Awards Presented at the 113th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America

See all awards and past winners on the Archaeological Institute of America’s website.

The 113th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America was held in conjunction with the 143rd Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 5–8 January 2012.

On 6 January, Elizabeth Bartman, President, presented the Institute’s 47th Annual Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement to Lawrence Richardson, Jr., and the Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award to Shelby Brown.

Andrew Moore, First Vice President, presented the 31st Annual Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology to David Philip Spencer Peacock, and the 16th Annual Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award to Mary B. Hollinshead.

John Younger, Vice President of Publications, presented the 23rd Annual James R. Wiseman Book Award to Michael Dietler for Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France (Berkeley 2010), and the 2nd Annual Felicia A. Holton Book Award to Jack W. Brink for Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains (Edmonton, Alberta 2008).

Laetitia LaFollette, Vice President for Professional Responsibilities, presented the AIA’s Outstanding Public Service Award to David Gill, the Conservation and Heritage Management Award to James R. McCredie, and the Award for Best Practices in Site Preservation to Donald Haggis and Margaret Mook. The texts of these award citations are printed below.

Andrew Moore also announced Simeon Ehrlich (University of Western Ontario) as the recipient of the Poster Session Award for “Horae in Roman Funerary Inscriptions.” The Poster Session Runner-Up Award was presented to Bice Peruzzi (University of Cincinnati) and Amanda Reiterman (University of Pennsylvania) for “Learning from their Mistakes: Try-Pieces, Wasters, and Other Evidence for Ceramic Production from the Potters’ Quarter at Corinth.” Jennifer Altman-Lupu (Archeodig Project) received the Best Poster Designed by a Student Award for “Innovation or Desperation: An In-Depth Analysis of the Apodyterium Mosaic at Poggio del Molino, Populonia, Italy.” Elizabeth Bartman announced Allison Emmerson (University of Cincinnati) and Margaret Andrews (University of Pennsylvania) as cowinners of the Graduate Student Paper Award.

On 7 January, at the 133rd Meeting of Council, the following were elected to the Institute’s Governing Board: Pamela Russell, Vice President for Outreach and Education; David Boochever, Shilpi Mehta, Eleanor Powers, David Seigle, Charlie Steinmetz, Douglas Tilden, and Ronald Greenberg, General Trustees; Sue Alcock, Carla Antonaccio, Barbara Barletta, and Heather McKillop, Academic Trustees; and Michael Hoff and Maria Papaioannou, Society Trustees. Thomas Morton, Vice President for Societies, announced the following recipients of the 2011 Society Outreach Grants: Central Arizona, Central Carolinas, Central Missouri, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, New Brunswick, Ottawa, Salem, Tucson, and Vancouver.

From 6–8 January, 329 papers were delivered in 65 sessions. The 113th Annual Meeting Abstracts (Boston 2011), containing abstracts of these papers and the colloquia and workshops, is available online and in print (see the Annual Meeting section of the Archaeological Institute of America’s website or contact the AIA for information). Eight Roundtable Discussions were also held: AANLS: Getting Started in Neo-Latin Scholarship; Does Looting Matter?; How to Prepare Digital Images, Maps, Plans, Text, and Tables for Archaeological Publications; Latin for the New Millennium in the College Classroom; National Endowment for the Humanities’ Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives Project; Talking Stones: Teaching Epigraphy in Schools; Teaching with Objects; and The Tesserae Project: A Search Engine for Allusion.

Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award

Shelby Brown

The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to bestow upon Shelby Brown the 2012 Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award. Brown has given many years of dedicated service to the AIA at both the local society and national levels and, in particular, has been an innovator and catalyst for the AIA’s education and outreach efforts.

From 1992 to 2000, Brown served with distinction in the Los Angeles County local society, holding the positions of Program Coordinator, Vice President, and, finally, President. In 2004, the AIA Council created a new position, Vice President for Education and Outreach, and elected Brown the first holder of this office. Under her leadership, the AIA instituted a series of programs aimed at K–12 students and teachers—an education section of the AIA website, teacher workshops, lesson plans, and much more. Using her knowledge and experience as an archaeologist and a teacher, Brown set the standard for the position.

