Public Programs @ the Institute
Series: Annual Aphrodisias Lecture
Roland R. R. Smith, Director, Excavations at Aphrodisias;
Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art Emeritus,
University of Oxford; Research Professor, the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU
New Research and Discoveries at Aphrodisias in 2025
Monday, December 8, 2025, 6:00pm
Join us to hear Roland R. R. Smith speak about the most recent work carried out by NYU-IFA at Aphrodisias in southwest Turkey, in collaboration with Oxford University. Aphrodisias is one of the most important sites of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean, with superbly preserved public buildings and monuments. Marble-carving was a noted Aphrodisian speciality in antiquity, and the excavated remains of the city’s statues, sarcophagi, and architectural reliefs are abundant and of spectacular quality.
Amid much study for publication, the 2025 season pursued conservation on the Tetrapylon Street, anastylosis in the Sebasteion, and excavation in the Governor’s House and the House of Kybele. The Kybele House continued to produce a lot of surprises -- further rooms and unusual finds – from its underground pagan cult complex. A painted four-column court was excavated, with large quantities of bronzeware, from the period between the fifth and early seventh century. The complex has not yet given up all its secrets.
Roland Smith is an expert in Greek and Roman art, with a special interest in the visual and urban culture of the eastern Mediterranean in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. He taught at the IFA from 1986 to 1995 and has been director of the NYU Aphrodisias project since 1991. He retired from his position as Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at Oxford University in 2022, and now devotes more time to Aphrodisias and the publication of the project’s results.
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