms. Herscher's email, my apologies for evidently misidentifying Dr. Parks as a CARRI Trustee. That information was taken from the RogueClassicism web site:
http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/Posts/00006587.html ("Danielle loved Cyprus and was a trustee of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI).")
At the same time, I must disagree with any suggestion that Dr. Parks was unaffiliated with CAARI. CAARI has named a fellowship in Dr. Parks' honor and describes her affiliation as such:
"Danielle Parks, author of The Roman Coinage of Cyprus (Nicosia, 2004), directed excavations at the Amathus Gate Cemetery and for a time was assistant to the Director of CAARI. She first came to Cyprus as an Anita Cecil O'Donovan Fellow."
See: http://www.caari.org/Fellowships.htm
The fact remains that the State Department could have consulted with neutral bodies like the ANS, the Smithsonian or the British Museum about coins of Cypriot type. Instead, the State Department decided to consult secretly with Dr. Parks, who had an affiliation with CAARI, an organization that was evidently intimately involved in seeking the import restrictions on coins of Cypriot type in the first place. That the consultation took place on
1/17/08 when Cyprus only requested for import restrictions on coins in a diplomatic note dated 1/19/07 is all the more suspicious.
We would, of course, hope to learn more about this CAARI-State Department effort, but are being stymied by the State Department's failure to make meaningful disclosures of FOIA material.
Sincerely,
Peter Tompa
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