Shelby Brown’s dedicated work at the local society level and her energy, foresight, and direction for the AIA’s national education mission makes her a worthy recipient of the 2012 Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award.

Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement

Lawrence Richardson, Jr.

The Archaeological Institute of America’s 2012 Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement is awarded to Lawrence Richardson, jr. Richardson has had an extraordinary career in Roman studies with special reference to ancient Italy. He began his archaeological fieldwork after World War II as a principal investigator of the Latin colony of Cosa in Etruria. His publication of the Hellenistic terracottas from the temples of the arx and forum—the first improvement on the broad general classification of Arvid Andrén—remains a standard reference in the field, as does his study of the comitium/curia complexes at Cosa, Poseidonia/Paestum, and Rome itself.

His books and articles on Pompeii and Rome are the works for which he is now best known. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Baltimore 1992) is a constant citation in Steinby’s multivolume Lexicon topographicum urbis romae (Rome 1993), and it is a work, along with Pompeii: An Architectural History (Baltimore 1988), from which students and colleagues alike continue to draw great profit. His most recent work on Pompeian painting, A Catalog of Identifiable Painters of Ancient Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae (Baltimore 2000), maintains the balance between architecture, painting, and the plastic arts characteristic of his scholarship.

His range of scholarly contributions is formidable and includes some 50 articles in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (Princeton 1976) and about the same number in An Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology (Westport, Conn. 1996). And one cannot fail to note the many articles in which he brought archaeology felicitously to bear on the interpretation of Latin literature and vice versa. Indeed, an Italian Pompeian colleague, in his review of Pompeii: An Architectural History (1988), observed that Richardson could not have so masterfully animated the history, people, and life of Pompeii without his exceptional knowledge of Roman literature.

As an archaeologist and a philologist, Lawrence Richardson, jr., is an exemplary recipient of the 2012 Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology

David Philip Spencer Peacock

In recognition of his distinguished record of contributions to the advancement of archaeological science, the 2012 Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology is awarded to David Philip Spencer Peacock. Peacock, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton, is renowned for introducing petrological analysis into British archaeology and for applying methodologies of archaeological science to a wide range of key questions in classical and prehistoric archaeology.

After earning his doctorate in geology at the University of St. Andrews in 1965, Peacock spent most of his career at the University of Southampton. His use of diverse chemical and petrographic techniques in studying pottery produced a series of seminal articles that radically changed the interpretation of British prehistory by demonstrating the movement of pottery beyond local regions. His application of these techniques to the study of Roman pottery resulted in Amphorae and the Roman Economy (with D. Williams [London and New York 1986])—the standard textbook on the subject for more than 20 years.

Peacock next applied his methodology to the analysis of stone. A survey of the potential and problems of stone in archaeology, commissioned by English Heritage, was published in 1998 as The Archaeology of Stone (London) and led to the important website Stone in Archaeology: Towards a Digital Resource.

Moving beyond material characterization, Peacock investigated the context of pottery production and its ramifications for distribution. Pottery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach (London and New York 1982) introduced the use of ethnographic analogy into classical pottery studies and provided a model of middle-range theory that still stands today. Similarly, Peacock enlarged his study of stone to include stoneworking techniques, quarries, and their empire-wide distribution.

Peacock made Southampton the center for petrological analysis, attracting numerous postgraduate students and visiting scholars from throughout the world and mentoring more than 20 through their doctorates. He has received prestigious grants from the Natural Environment Research Council, the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the National Geographic Society.

For his outstanding contributions in research, service, and mentoring in archaeological science, the Archaeological Institute of America honors David Philip Spencer Peacock with the 2012 Pomerance Award for Scientific Contributions to Archaeology.

Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

Mary B. Hollinshead

The Archaeological Institute of America recognizes Mary B. Hollinshead of the University of Rhode Island as the 2012 recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Hollinshead received her B.A. and Ph.D. in classical and Near Eastern Archaeology from Bryn Mawr College and her M.A. in classical archaeology from Harvard University. She is associate professor of art history at the University of Rhode Island.

Hollinshead is praised by students, colleagues, administrators, curators, and collaborators alike as an inspiring teacher, mentor, and fellow scholar. She has been a creative force and an agent of change within the institutions she has served. Her highly praised course offerings, from “Aegean Bronze Age Art and Archaeology” to “Ancient Painting: Contexts and Commentaries,” are thoughtfully designed and methodologically rigorous, challenging students to develop skills in critical thinking, historiographical analysis, and interactive learning.

Hollinshead’s tireless dedication to her students—as well as her role in their professional development and personal fulfillment—is legendary. Blessed with a “natural ability to teach” and “a way of engaging with ancient material that is infectious,” she is universally praised by students grateful for the interest she has taken in them. Hollinshead has been hailed as a teacher with a very special gift for “identifying, encouraging, and coaching motivated students to achieve remarkable things.”

The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to recognize Mary B. Hollinshead, an “exemplar pedagogue” to her students, with this award.

Outstanding Public Service Award

David Gill

David Gill of University Campus Suffolk has successfully translated his professional concern for the ongoing looting of ancient sites into practical action. In July 2007, Gill, an internationally renowned scholar, launched the blog Looting Matters, which has become a visible and influential outlet for discussion of the looting that continues to destroy the material record of the Greek and Roman past.

Posts on Looting Matters have covered the entire range of at-risk Greek and Roman material culture, from coins to Greek painted vases; they have also discussed issues such as high-profile raids against traffickers, developments in legal cases, and the monetary value of the antiquities trade. Gill’s particular expertise with the so-called Medici Archive—a dossier of photographs showing the contents of a Geneva warehouse that held illegally excavated objects—makes his efforts against unethical auction houses admirably effective. While many dealers have been vociferous and provocative in their opposition to his work, Gill artfully keeps his emotions out of the debate. The payoff comes when his efforts lead to the removal of an object from a sale.

Looting Matters brings the professional concerns of archaeologists to a worldwide audience. Gill happily corresponds with and encourages other authors, many of whom have taken up his call for strong, reasoned advocacy. He has also been a supporter of Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE), an advocacy group devoted to the problem of looting.

His ongoing efforts to educate both the public and archaeologists on the nature of the antiquities trade—and the success he has had in reining in the trade’s most egregious profiteering—make David Gill a worthy recipient of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Outstanding Public Service Award.

James R. Wiseman Book Award

Michael Dietler

The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to present the 2012 James R. Wiseman Book Award to Michael Dietler for Archaeologies of Colonialism: Consumption, Entanglement, and Violence in Ancient Mediterranean France (Berkeley 2010). In this volume, Dietler masters both the theoretical and the material, interweaving “our theoretical approaches to the study of colonialism and our understanding of the socio-historical context of archaeological practice.” For Dietler, our own understanding of the past has been shaped by the “archaeologies of colonialism.” In this “recursive colonialism,” modern colonial ideologies become remediated recurrences of ancient colonial encounters.

Drawing on his extensive fieldwork in southern France, Dietler investigates the encounter between colonists and indigenous peoples by examining familiar artifacts such as ceramics, architecture, and texts. He also includes a study of food, which considers how both sides might adopt or reject exotic food and drink, leading to changes in eating and drinking by both the indigenous peoples and the colonists. The processes of colonialism are thus shown to be complex and bidirectional.

Dietler’s book is particularly noteworthy for its broad geographical and chronological scope. Extremely well written, it is a mature piece of scholarship that will serve as a model not only for studies of colonialism in the Mediterranean world but for all colonial studies. For all these reasons, the Archaeological Institute of America has selected Archaeologies of Colonialism as a most worthy recipient of the 2012 James R. Wiseman Book Award.

