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Ancient and Byzantine Glass from Sardis
Axel von Saldern
Harvard University Press, 1980

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Ancient Literary Sources on Sardis
John Griffiths Pedley
Harvard University Press, 1972
The second monograph from the archaeological exploration of Sardis in western Turkey is a compilation of references to early Sardis (to A.D. 284) in the writings of ancient authors ranging from Homer to Tzetses. John Griffiths Pedley has organized the references into four chronological chapters covering successive periods in the history of the city; a fifth chapter is devoted to topography and monuments, and an appendix presents Eastern sources. Each entry includes the Greek or Latin text, an English translation, and a commentary with bibliographical references. More than three hundred major sources are quoted; references of lesser importance are cited in the notes.
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The Corinthian, Attic, and Lakonian Pottery from Sardis
Judith Snyder Schaeffer; Nancy H. Ramage; Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr.
Harvard University Press, 1997

Although the treasury of King Croesus held great quantities of gold and silver plate, the Lydians clearly loved fine ceramic wares imported from Greece. This preference was entirely appropriate for the capital of the expansive Lydian Kingdom, which occupied a pivotal position between the city states of the Greeks and the gigantic empire of the Persians. The importation of Greek pottery corresponds to the visits from poets, philosophers, and politicians mentioned by the historian Herodotus.

This collaborative work consists of three generously illustrated sections presenting the ceramic finds excavated at Sardis, but produced in the mainland Greek centers of Corinth, Athens, and Sparta. Judith Snyder Schaeffer analyzes the Corinthian imports, Nancy H. Ramage the Attic, and Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., the Lakonian. Their study of this material from the Harvard-Cornell excavations at Sardis offers new evidence of the taste for specific Greek wares and shapes in Anatolia before the time of Alexander the Great.

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Greek, Roman and Islamic Coins from Sardis
T. V. Buttrey
Harvard University Press, 1981

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The Hellenistic Pottery from Sardis
The Finds through 1994
Susan I. Rotroff and Andrew Oliver, Jr.
Harvard University Press, 2003
Hellenistic art in Asia Minor is characterized by diverse cultural influences, both indigenous and Greek. This work presents a comprehensive catalogue of the Hellenistic pottery found at Sardis by two archaeological expeditions. The main catalogue includes over 750 items from the current excavations; in addition, material from some 50 Hellenistic tombs excavated in the early twentieth century is published in its entirety for the first time. The early Hellenistic material consists of imports from Greek cities and close local imitations, along with purely Lydian wares typical of the "late Lydian" phase that followed the Persian conquest. By the late Hellenistic period, Sardis boasts a full range of Greek shapes and styles; indeed, the influence of new conquerors, the Romans, was felt as well. Thus the ceramic finds from Sardis reflect the changing fortunes of the city, bearing witness to the tenacity of indigenous customs and the influences of foreign powers.
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Letters from Sardis
George M. A. Hanfmann
Harvard University Press, 1972

The metropolis of Asia Minor and one of the great capitals of antiquity, Sardis was the place where legendary Croesus ruled, where coinage was invented, and economic history revolutionized. The letters published in this book provide an informal account of fourteen years of work by a Harvard-Cornell team to retrieve evidence of the greatness of Lydian culture as well as of the Prehistoric, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine civilizations that preceded and followed the Lydian kingdom.

Written each season from the field by George Hanfmann, Field Director of the expedition and John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology at Harvard University, the letters have allowed friends and supporters of the project to share in the important aspects of a dig at a major site—the excitement and disappointments inherent in a scholarly quest of long-buried cultures, the multiplicity of unexpected complications, human, mechanical, and environmental. The letters reveal the diversity and variety of methods, tasks, and problems that a dig brings into play: from analysis of minute gold pieces to construction of a seventy-foot crane; from checking 500 items through customs to deciphering an unknown language. They chronicle both successes and failures: the discovery of the gold-refining plant of Croesus and his ancestors, the unexpected emergence of the world's largest early synagogue and its restoration, and the valiant but unsuccessful attempt to locate the burial chamber of the founder of the Lydian kingdom by tunneling through a huge mound.

The letters have an immediacy that no generalized or retrospective account could have. More than 200 black and white and five color photographs and three maps illustrate the letters, which serve as a pleasurable introduction to archaeology and a report on a major community on the boundary of the Mediterranean and the Near East spanning 5,000 years. Letters from Sardis also provides a survey of the most important scientific and scholarly results attained by one of the major archaeological projects in the classical lands.

