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."
It is the institute's highest award. First awarded in 1965, it has been awarded annually since 1969. [1]
Gordon Randolph Willey was an American archaeologist who was described by colleagues as the "dean" of New World archaeology. Willey performed fieldwork at excavations in South America, Central America and the Southeastern United States; and pioneered the development and methodology for settlement patterns theories. He worked as an anthropologist for the Smithsonian Institution and as a professor at Harvard University.
John Desmond Clark was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa.
Emeline Hurd Hill Richardson was an American classical archaeologist and Etruscan scholar. Hill was the daughter of William Hurd Hill and Emeleen Carlisle (Hill). She studied at Radcliffe College, receiving an A.B. in 1932 and an M.A. in 1935. In 1935/36 she studied with Bernard Ashmole at the University of London. She completed her Ph.D. in 1939 at Radcliffe College. From 1941 to 1949 she was on the faculty of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. In 1950, Emeline Hill Richardson held a stipend at the American Academy in Rome and was involved in the Cosa excavations. She married Lawrence Richardson in 1952. She lectured both at Stanford and Yale Universities.
Homer Armstrong Thompson was a Canadian classical archaeologist of the twentieth century, specializing in ancient Greece. While studying for his doctorate at the University of Michigan, Benjamin Dean Meritt would introduce Thompson to the project which would occupy him for the rest of his life. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens was about to begin the excavation of the agora in Athens and Thompson was selected as a fellow of the school to aid in the project. Excavations began on May 25, 1931; Thompson would work on the excavations for the next 39 years. He was married to a fellow archaeologist Dorothy Burr Thompson.
Lucy Taxis Shoe Meritt was a classical archaeologist and a scholar of Greek architectural ornamentation and mouldings.
Wilhelmina Mary Feemster Jashemski was an American scholar of the ancient site of Pompeii, where her archaeological investigations focused on the evidence of gardens and horticulture in the ancient city. She is remembered for her contributions to archaeobotany at Pompeiian sites, as she developed methods for preserving the remains of roots from antiquity, known as root casting.
George Fletcher Bass was an American archaeologist. An early practitioner of underwater archaeology, he co-directed the first expedition to entirely excavate an ancient shipwreck at Cape Gelidonya in 1960 and founded the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in 1972.
Larissa Bonfante was an Italian-American classicist, Professor of Classics emerita at New York University and an authority on Etruscan language and culture.
Sharon Egretta Sutton, is an American architect, educator, visual artist, and author. Her work is focused on community-based participatory research and design. She is a professor emerita at the University of Washington. In 1984, she became the first African American woman to become a full professor in an accredited architectural degree program while teaching at the University of Michigan. She has also taught at Parsons School of Design, and Columbia University.
Lionel Casson was a classicist, professor emeritus at New York University, and a specialist in maritime history. He earned his B.A. in 1934 at New York University, and in 1936 became an assistant professor. He later earned his Ph.D. there during 1939. In 2005 he was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America Gold Medal.
Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway is an Italian archaeologist and specialist in ancient Greek sculpture.
Susan Irene Rotroff is an American classical archaeologist, classicist, and academic, specialising in the art, archaeology, and pottery of Ancient Greece. She was Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities, at Washington University in St. Louis.
Henry Tutwiler Wright is an American archeologist and educator. Wright has had significant contributions to the field of archaeology through his fieldwork, publications, and teaching. He serves as the Albert Clanton Spaulding Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology, and Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is also an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a member of the Santa Fe Institute's Science Board.
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.
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is a United States-based architectural practice that was founded in 1965 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania by Peter Bohlin and Richard Powell. Bohlin's firm then merged with John F. Larkin and Bernard Cywinski's Philadelphia-based architectural practice, Larkin Cywinski, in 1979. It is recognized for its distinguished portfolio of residential, university, commercial, cultural and government projects.
Anna Marguerite McCann was an American art historian and archaeologist. She is known for being an early influencer—and the first American woman—in the field of underwater archaeology, beginning in the 1960s. McCann authored works pertaining to Roman art and Classical archaeology, and taught both art history and archaeology at various universities in the United States. McCann was an active member of the Archaeological Institute of America, and received its Gold Medal Award in 1998. She also published under the name Anna McCann Taggart.
Margaret E. Thompson was an American numismatist specializing in Greek coins. She was curator of the American Numismatic Society (ANS) from 1949 to 1979. She was awarded the Archer M. Huntington Medal of the American Numismatic Society in 1961 and the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society of Great Britain in 1967.
Guy Wesley Peterson is an American architect based in Sarasota, Florida. He has designed more than 200 structures in southwest Florida, including private and public works. Peterson is an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Florida, College of Design, Construction and Planning, and the author of Naked: The Architecture of Guy Peterson.
Patricia Fortini Brown is Professor Emerita of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University.
Jules Gregory was an award-winning American architect and innovative urban planner who worked in the mid-twentieth-century modern era from Princeton, New Jersey for most of his career.