William Andrew McDonald

Who was William Andrew McDonald?

William Andrew McDonald was an American archaeologist born in Ontario, Canada. In 1935, he graduated from the University of Toronto with first class honors in classical studies. In 1936, McDonald received his Master's degree in ancient history from the same university. He studied classical archaeology at Johns Hopkins University and received his Ph.D in 1940. His dissertation entitled The Political Meeting Places of the Greeks is still regarded as an important fundamental study of Greek public architecture. From 1938 until 1939, McDonald was a student of the American Classical School in Athens and participated in excavations at Pylos and Olynthos. Under his supervision, the first Linear B tablets were discovered at Pylos on April 3, 1939. In 1953, McDonald continued excavating at Pylos until Carl Blegen convinced him to focus his efforts towards surveying the territory comprising the Late Bronze Age kingdom of Pylos. During this time, McDonald undertook his first of many interdisciplinary projects whereby he collected modern place-names across southwest Greece. In 1958, McDonald began to collaborate with Richard Hope Simpson who was conducting an archaeological survey of Laconia.