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Metalwork from Sardis
The Finds Through 1974
J. C. Waldbaum
Harvard University Press, 1983
In this eighth monograph on the archaeological excavations at Sardis, Jane C. Waldbaum presents the evidence for metal industries at the site, from the early Bronze Age through the gold refinery of the Lydian kings to the Late Antique and Byzantine ironworks. More than one thousand objects made of metal or related to metalworking are catalogued and illustrated. These finds are placed in historical context with the help of ancient literary and epigraphic sources. This corpus of metalwork from an important site makes a substantial contribution to Mediterranean archaeology, and adds to the series of publications that will constitute a full technical report on this massive excavation.
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Sardis from Prehistoric to Roman Times
Results of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, 1958–1975
George M. A. Hanfmann
Harvard University Press, 1983

A great metropolis of the ancient world, “golden” Sardis was the place where legendary Croesus ruled, where coinage was invented. Since 1958 an archaeological team has been working at the site to retrieve evidence of the rich Lydian culture as well as of the prehistoric Anatolian settlement and the Hellenistic and Roman civilizations that followed the Lydian kingdom. Here is a comprehensive and fully illustrated account of what the team has learned, presented by the eminent archaeologist who led the expedition.

George Hanfmann and his collaborators survey the environment of Sardis, the crops and animal life, the mineral resources, the industries for which the city was famed, and the pattern of settlement. The history of Sardis is then reconstructed, from the early Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Archaeologists who have done the excavating contribute descriptions of shops and houses, graves, the precinct and Altar of Artemis, the Acropolis, gold-working installations and techniques, the bath and gymnasium complex, and the Synagogue. The material finds are studied in the context of other evidence, and there emerges an overall picture of the Lydian society, culture, and religion, the Greek and subsequently the Roman impact, the Jewish community, and the Christianization of Sardis. Historians of the ancient world will find this account invaluable.

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Sardis
Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Part II: Finds from 1958 to 2017
Georg Petzl
Harvard University Press, 2019

Ancient Sardis, the capital of Lydia, was of outstanding importance: in the Lydian period it held the residence of the kings and subsequently, under Persian rule, the satraps. Throughout antiquity it remained an administrative center. Travelers of modern times and archaeological excavations have revealed, from the city site and its surroundings, inscriptions written mostly in Greek, some in Latin. Their texts deal with all kinds of subjects: decrees, public honors, civil and sacred laws, letters, epitaphs, and more.

In the corpus “Sardis VII 1” (1932) W. H. Buckler and D. M. Robinson published all inscriptions (228 items) known up to 1922, after which year excavation at Sardis came to a halt because of the Greek-Turkish war. Since excavation resumed in 1958, a portion of the Greek and Latin inscriptions has been published in various, widely scattered places; another portion, containing important texts discovered during the last ten years, was until now unpublished. The aim of this monograph is to present in a comprehensive corpus the entire epigraphic harvest (485 items) made in Sardis and its territory since 1958. Each inscription is accompanied by a description of the monument, bibliography, translation, and commentary; indices, concordances, photographs, and maps complement the collection.

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front cover of Spear-Won Land
Spear-Won Land
Sardis from the King's Peace to the Peace of Apamea
Edited by Andrea M. Berlin and Paul J. Kosmin
University of Wisconsin Press, 2019
Sardis, in western Turkey, was one of the great cities of the Aegean and Near Eastern worlds for almost a millennium—a political keystone with a legendary past. Recent archeological work has revealed how the city was transformed in the century following Alexander’s conquests from a traditional capital to a Greek polis, setting the stage for its blossoming as a Roman urban center. This integrated collection of essays by more than a dozen prominent scholars illuminates a crucial stage, from the early fourth century to 189 BCE, when it became one of the most important political centers of Asia Minor.
The contributors to this volume are members of the Hellenistic Sardis Project, a research collaboration between long-standing expedition members and scholars keenly interested in the site. These new discussions on the pre-Roman history of Sardis restore the city in the scholarship of the Hellenistic East and will be enlightening to scholars of classical archaeology.
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A Survey of Sardis and the Major Monuments Outside the City Walls
George M. A. Hanfmann and J. C. Waldbaum
Harvard University Press, 1975

The great metropolis of Asia Minor, Sardis was the place where legendary Croesus ruled, where coinage was invented. Since 1958 a Harvard-Cornell archaeological team has worked at the site to retrieve evidence of the greatness of Lydian culture as well as of the prehistoric, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Turkish civilizations that preceded and followed the Lydian kingdom. Here is the first of the richly illustrated volumes that will report their work.

Eight authors, experts from a variety of disciplines, put Sardis into its setting—physical, economic, and cultural. They offer a topographic survey of the city; a study of the vast defensive circuit of the Roman City Wall; and the first detailed examination of the sacred Precinct of Artemis, which housed one of the grandest temples of antiquity. The precinct's changing fortunes from archaic to Turkish times and the nature of the earliest temple on the site are discussed on the basis of new soundings, and reasons for the change to a temple dedicated jointly to Zeus and Artemis are outlined.

Also included is evidence for an archaic Lydian and a larger Hellenistic altar and for Lydian dwellings at the northeast boundary of the precinct. Located outside the City Walls, a Roman bath having fragments of Early Byzantine paintings illustrates experiments in combining Hellenistic masonry and Roman concrete structural systems.

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