Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

 
Visiting Sardis

History of Sardis

Publications on Sardis

Recent Exhibition:
The City of Sardis: Approaches in Graphic Recording
August 23 through January 18, 2004
Fogg Art Museum

New Publications:
Love for Lydia: a Sardis Anniversary Volume Presented to Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr. (Archaeological Exploration of Sardis Report 4)

Sardis is featured in
Harvard Magazine March-April 1998 issue.

The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis is an interdisciplinary program of excavation and research focused on the site of ancient Sardis, some 60 miles east of Izmir in Turkey. It is jointly sponsored by the Harvard University Art Museums and Cornell University.

Sardis lies in the territory of ancient Lydia, at the foot of the Tmolus Mountains and overlooking the Hermus River plain, where evidence has been found of human activity as early as the Palaeolithic period (ca. 50,000 B.C.). Recent excavations have focused on the Archaic era, particularly the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., when Sardis was the capital of the Lydian empire and at the height of its power, and on the Late Roman era, when the city was still flourishing. Archaeological highlights of Archaic date include the royal burial mounds at Bin Tepe , city wall, and gold-working installation; important monuments of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine date include the temple of Artemis, bath-gymnasium complex , synagogue, and row of shops adjoining the synagogue. Over 11,000 objects have been inventoried by the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis since its founding in 1958; a selection of the more important finds are on display in the Archaeological Museum of Manisa. By law, all artifacts remain in Turkey.

To Contact Sardis
Archaeological
Exploration of Sardis
Harvard University Art Museums
32 Quincy Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone:
(617) 495-3940

The administrative headquarters of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis and main archive are located in the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Excavation and research take place in the summer, once the Turkish Ministry of Culture has reviewed the proposed plan of activity and granted approval. The field staff consists predominantly of American and Turkish citizens. They include archaeologists, art historians, architects, conservators, numismatists, epigraphers, object illustrators, photographers, anthropologists, and other scientists. Since 2008, the field director has been Nicholas D. Cahill, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin— Madison.