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Founded in 300 BCE, Antioch-on-the-Orontes was one of the great metropolises of the ancient world—a cosmopolitan centre of trade, culture and religion that ranked among the most important cities of the Roman Empire. Its archaeological record, rich in mosaic pavements, sculpture, coins and everyday objects, offers a vivid picture of urban life spanning nearly a thousand years. Yet the story of how that record came to light through excavation—and where it ended up—is as complex as the city itself.
In the 1930s, Princeton University led a landmark series of excavations at Antioch under the French Mandate of Syria, assembling an international consortium of American and French institutions. Over eight seasons of fieldwork, the project recovered hundreds of artifacts and was widely hailed as the “dig of the century.” But the colonial structures that enabled these excavations, and the system of partage that dispersed the finds among partner institutions worldwide, produced a fragmented and ethically complicated legacy that has yet to be fully addressed.
Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City confronts that legacy directly. Drawing on three years of original research, it brings together approximately 120 understudied objects and architectural fragments from the storage collections of four American museums—the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dumbarton Oaks, the Harvard Art Museums, and the Worcester Art Museum—alongside newly digitized archival materials from Princeton University’s archaeological excavation records. Many of these artifacts have never been fully catalogued, photographed, or published.
The result is a reassessment of Antioch’s material culture and its modern afterlife. Essays by leading scholars examine the city’s urban fabric, the institutional ambitions and diplomatic negotiations behind the excavations, the local workers who made them possible, and the journeys these artifacts took from excavation sites in Hatay to museum storerooms across the Atlantic. An object catalogue presents new research on each artifact, reconnecting them with their archaeological contexts and with one another.
At a moment when debates over cultural heritage, colonial collecting, and museum ethics are more urgent than ever, Excavating Antioch offers a model of transparent, collaborative scholarship—and an invitation to see both an ancient city and its modern legacy in a new light.
Nicole Berlin is the Associate Curator of Collections at the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, specializing in ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology. Her research focuses on Roman houses and mosaics. She co-leads the international Excavating Antioch project and serves as curator of the corresponding exhibition.
Elizabeth Molacek is an art historian specializing in ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology, with a focus on Roman wall paintings, mosaics, and collection histories. She co-leads the international Excavating Antioch project and serves as contributing curator of the related exhibition. She has curated and contributed to exhibitions and ongoing research initiatives, including the Roman Domestic Art installation and the Tethys Project at the Harvard Art Museums.