AJA

Early Greek alphabetic writing has received extensive attention in the literature. Yet such writing is often treated as immaterial, both literally and metaphorically. My study addresses this problem by offering a systematic investigation of the material properties of nearly 300 inscribed objects, mostly ceramic, that date from ca. 750–600 BCE and originate from seven sites across the Greek world.

The recent excavations in Patara, Turkey, one of the important port cities of the Lycian region, enabled access to new important data about the Ptolemaic presence in the city and the region. The subject of this study is 19 gold trichrysons found in a bundle formed by two lead plates wrapped together. Fifteen of these coins were struck in Alexandria, and four others were from Cyprus, probably Salamis or Kition.

The Late Antique (ca. 450 CE) infant cemetery uncovered at Poggio Gramignano near Lugnano in Teverina (Italy) has been interpreted as a catastrophic death assemblage associated with an acute epidemic of Plasmodium falciparum malaria and a resulting episode of increased infant mortality.

This article is based on research into the archaeological collections exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. In the course of that research, various documents were found relating to an Early Christian lead vessel, discovered in Carthage and since disappeared, that attracted the attention of many scholars at the time.

During four field seasons spanning 2014 through 2017, Project ArAGATS (Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies) expanded our long-term research on the origins and development of complex political systems in the South Caucasus with a comprehensive study of the upper Kasakh River valley in north-central Armenia.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London owns two watercolors that depict the Temple of Artemis at Sardis with its two fully standing columns as they appeared in the early 19th century. The museum catalogue stated that the finer of the two, showing a dramatic stormy view by Clarkson Stanfield (1834–35), a prominent artist who had never been to Sardis, was based on the second, a crude sketch allegedly made on the spot by one “Mr. Maude,” otherwise unknown.

What began as a plan to replace the original 1931 walnut display cases quickly morphed into a five-year Gallery Enhancements Project at the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago (OIM). Timed to coincide with the centennial celebration in the fall of 2019, the museum redesign includes greater label transparency, a standardized set of gallery materials, and some stunning sightlines, color schemes, interpretations, and object placements.