Released: February 14, 2010

Lincoln, Neb. - The Lincoln-Omaha Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) announces the fourth lectures on archaeology for the 2009-2010 season. Professor Phil Stinson, from the University of Kansas, will be speaking on one of the premier excavations of the Greco-Roman world, Aphrodisias and in particular, the origin and role of one its more important buildings, the basilica.

Aphrodisias, named after Aphrodite, its main patron deity, is one of the premier archaeological sites in the eastern Mediterranean for what life was like in a medium-sized Greek city in the Roman Empire. In this talk Phil Stinson presents his new discoveries from recent excavations in the Civil Basilica, one of the most important monumental public buildings of the site. Stinson's research is helping to fill in incomplete chapters in western architectural history. The Civil Basilica of Aphrodisias is emblematic of a previously little known class of basilicas with striking features, which simultaneously seem to look back at the architecture of the Hellenistic Greek portico, the stoa, and forward to the later Christian basilica.

Philip Stinson, Assistant Professor of Classics, joined the Classics faculty of the University of Kansas in 2007. He took his PhD in the History of Art and Classical Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2007). Working as an excavator-architect at the excavations of Aphrodisias and Sardis, in western Turkey, his recent publications include a chapter on the Civil Basilica of Aphrodisias in the Aphrodisias Papers (2008), a chapter on an early Classical painted tomb at Sardis in Love for Lydia, and an exhibition catalogue The Ancient City of Sardis (2003). Stinson is also an expert in the theory and methodology for making digital reconstructions of archaeological sites, especially Rome; reconstructions he created of monuments in the Roman Forum are now available to the public on Google Earth Ancient Rome 3D. His major interests include Greek and Roman art and architecture, the historiography of classical archaeology, digital humanities, and the cultural heritage of archaeological sites.


Future AIA Lectures in 2009-2010

  • March 8 - Linda Gigante, University of Louisville
    Resurrecting Dead Romans: Reconstructing the Lives of Slaves and Freedmen from their Tombs and Epitaphs
  • April 12 - Kim Shelton, University of California-Berkeley
    Greek Bronze Age Pottery, Paintings and Pinakides: The Latest Dirt from Petsas House, Mycenae