A geometric graphic of angular shapes in white, red, pink, and grey creates a rectangle border over the exhibition title

 

 

Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City follows Antioch-on-the-Orontes, now Antakya, Türkiye, across two periods: the ancient city, from the Hellenistic period through the twelfth century C.E., and its excavation in the 1930s. Through artifacts and archival materials, the exhibition explores daily life in antiquity alongside the modern practices that unearthed and dispersed the city’s material culture. The twentieth-century Antioch excavations, led by Princeton University in collaboration with major international institutions, took place under colonial frameworks that shaped what was collected, documented, and shared through the system of partage. By examining the full biographies of the city’s artifacts—from creation to use, and from excavation to museum display—Excavating Antioch highlights the role of provenance research in understanding the past. You are invited to reflect on how histories are constructed and how museums can responsibly steward cultural heritage today.

 

 

Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City is curated by Nicole Berlin, Associate Curator of Collections. The exhibition's intellectual framework was developed in collaboration with contributing curator Elizabeth Molacek. Associate Registrar for Exhibitions and Digital Resources Helen Connor and Senior Manager of Exhibitions and Collections Mark Beeman provided essential support for the installation and coordination of the exhibition.

Berlin worked closely with Wellesley College students Mabel Zawacki ’24, Ava Wilcox ’25, Jade Doerksen ’26, and Berit Raines ’27 to connect objects to archival documentation and current scholarship. 

The Davis Museum is proud to collaborate on this project with our Turkish colleagues, Banu Özdilek of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University and Onur Tıbıkoğlu of the Issos Ephiphaneia Archaeological Research Project.  

This exhibition is funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Museum Travel Alliance, and Dumbarton Oaks. Êxcavating Antioch is presented with support from the Wellesley College Friends of Art, Maryam and Edward Eisler/Goldman Sachs Gives Fund on Art and Culture in the Near, Middle, and Far East, Kathryn Wasserman Davis '28 Fund for World Cultures and Leadership, Barbara E. Sweeny '26 Art Conservation Fund, and Art & Cultural Program Fund. 

This project would not have been possible without the generous collaboration of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dumbarton Oaks, the Harvard Art Museums, Princeton University Art Museum, Visual Resources Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, Worcester Art Museum, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press (UCLA).  

The following campus partners deserve special recognition: Antioch Faculty and Staff Advisory Board, Davis Museum Student Advisory Committee, the Department of Classical Studies, the Department of Religious Studies, Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs, the Provost’s Office, Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities, Wellesley College Archives and the Department of Facilities Management and Planning.