Next Lecture

Dr. Nick Cahill, University of Wisconsin

“Sardis in the Lydian Period: Between East and West”

Sunday, April 19, 2:00 PM
Abbott Lecutre Hall,
Joslyn Art Museum
2201 Dodge Street, Omaha

The Lincoln-Omaha Society of the Archaeological Institute of America announces the sixth and final lecture on archaeology for the 2008 – 2009 season. Professor Nick Cahill, from the University of Wisconsin, will be speaking on the recent excavations that he directs at the ancient Lydian (Anatolia) capital of Sardis.

The Lydians, an indigenous people of western Asia Minor, were the first to conquer both Ionian Greek cities and native Anatolians living in the interior. With political and matrimonial ties to dynasties of Greece and the Near East, they served as a cultural intermediary between different civilizations. Recent excavations at Sardis, the principal city of Lydia, have dramatically changed our understanding of this metropolis, one of the richest in the ancient Mediterranean world, and the capital of a mighty empire. They have also uncovered important remains of important later Roman buildings, and illuminated the urban development of the city over a thousand years

Professor Cahill earned his B.A. at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 1981. After that he went on to the University of California-Berkeley to earn both his M.A. in 1984 and his Ph.D. in 1991 in Ancient History and Archaeology. Cahill is currently professor of art history at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). Professor Cahill specializes in Greek and Anatolian archaeology, especially urbanism and housing. He has conducted field work in Turkey, England and Israel. He has been honored with the National Endowment for the Humanities/American Research Institute in Turkey Award for sabbatical year research (2005-2006); the title of UW Humanities Institute Fellow (2000-2001); and the American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (1995-1996).