ISAW Holds Initial Conference and Makes First Faculty Appointment

By Richard Pierce

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) has organized a scholarly conference in conjunction with its inaugural exhibition, Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani (on view through June 1 at 15 E. 84th Street), which offers an unprecedented display of ancient treasures on loan from the Republic of Georgia. The 130 works, consisting of spectacular gold jewelry, sculpture, and grave goods from the legendary “land of the Golden Fleece,” have never been seen before in New York. 

      The conference will take place May 16 & 17, and feature  13 internationally renowned scholars who will present papers that further illuminate topics explored in this exhibition—from the evidence of early wine production in ancient Georgia, to the state of research surrounding ancient Colchis, and the ritual sacrifice of retainers at Vani. Conference papers will each be 35-minutes long with a period for questions following.

ISAW Announces First Faculty Appointment

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University has announced that its first faculty appointment is Alexander Jones, who will become professor of history of the exact sciences in antiquity with an associated appointment as professor of mathematics in NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.  His appointment is effective July 1, 2008.

      Jones studied classics at the University of British Columbia and the history of the ancient mathematical sciences in the Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. Before coming to NYU, he was for 16 years on the faculty of the Department of Classics and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. His work centers on the history and transmission of the mathematical sciences, especially astronomy.

      He is the author of several editions of Greek scientific texts, among them Pappus of Alexandria’s commentary on the corpus of Hellenistic geometrical treatises known as the “Treasury of Analysis”; an anonymous Byzantine astronomical handbook based on Islamic sources; and a collection of about two hundred fragmentary astronomical texts, tables, and horoscopes from the papyri excavated a century ago by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus. His current research interests include the contacts between Babylonian and Greco-Roman astronomy and astrology, the Antikythera Mechanism and other artifacts of Hellenistic astronomy, and the scientific work of Claudius Ptolemy. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of several awards and honors including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Francis Bacon Award in the History of Science.