We’re excited to announce that this April marks the start of this year’s Annual M.I. Rostovtzeff Lecture Series at ISAW! RSVP here: isaw.nyu.edu/events/rosto...

We’re happy to share the Spring ’26 lineup for Expanding the Ancient World! Our #ETAW K–12 educator professional development workshops bring big ideas straight into the classroom. Join us for engaging talks, fresh approaches, and CTLE credit. 📅 Feb–May | 💻 Zoom 🔗 Register: isaw.nyu.edu/outreach

Meet Brian Lander! One of ISAW's 2025-26 Visiting Research Scholars. Brian studies how humans transformed the forests and wetlands of core regions of Chinese civilization into farmland using textual, archaeological, and paleoecological evidence. Publications link: vivo.brown.edu/display/blan...

All of us at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World extend our warmest wishes for a joyful holiday season and a happy, healthy #NewYear. We look forward to welcoming you in the year ahead for new discoveries, collaborations, and opportunities to engage with the ancient past. #ISAW

Meet Aydogdy Kurbanov! One of ISAW's 2025-26 Visiting Research Scholars. Aydogdy Kurbanov is a historian and archaeologist specializing in the prehistoric and Late Antique periods of Central Asia. Read more here: isaw.nyu.edu/people/visit...

🎨 Join us for a Drawing Workshop at #ISAW! On December 6 at 1 pm, come sketch in the galleries with artist Joan Chiverton as part of our latest Rodin’s Egypt exhibition. 🔗 Learn more & register: isaw.nyu.edu/events/rodins-exhibition-drawing-workshop #RodinsEgypt #DrawingWorkshop

Robert Hoyland recently published an edition, translation and study of the work of one of the most famous of all Arabic prose writers, al-Jahiz (d. 868), namely "The Turks and the Caliphal Army: (NYU Press, 2025). You can purchase the book here: www.libraryofarabicliterature.org/books/978147...

#ISAW invites submissions for the graduate student conference: Reimagining Body and Space in the Ancient World held March 5-6th. Submissions are due by December 19th and should be emailed to [email protected]. For more info: isaw.nyu.edu/news/isaw-gr...

Meet Amanda Podany. One of ISAW's Fall 2025 VRS! Dr. Podany is a Prof. Emeritus of History at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She holds a PhD in history from UCLA and an MA in archaeology from the University of London. For more information: isaw.nyu.edu/people/visit...

Meet Amanda Ball! Dr. Ball is a Mediterranean archaeologist whose research focuses on sacred landscapes and material evidence of cultural interaction between Greeks and Thracians in the northeast Aegean. For more information: isaw.nyu.edu/people/visit...

Discover the story of Mapungubwe, southern Africa’s earliest state — a center of trade, craftsmanship, and cultural power nearly 1,000 years ago. Join us on October 21 at 5:30 PM for “Mapungubwe Beyond the Golden Rhino,” a lecture by Jay Stephens. RSVP: isaw.nyu.edu/events/Mapun...

Congratulations to Yukina Zhang, Assistant Professor of Art and Chinese Studies at Davidson College and ISAW Alumna Class of 2024, who has received the 2025 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award for Arts & Humanities. More info here: www.nyu.edu/students/com...

We’re #NYUgreen. The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is a Certified Platinum Green Workplace!

Congratulations to ISAW doctoral student Mi Wang, who has been awarded a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation! Read more about the Foundation here: www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/ Read more about Mi Wang and her research here: isaw.nyu.edu/people/stude...

Meet Abigail Hoskins! One of ISAW's 2024-25 VRS. Abigail is an ancient historian who specializes in the intellectual and religious history of the Hellenistic Mediterranean world. For more information on our visiting research scholar, please visit: isaw.nyu.edu/people/visit...

We are delighted to announce the Wall Street Journal's recent review of Assistant Professor Claire Bubb's recent publication, How to Eat: An Ancient Guide for Healthy Living! Read the review here: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Congratulations to ISAW research associate Candida Moss, who was awarded the 2024 Mary-Kay Gamel Outreach Prize by the Society for Classical Studies. Read more here: isaw.nyu.edu/news/Candida...

Meet Ming Guo! One of ISAW's 2024-25 VRS. Dr. Guo is an archeologist specializing in the archeology of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties in China, with an emphasis on architecture and bronzes. For more info: isaw.nyu.edu/people/visit...

