Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU)
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| Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU) | |
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| Name | Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU) |
| Established | 2006 |
| Founder | ??? |
| Parent | New York University |
| Location | Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City |
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU) is a research center specializing in the art, archaeology, history, languages, and material cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Near East, Egypt, Central Asia, and China. Located in Manhattan, the institute brings together scholars, curators, and students in multidisciplinary projects that connect ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, classical Greece, Hellenistic kingdoms, Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Achaemenid Persia, Parthian Empire, Sasanian Empire, Kushan Empire, Han dynasty, Tang dynasty, Indus Valley, and Silk Road studies.
History
The institute opened in 2006 amid collaborations with New York University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Academy in Rome. Early projects linked excavations at Uruk, Nineveh, Tell Brak, Amarna, Knossos, Mycenae, Pompeii, Ostia Antica, Ephesus, Sardis, Hattusa, Persepolis, Pasargadae, Susa, and Mari to museum exhibitions at the British Museum, Louvre, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vatican Museums, and the Royal Ontario Museum. Founding initiatives fostered ties with scholars associated with the Oriental Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Israel Museum, Getty Villa, Princeton University, Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, École pratique des hautes études, and École du Louvre. Grants and partnerships involved the National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Getty Foundation, and Mellon Foundation-supported collaborations with the Institute for Advanced Study and the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Mission and Research Focus
The institute promotes comparative research on Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Levantine, Anatolian, Aegean, Mediterranean, Italic, Etruscan, Iberian, Phoenician, Carthaginian, Nubian, Kushite, Axumite, Persian, Parthian, Sasanian, Central Asian, South Asian, and East Asian worlds. Work engages primary materials such as cuneiform tablets, hieroglyphic inscriptions, Linear B tablets, ostraca, papyri, numismatic assemblages, pottery typologies, architectural remains, funerary assemblages, and textile fragments. Research agendas intersect with themes found in studies of Alexander the Great, Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, Qin dynasty, Han dynasty, Tang dynasty, and Song dynasty contexts, emphasizing cross-cultural networks like the Silk Road, maritime trade in the Mediterranean, Phoenician colonization, and diasporic communities.
Organization and Leadership
The institute operates within New York University and reports to NYU’s Provost and the Faculty of Arts and Science, collaborating with departments including Classics, History, Near Eastern Studies, Art History, Anthropology, and Middle Eastern Studies. Directors and faculty have included historians, archaeologists, philologists, art historians, and curators associated with names and institutions such as Michael Seymour, Peter Der Manuelian, Susan Rotroff, Mary Beard, Simon Price, Robin Osborne, Paul Zanker, R.F. Willetts, Tom Holland, Mireille Corbier, Richard Alston, and others with appointments that bridge Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Cornell University, University of Michigan, and University of California, Berkeley. Governance includes an advisory board with representatives from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, Louvre, Smithsonian Institution, and the Getty Research Institute.
Programs and Publications
Academic programming comprises postdoctoral fellowships, doctoral seminars, visiting scholar residencies, and collaborative excavation support linked to projects at sites such as Çatalhöyük, Göbekli Tepe, Akrotiri, Knossos, Gordion, Giza, Saqqara, Deir el-Medina, Tell el-Amarna, Megiddo, Hazor, Tel Lachish, Çine-Tepe, Xianyang, Luoyang, Taxila, Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Bamiyan, and Samarkand. The institute publishes monographs, edited volumes, working papers, and the ISAW Papers series alongside exhibition catalogues co-published with partners like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, British Museum, Musée du Louvre, Pergamon Museum, and Staatliche Museen. Collaborative periodicals and conference proceedings connect with journals and presses including Journal of Near Eastern Studies, American Journal of Archaeology, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Brill, and Routledge.
Facilities and Collections
Housed in a landmark building near Washington Square Park, the institute contains seminar rooms, lecture halls, specialists’ offices, and research libraries that complement holdings at NYU’s Bobst Library, the New York Public Library, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Library, and the archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The institute’s research collections include photographic archives, archival correspondence, excavation reports, casts and epigraphic squeezes, numismatic reference collections, ceramic reference collections, and digitized corpora connected to projects at the Ashmolean, Fitzwilliam Museum, Museo Nazionale Romano, National Museum of Iran, and Hermitage Museum.
Outreach, Education, and Public Engagement
Public programs feature lectures, symposia, workshops, film series, teacher-training institutes, K–12 outreach, MOOCs, and exhibitions developed with partners including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Asia Society, Rubin Museum of Art, Jewish Museum, Noguchi Museum, Asia Society Museum, and the New-York Historical Society. Educational initiatives connect with study-abroad programs in Rome, Athens, Cairo, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Paris, Beijing, and Tehran, while collaborative digital projects and open-access databases support global users including curators at the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, National Museum of Korea, National Museum of China, and National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico).
Category:New York University Category:Research institutes