Events Calendar – British School at Athens

The Portara Gate, Palatia islet, Naxos, photo: R Levitan

UK Friends’ lecture

Dr Rebecca Levitan (King’s College London), “The Naxos Quarry Project: New Insights on the Archaic Marble Quarries and Monuments of Naxos, Greece”

Abstract: In the early history of marble working in the Mediterranean, few locations have been more influential than Naxos, an island in the center of the vibrant and interconnected Cyclades. Naxos is home to several sources of coarse-grained white marble and emery, a natural abrasive. In the Archaic Period, Naxian marble workers were technological and artistic pioneers who developed local techniques to harness and exploit their native natural resources. Yet despite being one of the most renowned centers of marble extraction, architectural innovation, and sculptural production in the ancient Mediterranean, the landscapes and archaeology of ancient Naxos are comparatively unstudied compared to other Cycladic islands. This paper presents the approach developed by the Naxos Quarry Project to address these challenges and lacunae, offering an avenue for the archaeological documentation of Naxian quarries and the remarkable monuments they produced in the Archaic period.

Bio: Levitan received her PhD in Ancient Mediterranean Art from the History of Art Department at University of California, Berkeley in 2023. Before arriving at King’s College London, she held fellowships at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the American Academy in Rome, and the British School at Rome. These opportunities also supported archaeological fieldwork in Greece and Italy and further research in Turkey and Jordan. In addition to fieldwork in Naxos, Rebecca is currently working on her first monograph, which focuses on a Hellenistic sculptural type known as “the Pasquino Group” and its Roman marble copies, including their long afterlives.

Online only

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*This lecture will not be recorded.

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