Sardis Biennial Lecture

Sardis Biennial Lecture with
Professor Nicholas Cahill, Director, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis

We are greatly honoured and pleased to welcome Professor Cahill to London for the Biennial Lecture. This year we are delighted to have the opportunity to hold the lecture for the fourth time at a venue so central to the history of gold and its measurement, particularly fitting for a talk on the capital of King Croesus.

Timing/Programme:
6:30 pm – welcome;
7:00 pm – lecture & discussion in the Drawing Room;
8:00 pm – cocktail reception in the Exhibition Room

Cost: £5
All proceeds to the Sardis Expedition

Overview:
Located about 80km inland from Izmir, and inhabited as of the 3rd millennium BC up to the Ottoman era, Sardis is one of the longest continuously settled urban environments in the Ancient, Classical, and Mediaeval worlds. Over those millennia, Sardis fell under the control of successive peoples including the native Lydians, Persians, Hellenistic Greeks, Romans, and Turks, creating a diverse and dynamic population. Perhaps most famously, it was the capital of the Lydian Empire, the seat of King Croesus, and the place where coinage was first invented. In later times the city was one of the Seven Churches of Asia, and a center of Judaism housing the ancient world’s largest ancient synagogue. This rich backdrop makes Sardis a dream location for the archaeologist interested in dissecting the inflections and continuities of its multiple overlain civilizations. In recognition of its broad and colourful historic resonance, Sardis was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in July 2025.

Since its inception in 1958, the Sardis Expedition has included a multidisciplinary team which excavates, studies, and preserves the site in many aspects, from the largest arch in the Roman world, to the houses and belongings of ordinary Lydians, to the tiny foodstuffs they grew and ate. Discoveries in the past two seasons include a previously unsuspected, early phase of the monumental Lydian palace dating back to the time of Homer; a well-preserved, over life-size male statue of the fifth century BC (photo below), perhaps a dedication to Cybele of the time of Themistocles; and an Anglo-Saxon gilded shield ornament with ties to Sutton Hoo and elsewhere in the North.

The Sardis Expedition is sponsored by Harvard University Art Museums, and directed by Professor Nicholas Cahill of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.