Nickname | AIA |
---|---|
Formation | 1879 |
Headquarters | Boston, MA |
Subsidiaries | American Journal of Archaeology Archaeology |
Website | www |
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established research centers and schools in seven countries. As of 2019, the society had more than 6,100 members and more than 100 affiliated local societies in the United States and overseas. [1] [2] AIA members include professional archaeologists and members of the public. [2]
The AIA has established many archaeological organizations and protected many historical sites in the world. The AIA has hosted an annual meeting every year for over 120 years, where archaeologists present their latest work. [3] The institute also has established scholarships for students and awarded archaeologists for their contributions to archaeology.
The institute publishes a scholarly journal, the American Journal of Archaeology (AJA) and the magazine Archaeology .
The Archaeological Institute of America was founded in Boston in 1879 by Charles Eliot Norton with his colleagues and friends. They formed the society "for furthering and directing the archaeological and artistic investigation and research". Norton was the AIA's first president. [2] The institute subsequently expanded its reach through the establishment of schools of archaeology around the Mediterranean and in the southwestern United States. [4] [2]
The American Journal of Archaeology (AJA) is the AIA's peer-reviewed academic journal, and Archaeology is the popular magazine issued by the institute.
The American Journal of Archaeology was founded in 1885; the second series began in 1897. The AJA is published four times a year by the Archaeological Institute of America and the University of Chicago Press. The chief editors of the magazine are Emma Blake of the University of Arizona and Robert Schon of the University of Arizona. The journal presents original studies of the various peoples and material cultures of the Mediterranean and related regions, including North Africa (Egypt and Sudan), Western Asia (Caucasus), and Europe, from prehistory to late antiquity and beyond. [5] The AJA encourages work that explores the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean along with other regions and periods and discusses the reasons for their continuing significance in the present. Also addressed in the journal are the history of the discipline, archaeological methodologies, and theoretical approaches.
The Archaeological Institute of America has continuously published Archaeology since 1948. The magazine engages and entertains readers through vivid stories, surprising narratives, and inspiring images, bringing people of the past into our lives in the present. [6] The magazine and website of the American Institute of Archaeology contain news of recent archaeological discoveries. The magazine is available at newsstands or on the website.
The Archaeological Institute of America is governed by the council. All representatives must be AIA members who know AIA rules, work throughout the year and vote on issues, and attend meetings. The Governing Board prepares and approves the organization's annual budget and oversees its investments and donations, also conducting fundraising activities. [7] The board meets three times a year and consists of seven officers elected by the council and twenty-four to thirty governors. There are three types of trustees, representing different constituents of AIA: General Trustees, Academic Trustees, and Society Trustees. The executive committee of the governing board holds at least three meetings annually.
Elizabeth S. Greene is the current president (term 2023 to 2026), and Brian I. Daniels is the first vice president (term 2023 to 2026). [7]
The AIA offers scholarships for young academic members and funds several students for excavation, research, publication, and site preservation. Its numerous awards recognize archaeologists and individuals and communities who have made outstanding contributions to the field and heritage conservation. [8]
Former presidents of the AIA [9]
As tourism and archaeology become more closely linked, archaeologists and site managers must consider the behavior and needs of visitors when deciding how to preserve and present sites. This requires consideration of issues such as how tourism will affect archaeological sites and impact research. In 2009, The Archaeological Institute of America partnered with the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) to develop a set of guidelines for people interested in organizing trips to archaeological sites. [15]
International Archaeology Day has been celebrated annually on the third Saturday of October by the AIA and is held throughout the month. This archaeological activity is suitable for all ages and interests. The event features archaeologist's lectures, tours of archaeological sites, and archaeological fairs. IAD Scavenger Hunt is an online Scavenger Hunt game published by AIA, and the ArchaeoDoodles Contest is a doodle event held by AIA in which participants create illustrations and graphics using 15 words or phrases recommended by AIA to help update AIA's list of terms and definitions. [16]
The Felicia A. Holton Book Award, also known as the Holton Award, has been awarded annually to "a writer who, through a major work of non-fiction, represents the importance and excitement of archaeology to the general public". [17] It is named after journalist and writer Felicia A. Holton, who co-wrote Koster: Americans in Search of Their Prehistoric Past with archaeologist Stuart Struever in 1979. [18] [19]
In 2020 it was won by Australian historian and writer Billy Griffiths, for his 2018 work Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, and in 2014 by British archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley for Tutankhamen's Curse (Tutankhamen in the US). [17]
Charles Eliot Norton was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries considered the most cultivated man in the United States. He was from the same notable Eliot family as the 20th-century poet T. S. Eliot, who made his career in the United Kingdom.
Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about in Latin and Greek texts. Many universities and foreign nations maintain excavation programs and schools in the area – such is the enduring appeal of the region's archaeology.
The Archaeological Society of Athens is an independent learned society. Also termed the Greek Archaeological Society, it was founded in 1837 by Konstantinos Bellios, just a few years after the establishment of the modern Greek State, with the aim of encouraging archaeological excavations, maintenance, care and exhibition of antiquities in Greece.
Frank Edward Brown was a preeminent Mediterranean archaeologist.
Joyce Ann Tyldesley is a British archaeologist and Egyptologist, academic, writer and broadcaster who specialises in the women of ancient Egypt. She was interviewed on the TV series 'Cunk on Earth', about Egypt's pyramids, in 2022.
Stuart McKee Struever was an American archaeologist and anthropologist – best known for his contributions to the archaeology of the Woodland Period in the US Midwest and for his leadership of archaeology research and education foundations. He was a professor of anthropology at Northwestern University.
Sarah Helen Parcak is an American archaeologist and Egyptologist, who has used satellite imagery to identify potential archaeological sites in Egypt, Rome and elsewhere in the former Roman Empire. She is a professor of Anthropology and director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In partnership with her husband, Greg Mumford, she directs survey and excavation projects in the Faiyum, Sinai, and Egypt's East Delta.
Charles Brian Rose is an American archaeologist, classical scholar, and author. He is the James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania in the Classical Studies Department and the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. He is also Peter C. Ferry Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section of the Penn Museum, and was the museum's Deputy Director from 2008-2011. He has served as the President of the Archaeological Institute of America, and currently serves as director for the Gordion excavations and as Head of the Post-Bronze Age excavations at Troy. Between 2003 and 2007 he directed the Granicus River Valley Survey Project, which focused on recording and mapping the Graeco-Persian tombs that dominate northwestern Turkey.
The Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement is awarded by the Archaeological Institute of America in "recognition of a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to archaeology through his or her fieldwork, publications, and/or teaching."
Elizabeth Barringer Fentress is a Roman archaeologist who specialises in Italy and North Africa. She has collaborated on the excavation of numerous sites in the Western Mediterranean and published their results. She is also the originator and scientific director of the online database of excavations in Italy, Bulgaria and elsewhere Fasti Online (www.fastionline.org), and editor of its journal Fasti Online Documents & Research (FOLD&R). In 2021 she was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America's 2022 gold medal for distinguished archaeological achievement.
The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) is an archaeological research institution located in East Jerusalem. It is the oldest American research center for ancient Near Eastern studies in the Middle East. Founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Research, it was renamed in 1970 after its most distinguished director and the father of biblical archaeology, William F. Albright. Its mission is to develop and disseminate scholarly knowledge of the literature, history, and culture of the Near East, as well as the study of civilization from pre-history to the early Islamic period.
Hetty Goldman was an American archaeologist. She was the first woman faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study and one of the first female archaeologists to undertake excavations in Greece and the Middle East.
James Keith Motley is a former academic administrator who served as the eighth chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Barbara Tsakirgis was an American classical archaeologist with specialization in Greek and Roman archaeology, particularly of ancient Greek houses and households. She worked in the archaeological excavation sites in Sicily and Athens for her doctoral thesis from Princeton University on the subject of Hellenistic houses at Morgantina. Her thesis was published as The Domestic Architecture of Morgantina in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (1984). She taught at the Vanderbilt University's Department of Classical Studies and was an associate professor from 1992 to 2019.
Lynne C. Lancaster is an American Roman archaeologist specializing in Roman architecture and the topography of Rome.
Elizabeth Grace Augustus Whitehead (1928–1983) was an American classical archaeologist and philanthropist. She was the general secretary of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) between 1971 and 1978 and president of the board of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) from 1976 until her death in 1983.
Judith Sheila McKenzie was an Australian archaeologist whose work primarily focused on the architecture of the ancient Middle East. At the time of her death, McKenzie was Associate Professor of Late Antique Egypt and the Holy Land at the University of Oxford and Director of the Manar al-Athar project, an open-access image archive of the Middle East. McKenzie was known in particular for her work on the architecture of Petra and Alexandria, having published lengthy monographs on each.
Elizabeth Lyding Will was an American Classical archaeologist and a leading expert on Roman amphorae. She spent her long career teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Amherst College.
John Franklin Daniel III was an American archaeologist, known for his work on deciphering the Cypro-Minoan script.
Nancy Clausen Wilkie was an American archaeologist. She served as president of the Archaeological Institute of America between 1998 and 2002, and worked on archaeological projects in Greece, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Nepal.