Andrea Berlin receives AIA Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement

Andrea Berlin, James R. Wiseman Chair in Classical Archaeology and Professor of Archaeology and Religion, has just been named as this year’s winner of the Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement by the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), the largest and oldest organization in North America dedicated to archaeological research and advocacy. This is the highest honor the AIA bestows and thus the premiere lifetime achievement recognition in our field.

Andrea’s career has focused on the archaeology of three historical periods in the eastern Mediterranean world: the Achaemenid Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Her work aims to increase our understanding of the realities of daily life under these regimes, and the intersection of politics and cultural change in antiquity. She is also the founder of the Levantine Ceramics Project, an open-access database hosting tens of thousands of records of archaeological pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, contributed by hundreds of scholars. It is a major research resource for our community.

Andrea has been recognized before for her outstanding research, receiving the 2021 P.E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award from ASOR (American Schools of Overseas Research). This award honors an archaeologist who, during their career, has made outstanding contributions to ancient Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean archaeology. She also has been recognized before by the AIA, for her exemplary teaching, receiving the AIA’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2009.

Andrea is our second current faculty member to win the award; Curtis Runnels, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, received the award in 2019. James Wiseman, an emeritus member of our faculty and the namesake of Andrea’s endowed chair, received the award in 2008; Clemency Coggins, Professor Emerita of Archaeology and History of Art & Architecture, received the award in 1997.