The NYU Institute of Fine Arts presents
New Research and Discoveries at Aphrodisias in 2022
Roland R. R. Smith
Director, Excavations at Aphrodisias
Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art Emeritus, University of Oxford
Research Professor, The NYU Institute of Fine Arts
Katherine Welch
Deputy Director, Excavations at Aphrodisias
Associate Professor of Fine Arts, The NYU Institute of Fine Arts
Introduction by NYU President Andrew Hamilton and Christine Poggi, Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director, The NYU Institue of Fine Arts
This lecture will be held both virtually and in person.* Register here for in-person attendance. Register here for virtual attendance.
Join us to hear Roland R. R. Smith speak about the most recent work carried out by NYU-IFA at Aphrodisias in southwest Turkey, in collaboration with Oxford University. Aphrodisias is one of the most important sites of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean, with superbly preserved public buildings and monuments. Marble-carving was a noted Aphrodisian speciality in antiquity, and the excavated remains of the city’s statues, sarcophagi, and architectural reliefs are abundant and of spectacular quality.
The team carried out a rewarding nine-week research season at Aphrodisias last summer, back to near-full pre-COVID strength. Current projects all saw exciting results—the Civil Basilica with its inscribed text of Diocletian’s Prices Edict; the Place of Palms and its 170m-long pool; the Tetrapylon Street and its extraordinary seventh-century Dark Age Complex; and a new project at the late antique House of Kybele and its lively neighborhood. Excavation recovered several important new statuary finds. Most striking is an Antonine portrait of a young priestess wearing a fashionable hairstyle of long plaited braids wound elegantly six times around her head.
Roland Smith is an expert in Greek and Roman art, with a special interest in the visual and urban culture of the eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. He taught at the IFA from 1986 to 1995 and has been director of the NYU Aphrodisias project since 1991. He retired recently from his position as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford University and is currently teaching for the academic year 2022–23 at Princeton University as the Stanley Kelley Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching.
*This program will be presented onsite at the James B. Duke House and live-streamed to those who join by Zoom. Zoom details will be available upon registration for virtual attendees. All in-person attendees must be in compliance with NYU's COVID-19 vaccination requirements (fully vaccinated and boosted, once eligible and by NYU's deadline) and be prepared to provide proof of compliance.