We Keep the Dead Close

by Becky Cooper

  5 million-dollar donation: Peabody Annual Report 1968–1969, Official Register of Harvard University, 67, no. 23 (Oct. 30, 1970): 445.

  6 “Having gained your professorship during”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, (Accession Number 2016.113), Box 6: Letterbox, correspondence A–Z 1965–1969, Folder X, Y, Z, Letter from Stephen Williams to CCLK, July 22, 1969. Reprinted with permission from Timothy Williams.

  7 the material may have been lost in a flood: Phone call with CPD. Flood also referenced in “Murder in Cambridge, 1959–1989,” compiled by CPDs Crime Analysis Unit.

  8 Good luck doing that if your name isn’t O’Sullivan: Interview with Richard Conti in 2017.

  9 asked to meet while I was in town: Email from Jeffrey Quilter, Sept. 4, 2014, 1:01 p.m.

  10 “I’m just going to tell you because I like you”: Interview with Jeffrey Quilter in 2014.

  11 The door opened, and Arthur Bankoff: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.

  12 reading something in the Harvard alumni magazine: Harvard Magazine, July 2010 capsule review of Jessica Stern’s Denial: A Memoir of Terror (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), a book about her unsolved rape that was eventually linked to the serial rapist Dennis Meggs.

  13 [Bottom photo]: Courtesy Arthur Bankoff, with permission from Richard Meadow.

  Tepe Yahya

  1 There’s a special kind of insanity: Description of Tepe Yahya is drawn from interviews with crew members during that season’s expedition (Phil Kohl, Arthur Bankoff, and Peter Dane), and later ones (including Tom Beale, Dan Potts, and Elizabeth Stone), as well as with David Stronach, who ran the British Institute of Persian Studies. CCLK’s foreword also offers an “ethnography” of life on the dig. Dialogue and other details also pulled from Jane’s letters home to family and friends, her journal entries, the field notebooks, the CPD interview transcripts, and Arthur and Andrea Bankoff’s police statements. (In their statements, the Bankoffs repeatedly ask the police to be aware of the distortions of perspective caused by trying circumstances, e.g., “Most of the annoying things we thought so vital over the summer have become forgotten what with our re-entry into places of good food, bathrooms and hot water.”) Where there are conflicting accounts, I’ve indicated below.

  2 “Small-group situation tends to create”: Jane’s response to the Summer Questionnaire 1966, Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file.

  3 mid-June: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  4 one of the graduation speeches: “Commencement Day Speakers,” Harvard University website.

  5 honorary degree: “Shah of Iran, Miro, Wirtz, Whitney Young, Brennan, and Finley Get Honorary Degrees,” Harvard Crimson, June 13, 1968.

  6 Coretta Scott King: “Coretta Scott King at Class Day,” Harvard Crimson, May 21, 2018.

  7 which doubled as a plush hotel of sorts: Interview with David Stronach in 2018.

  8 food from the US embassy commissary: Letter from Jane to Boyd, approx. June 17, 1968.

  9 pickaxes, and plastic bags: Here through “cooling off poolside,” letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  10 A few pinched her butt: Letter from Jane to Boyd, June 21, 1968.

  11 traffic in Tehran in general made Jane swear: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  12 catching the odd angle of light: Here through “a giant heart” from Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.

  13 She had almost missed her flight to Iran: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  14 overwhelming desire to go out and chalk every sidewalk: Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.

  15 “There is something different about your chemistry”: Letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file).

  16 the lack of privacy: Letter from Jane to Boyd, June 21, 1968.

  17 Jim because of how tall he was: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968. The round sunglasses detail is also from this letter.

  18 alone, finally, over a gin and tonic: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 21, 1968.

  19 peck on the cheek after breakfast: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  20 Jim kept trying to make elaborate plans: Jane’s journal entry, June 20, 1968.

  21 longed for when they’d be peacefully settled: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  22 two separate cars: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  23 the Persian antiquities representative: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  24 named Bucephalus: Interview with Dan Potts in 2017.

  25 When the car stalled: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  26 Jane felt more in love with Jim than ever: Jane’s journal entry, June 26, 1968.

  27 it was too late: Here through “They woke up freezing,” from letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  28 Baghin, the tiny village: Letter from Jane to Brenda Bass, July 4, 1968.

  29 seventy-five-hundred-year-old mound: “Tepe Yahya,” Encyclopædia Iranica.

  30 no electricity: CCLK foreword, p. XXIII.

  31 camped in tents close by: Dora Jane Hamblin, The First Cities (New York: Time-Life, 1973), p. 26.

  32 a man on his bicycle: Interview with Peter Dane in 2014.

  33 a driver on a donkey: CCLK foreword, p. XXVI.

  34 little pension with a bidet: Letters from Jane to her parents, June 26 and July 7, 1966.

  35 “animalcules”…hadn’t bothered checking: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  36 arrived unceremoniously on the back of the truck: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017. A version of this story also appears in CCLK foreword, but in CCLK’s version, Kohl arrives on the back of a melon truck.