Upcoming lecture on Tuesday, April 8th, at 5:30 pm: "Uncovering Kimirek-Kum 1: Exploring a Forgotten Delta and Central Asia’s Bronze Age to Iron Age Transition in Central Uzbekistan." Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Next month marks the start of this year's Annual M.I. Rostovtzeff Lecture Series! This year is "Power at Hand: Luxury and the Contestation of Political Identities in Hellenistic Asia and the Post-Achaemenid Iranian World," presented by Matthew P. Canepa. RSVP here: isaw.nyu.edu/events

REGISTER TODAY! Next Tuesday, March 4th, Radu Iovita from #NYU Anthropology will be giving a lecture titled "Stone Age Precursors to the Silk Road: Theory, Models, and Field Results" as part of the 2024-2025 NYU ArchaeoHub Lecture Series. Register here: buff.ly/4i1z7aW

We are delighted to share that the Middle East Medievalists (MEM) has awarded the 2024 Honorary Membership Award to ISAW Research Associate Judith A. Lerner for her contributions to the study of Late Antique and early Islamic material culture. Read more here:

Sam Mirelman, ISAW Alumnus Class of 2018 and Swiss National Science Foundation Research Fellow at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), has published his new book "The Performance of Balaĝ and Eršema Prayers in the Late First Millennium BC." Read more here:

Claire Bubb, Assistant Professor of Classical Literature and Science at ISAW, has published her book "How to Eat: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers" (Princeton, 2025). Learn more and purchase it here: https://buff.ly/42x9XvW with a 30% discount using code BUBB30. 

Meet Rong Huang! One of ISAW's VRS this year. Her research focuses on interpreting the interaction of East Syriac Christianity with Chinese Buddhism and Daoism after this Christian tradition arrived in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE). For more info visit https://buff.ly/4adRQww

Attention all educators! The roster for ISAW's professional development program, Expanding the Ancient World, for Spring 2025 has been set! For more information or to register visit isaw.nyu.edu/outreach Please email [email protected] with any questions!

Watch the recording of ISAW Professors Lorenzo d'Alfonso and Antonis Kotsonas' event "The Survival of Civilizations? The Mediterranean after 1177 BCE" held on May 7, 2024. You can view the recording now at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G8E...

Meet Éric Fournier! One of ISAW's VRS this academic year. Dr. Éric Fournier's research focuses on North Africa in the late antique period, particularly the Vandal era, Victor of Vita, and power struggles between bishops and civic government For more information, visit https://buff.ly/4adRQww.

Effective 1 January 2025, Greg Woolf took over the Leon Levy directorship of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU from Alexander Jones. Greg's profile is now live on the @isawnyu.bsky.social website: isaw.nyu.edu/people/facul...

Andrea Trameri, ISAW Alumnus from the Class of 2020 and Researcher at the University of Würzburg (Germany), has published his new book, Kizzuwatna. History of Cilicia in the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 2000-1200 bc). Read more here: https://buff.ly/49Nybn8

Congratulations to ISAW first-year graduate student Talia Sankari for receiving an award from the Scholars Program of the New York Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). Follow this link for more information:

The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, of which ISAW Professor Dan Potts was one of three co-editors, was awarded the Frank Moore Cross Award at the 2024 American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) meeting.  Read more about these exciting updates here: https://buff.ly/4gGGTWw

NYU museum studies interns Mina Turunc and Madeline Baird worked with ISAW staff to create 2 vitrines of NYU collections materials exploring the myth and history of Madinat al-Zahra. See them on the 2nd fl during public lectures and events at ISAW @isawnyu.bsky.social isaw.nyu.edu/library/blog...

*NEW* ISAWLib Blog: Federico Di Pasqua describes his experiments with #generativeAI looking to make @isawnyu.bsky.social data and collections more accessible and useful. He also publishes his draft code for the “ISAW AI Librarian.” #librarydata #nextgenreference isaw.nyu.edu/library/blog...

I see that there's a new paper out in the open access ISAW Papers from @isawnyu.bsky.social: Carman, Christián C., and Dennis Duke. “Tables of Lunar and Solar Eclipses from -800 to 1650 Using Modern and Almagest Models.” ISAW Papers, no. 28 (2024). hdl.handle.net/2333.1/m37pw.... #ancientAstronomy

#ISAW is excited to bring its new vision of the old world to Blue Sky! Keep an eye out for news and research content from our community at 15 E 84th St and around the world!