Guthrie had been awarded the Craven Studentship after graduating with a starred First in Part II of the Classical Tripos in 1928, which required six months to be spent on research outside Cambridge and so he joined the epigraphical expedition to Central Anatolia led by W. M. Calder and W. H. Buckler in Spring 1929 (which was cut short due to illness). The epigraphical studies published in the 'Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua' Vol IV (MUP, 1933) were mainly the result of expeditions in 1930 and 1932, intended to complete a survey of monumental inscriptions of a region of Turkey stretching from Afyon Karahisar (Akroenos) to Uluborlu (Apollonia) and Dinar (Apameia), plus the area around ancient Eumeneia. Guthrie began as Calder's assistant, with the team recording twenty inscriptions a day, but was soon taking his own squeezes. The date of this letter would suggest that he turned down a later expedition, possibly as a result of his recent Fellowship at Peterhouse. Guthrie began lecturing in 1933.