Felicia A. Holton Book Award

Jack W. Brink

The Archaeological Institute of America and the Center for American Archaeology are pleased to present the Felicia A. Holton Book Award to Jack W. Brink for Imagining Head-Smashed-In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains (Edmonton, Alberta 2008). This book comprehensively and beautifully recounts the practices of North America’s Great Plains hunters some 9,000 years ago. Having worked for many years as an archaeologist at the site of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (located between Calgary, Alberta, and the Montana state line), Brink examines these people’s ingenious use of the landscape of the vast plains to carry out buffalo kills on an extraordinary scale.

Brink is a consummate storyteller, and his book advances our understanding of archaeology in the best ways. He provides the general reader with a solid understanding of archaeological fieldwork and explains how evidence is gathered, how the “story” of a site and a people is constructed from that evidence, and, ultimately, how such a site can be preserved for visitors according to best practices. Finally, Brink movingly discusses his relationship with the current-day descendants of the people he has studied and their role in managing the archaeological site and its visitors’ center. Imagining Head-Smashed-In is a significant contribution to archaeological scholarship, a wonderful read, and a worthy recipient of the 2012 Felicia A. Holton Book Award.

Conservation and Heritage Management Award

James R. McCredie

The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to present its 2012 Conservation and Heritage Management Award for excellence in the conservation of archaeological sites and collections to James R. McCredie. The award recognizes McCredie’s lifetime support of conservation in the field as well as his ongoing commitment to conservation training and education.

McCredie is a highly respected scholar and archaeologist who has held many governing and influential management positions. He formerly served as director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) (1969–1977), chairman of the Managing Committee of the ASCSA (1980–1990), and director of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (NYU) (1983–2002). He has also been director of the excavations of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods in Samothrace, Greece. He is currently the Sherman Fairchild Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.

In all these positions, McCredie has been a pioneering and conscientious advocate for conservation of the excavated materials and the sites themselves. He encouraged and supported the development of the conservation program at the Athenian Agora, and the ASCSA hired a full-time conservator for the Agora in 1980. Their efforts quickly expanded to include archaeological conservation training. Furthermore, as director of the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, McCredie strongly advocated continuing and expanding funding and conservation support to numerous NYU collaborative excavations, including Samothrace, Aphrodisias, Sardis, and Selinunte. All these sites have had a long, steady history of active conservation by supervisory conservators and students from the Conservation Center training program of the Institute of Fine Arts.

On behalf of the Archaeological Institute of America, it is an honor to present the 2012 Conservation and Heritage Management Award to James R. McCredie. We hope his efforts and dedication will be an inspiration and example to others in the field.

Award for Best Practices in Site Preservation

Donald Haggis and Margaret Mook

The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to present its 2012 Award for Best Practices in Site Preservation to Donald Haggis and Margaret Mook for their exemplary work at Azoria, Crete. Haggis and Mook’s trail-blazing efforts on Crete confirm that site preservation and excavation should go hand in hand. From the early stages of excavation, Haggis and Mook enlisted the services of local specialists to stabilize and conserve the architecture being exposed in the excavation. Their conservation program at Azoria was the first formally reviewed study of the methods, materials, and techniques needed to implement sustainable preservation at an excavated site. Along with effecting the immediate stabilization of the exposed remains, Haggis and Mook prepared the site to withstand the pressures of year-round visitation.

Just as impressive as Haggis and Mook’s conservation endeavors are their tireless efforts to publish their research and share their findings with local communities. By implementing sustainable, long-term site preservation practices, educating the public, and working to create an eco-archaeological tourist site, Haggis and Mook have demonstrated a strong commitment both to best practices in site preservation and to the local community. The Archaeological Institute of America hopes their colleagues will strive to emulate this dedication.

Haggis is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Azoria Project. Mook is an associate professor of classical studies at Iowa State University and is the field director and pottery specialist at the Azoria Project.

On behalf of the Archaeological Institute of America, it is an honor to present the 2012 Award for Best Practices in Site Preservation to Donald Haggis and Margaret Mook.