WELLESLEY, MASS.- A new exhibition at the
Davis Museum at Wellesley College brings into focus the ancient Greco-Roman city of Antioch. Opening on September 25, 2026, this free exhibition invites everyone to view objects reunited from American museums while examining how a 1930s archaeological excavation shaped what museum curators and historians know — and do not know — about the past.
Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City explores Antioch-on-the-Orontes, now Antakya, Trkiye, across two periods: the ancient city from its founding in 300 B.C.E. through the 12th century, and the 1930s excavation that shaped the formation of museum collections in the United States and Europe.
The exhibition brings together more than 140 artifacts — including mosaics, sculpture, architectural fragments, ceramics, lamps, and other objects of daily life — drawn from six U.S. museums: Baltimore Museum of Art, Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard Art Museums, Princeton University Art Museum, and Worcester Art Museum. Together, these works illuminate the architecture, artistic production, and everyday experiences of one of the ancient Mediterranean’s most significant cities.
Marble feet. Antioch Excavation Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, A-005746Marble feet. Antioch Excavation Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, A-005746
This story traces how these objects came to reside in museum collections abroad. From 1932 to 1939, Princeton University led archaeological work in and around Antakya in partnership with the Muse du Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Worcester Art Museum; Harvard University and Dumbarton Oaks joined the project in 1937. The team included Wellesley College professor William Campbell, who served as assistant field director during the first two seasons and later oversaw daily operations as field director.
Working under the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon, the excavation team divided its finds through partage, a colonial-era system through which excavated material was divided between authorities in the region and the American and European institutions that supported the excavation. Roughly half of the nearly 300 mosaics documented during the excavation remained in Antakya; the rest, along with thousands of smaller objects, entered partner museum collections abroad.
The exhibition and its accompanying research reconstruct the ancient city through the full range of objects excavated there — not only its mosaics, but sculpture, architectural fragments, ceramics, and objects of daily life — alongside the excavation and archival records that document them.
“Ongoing research and this exhibition tell the story of Antioch through many layers of history: the people who built and inhabited the ancient city, the local communities and archaeologists who shaped the 1930s excavations, and the people who continue to live and work in Antakya today,” said Dr. Nicole Berlin, Associate Curator of Collections at the Davis Museum and Curator of the exhibition. “By connecting ancient objects with excavation records and the ongoing life of Antakya today, the exhibition invites us to consider how we understand the past, whose voices are preserved, and how museums can responsibly care for cultural heritage.”
Nearly all of the objects in the exhibition have been in storage and many have not been catalogued, photographed, or displayed in decades. Berlin came across a number of these objects while going through drawers of Antioch material at the Baltimore Museum of Art and identified them as the basis for a research project and exhibition.
With Contributing Curator Dr. Elizabeth Molacek and Wellesley College students, Berlin spent three years connecting the objects — primarily small finds and architectural fragments from the city's marble workshop, an elite residence known as the House of Aion, and a public bathing complex called Bath F — to newly digitized excavation records now held at Princeton University.
Mosaic crew. Antioch Excavation Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, A-008905.
"These objects have been sitting in storage for decades," Berlin said. "Putting them back in conversation with the excavation records tells us things the objects alone can't. We wanted to show not just what these objects are, but where they came from and why."
Each artifact carries a complex biography — from its making, to excavation and dispersal, through decades in storage, and ultimately into museum collections today. The story of Antioch is written not only in its streets and monuments, but also in these everyday objects. The exhibition traces that biography across the ancient city's streets, workshops, residences, and baths, while also introducing the scholars and local workers involved in excavating them.
"Partage built the collections of museums across Europe and the United States, but it also separated objects that were excavated together, and in some cases cut a single mosaic floor into pieces that ended up in different countries. A large part of this project is reconnecting what partage divided," said Molacek.
General view of a large room with an inscription and a floral pavement. Antioch Excavation Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, A-007219
Berlin and Molacek plan to continue the research in a second phase, focused on mosaic, wall painting, and architectural stucco fragments from Antioch held at Princeton University.
The project was developed in partnership with Turkish archaeologists Dr. Banu zdilek of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University and Dr. Onur Tıbıkoğlu of the Issos Epiphaneia Archaeological Research Project, who are actively excavating in the Hatay region.
“This exhibition and publication are each a testament to the dedication and commitment of the curators, Nicole Berlin and Elizabeth Molacek, who wanted to share the story of these artifacts, their origins in Antioch, and why it matters today,” said
Dina Deitsch, the Davis Museum’s new Ruth Gordon Shapiro ‘37 Director. “Wellesley College played a significant role in those early excavations. Now, we can all see why they are so valuable to understanding this history.”
Artist in the Roman Empire, Atrium House Mosaic Fragment, 2nd century C.E., Gift of the Committee of Excavation, Antioch and Vicinity (given in appreciation of Professor W. A. Campbell's work) 1933.10
Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City will be on view at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts from Sept. 25, 2026 through May 30, 2027. The exhibition is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The exhibition is funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Museum Travel Alliance, and Dumbarton Oaks. xcavating Antioch is presented with support from the Wellesley College Friends of Art, Maryam and Edward Eisler/Goldman Sachs Gives Fund on Art and Culture in the Near, Middle, and Far East, Kathryn Wasserman Davis '28 Fund for World Cultures and Leadership, Barbara E. Sweeny '26 Art Conservation Fund, and Art & Cultural Program Fund.
This project was also made possible because of the generous collaboration of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dumbarton Oaks, the Harvard Art Museums, Princeton University Art Museum, Visual Resources Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, Worcester Art Museum, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press (UCLA).
Assorted marble hands. Antioch Excavation Collection, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, A-006644.