  37 Karl had warned the crew: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 7.

  38 As a first-time director of a full-scale dig: Joint statement, p. 4.

  39 on whom he felt the success of and continued access…depended: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  40 “no debate with the chief” policy: Joint statement, p. 4.

  41 had misconstrued some laughter: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 7.

  42 stuck their faces in flour…local goats were stringy: Interview with Dan Potts in 2017.

  43 ended up just using the bushes and ditches: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 4, 1968.

  44 many got sick very quickly: CPD-CCLK 2, p. 18.

  45 brought the crew closer together: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 8.

  46 “legs too short and has a droopy ass”: Joint statement, p. 3.

  47 behave as if he were still at Dartmouth: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.

  48 John the Baptist in Muslim tradition: John Renard, All the King’s Falcons: Rumi on Prophets and Revelation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), p. 87.

  49 qanats, or water wells: Qanat anecdote is from interview with Tom Beale in 2017.

  50 Jim and the night sky: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.

  51 “has been spectacular”: Here and rest of paragraph, letter from Jane to Brenda Bass July 4, 1968.

  52 She and Jim slept together: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.

  53 discreetly removed the bed railings: Rest of paragraph from Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.

  54 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.

  55 “Hey, if you’re not doing anything”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June (unspecified) 1968.

  56 Jane had a dream: Jane’s journal entry, July 5, 1968.

  57 lack of sanitation lowered the threshold: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 6.

  58 Jim, as the oldest student on the dig: Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 2, 5.

  59 “playing professional Central European barbarian”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  60 Jim ended up doing nine-tenths of the work: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.

  61 ran the medical clinic…Jim became the one who
patiently: CCLK foreword, p. XXVI.

  62 “I’ve never seen you stagger”: Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.

  63 Jane felt a similar pressure: While Karl did not dispute that this may have been Jane’s perception, he wanted to make clear that it was not unheard of for students to switch dissertation topics: “We’ve had graduate students who started working in the Near East and ended up writing their dissertation on the Maya…Sometimes they would change it in their fourth or fifth year.”

  64 “She felt everything academically depended”: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 2.

  65 bricks: Letter from Jane to parents, July 27, 1968.

  66 rodent holes: Letter from Jane to parents, July 4, 1968.

  67 Karl told Andrea Bankoff that he was pleased: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.

  68 Jim would climb into Jane’s trench: Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 7–8.

  69 grew too dim to see anything: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.

  70 Airmail stationery, their only connection: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.

  71 can of tuna was to be split…peanut butter was supposed to last for two weeks: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 10.

  72 People hallucinated visions of gingerbread: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.

  73 many fly bites…chicken walked into her tent, crapped: Letter from Jane to parents, July 4, 1968.

  74 centipede crawled into her underwear: Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.

  75 other than Karl: Phone call with CCLK in 2020; CPD-RM, p. 11.

  76 “bless his little antiseptic heart”: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.

  77 Jim had pink eye: Letter from Jane to her parents, June (unspecified), 1968.

  78 a case of hemorrhoids so severe…grumbling, dysenteric stomachs: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 9.

  79 “We are so frail, all of us,”: Jane’s July 3, 1968 journal entry.

  80 even Richard got sick: CPD-RM, p. 10.

  81 She told him about the dream: Jane’s July 7, 1968 journal entry.

  82 It’s going to be just like the past, after all: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.

  83 “I probably should have waited”: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.

  84 “I think maybe I’d like to be dead”: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.

  The Loop

  1 “If this were a mystery novel”: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.

  2 Until 2005: This change was formally announced in William C. Kirby’s February 2005 annual letter to the faculty. See “The New Tenure Track,” Harvard Magazine, Sept.–Oct. 2010.

  3 Karl was the last junior professor: Interviews with CCLK and Richard Meadow. The next junior professor of archaeology to be tenured was Rowan Flad, in 2012, confirmed with his curriculum vitae. The department’s director of administration and operations did not respond to my checker’s request to verify this statement.

  4 Maybury-Lewis…assistant professor: “David Maybury-Lewis, eminent anthropologist and scholar, 78,” Harvard Gazette, Dec. 6, 2007.

  5 Karl credited his rapid ascension: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  6 Karl had come back contending: CCLK, “Excavations at Tepe Yahya,” 1968, p. 2.

  7 in 1970, the Tepe Yahya progress report: CCLK, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran: 1967–1969 (Progress Report I), American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 27, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (1970).

  8 the Boston Globe celebrated: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1968.

  9 supposed elephant teeth: “Archaeological Unit from Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 12, 1968. On the phone in 2020, Karl did not dispute saying this to the Crimson. He did not remember what animal the teeth turned out to have come from: “It could have been horse; it could have been donkey.”

  10 an ancient Greek historian: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1968.

  General Exams

  1 “this Lamberg-Karlovsky person”: CPD-DM, p. 28.

  2 Jim recounted similar conversations: CPD-JH, p. 17.

  3 Ingrid Kirsch said she knew more: CPD-IK, pp. 18–19.

  4 “That one person could decide to pass”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  5 Stephen Williams tried to assure police: CPD-SW, p. 33.

  6 The day that Jane had tracked Jim: CPD-SLI, p. 47.

  7 terminal master’s in the spring of 1968: “Crimson Compass,” Harvard Alumni Database.

  8 “fundamental misunderstanding”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  9 he was one of three people on the grading committee: CPD-CCLK 2, p. 32.

  Ingrid Kirsch Police Interrogation

  1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-IK.

  Such a Toad

  1 “Everyone was so nice”: Interview with Barbara Westman in 2017.

  2 Ed Wade, the museum’s assistant director: Interview with Ed Wade in 2017.

  3 the former head of the Semitic Museum: Interview with Carney Gavin in 2014.

  4 “I had no feelings of competition”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  5 “It takes energy and martinis”: Interview with CCLK in 2017.

  6 remembered one class where he: Interview with John Terrell in 2017.

  7 “We all tell stories about ourselves”: Interview with John Terrell in 2017.

  8 recognized the role that luck played: Interview with Peter Dane in 2014.

  9 “He would paint big, exotic pictures”: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.

  10 people would come just to listen: Interview with Sadie Weber in 2017.

  11 “Karl is a dying breed”: Interview with Ajita Patel in 2018.

  12 Bruce Bourque recalled: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.

  13 Elizabeth Stone, had a similar story: Interview with Elizabeth Stone in 2018.

  14 “He was,” she said: In 2020, CCLK responded that he thought Elizabeth left because she had been unable to do both ancient languages and archaeology at Harvard. And, regardless, funding and scholarship decisions aren’t in his hands but under the auspices of the financial aid office––a comment he also offered in response to Bruce Bourque’s account. When I took this comment back to Elizabeth, she replied that she had been studying both subjects at Harvard without problem, so it is untrue to say that that motivated her departure. Plus, she may not know exactly how funding works at Harvard, but she knows how it works at other universities where departments get to decide how to allocate their funding and scholarship positions. Therefore, though CCLK did not have sole power, she said, it is likely fair to say he would have had say.

  Ruth Tringham

  1 This chapter is from interviews with Ruth Tringham in 2017 and 2018.

  2 “Dear Karl,” it began: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 7: Temp box, Letters 1975/1976, Folder T/U/V, Oct. 16, 1975, Ruth Tringham to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Ruth Tringham.

  3 Decades later, Karl, too, would remember: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  Richard Meadow

  1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-RM.

  Dan Potts

  1 Karl’s festschrift: “Ingenious Man, Inquisitive Soul: Essays in Iranian and Central Asian Archaeology for C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday by a Selection of His Students, Colleagues, and Friends,” Iranica Antiqua 37 (2002).

  2 a strange academic tradition: “The Festschrift Is Dead. Long Live the Festschrift!” Chronicle of Higher Education, Apr. 13, 2001.

  3 Dan Potts’s own essay: Dan Potts, “In Praise of Karl,” Iranica Antiqua 37 (2002): 2–6.

  4 Dan was happy to reminisce: The rest of this chapter is from an interview with Dan Potts in 2017.

  5 a letter from the NSF chastising Karl: Letter from Eloise Clark (Deputy Asst. Director, Biological and Social Sciences, National Science Foundation) to CCLK, Sept. 30,
1975.

  6 later published in a journal: CCLK’s Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture of 1973 later published in Proceedings of the British Academy 59 (1974): 283–319.

  7 “Please accept my sincerest apologies”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 7: Temp box, Letters 1975/1976, Folder K/L, Oct. 6, 1975: CCLK to Jim Shaffer. Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.

  8 Shaffer accepted his apology: Email from Jim Shaffer, May 26, 2017, 9:32 p.m.

  9 “There is a difference between convergence”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  10 later claim that Dan had been denied permission: Phone call with CCLK in 2020. Dan’s refutation is from a 2020 call with him.

  The Day of Jane’s Death: Karl’s Point of View

  1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-CCLK 1.

  Puzzle Pieces

  1 The two former graduate students at the beginning of the chapter did not want to be named as sources.

  2 Peter Rodman remembered a similar story: Interview with Peter Rodman in 2017.

  3 two of only three people: Per Rodman (2017), Ed Franquemont was the third.

  4 rule on the books about professors having relationships with undergraduates: The 2015 policy also bans relationships between professors and graduate students, as well as graduate students and undergraduates, if they are teaching, supervising, or evaluating them. See “New Harvard Policy Bans Teacher-Student Relations,” New York Times, Feb. 5, 2015.

  5 “I’ve had several other expeditions”: Interview with CCLK in 2018.

  6 Jane wasn’t just any student: Interview with David Freidel in 2017.

  7 he’d already gotten one from the University of Pittsburgh: Letter from David Landry to CCLK, Nov. 7, 1968.

  8 “Harvarditis––a bad case of necessary attachment to the institution”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.

  Ingrid Kirsch, Police Interrogation, Continued