Sardis Undergraduate Internship Opportunities: Summer 2025

The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, sponsored by the Harvard Art Museums, has opportunities for undergraduate Archaeological Interns for the 2025 excavation season in western Türkiye. Sardis was a major city of western Asia Minor from the time of Homer until the Byzantine period, home of the Lydian king Croesus and one of the Seven Churches of Asia. The Sardis Expedition has been conducting excavation and research at the site each year since 1958. Current projects include excavations in the palace of the Lydian kings, a major Roman sanctuary of the imperial cult and its later transformations, and the largest arch in the Roman world; conservation and analysis of buildings and artifacts; research and publication of pottery, coins, excavation sectors, buildings, and other results; survey and 3-dimensional modeling from aerial photographs.

 The team of about 80 archaeologists, architects, conservators, recorders, and specialists comes from all over the world. The schedule is strenuous and the weather often hot. The excavation season lasts two and a half months, from early June until mid-August. The Expedition covers basic travel and living expenses. The intern will be required to take, before going to Sardis, one course with significant archaeological content related to the ancient periods, civilizations and classes of archaeological material covered and investigated by the Sardis Expedition. On site, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the research goals, scope, and expected results of the campaign.
• Engage in a varied and meaningful learning experience with tasks that vary each week.
• Experience tutorial and educational activities (teaching workshops; lectures) focusing on topics related to Sardis and, more generally, to themes of the archaeology of Asia Minor.
• Receive training in specific skills or use of equipment.
• Take part in field trips to sites and museums in Turkey including on-site presentations or short site/museum reports after the visit
• Be encouraged to write a short report on their on-site experiences.

 If you are interested in participating, please email as soon as possible, and no later than Friday, October 18, 2024, a statement of interest, a current transcript, a resumé, and the names of two Harvard faculty as referees to the Administrative Director, Bahadır Yıldırım:  bahadir_yildirim@harvard.edu. Decisions will be made shortly thereafter, and we would need a firm commitment from you by mid-November, when the team list is finalized.

 As part of the Worldwide Week at Harvard 2024 events, there will be an event, Discovery Through Archaeology: Experience fieldwork at the ancient sites of Sardis (Türkiye) & Falerii Novi (Italy), on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 5:30 – 6:30pm at the Barker Center, 133 Plimpton Room. This joint event will present on opportunities to participate at excavations at both Sardis and Falerii Novi.

If you are unable to attend the event but are interested in learning more about the Sardis application process, please contact alyssa_martinez@harvard.edu as soon as possible for more information. Inquiries about Falerii Novi should be directed to Prof. Margaret Andrews, margaretandrews@fas.harvard.edu.

To learn more about Sardis, we invite you to explore the following links:

• sardisexpedition.org
• Updates from the Field: Summer 2023; includes a showcase of student work: https://vimeo.com/849113233/84b346dc90?share=copy
• www.harvardartmuseums.org/teaching-and-research/research-centers/archaeological-exploration-of-sardis
• Sardis playlist on the Harvard Art Museums’ YouTube channel for recorded lectures and videos about the on-site work of the Harvard–Cornell excavation team
• Sardis Expedition YouTube channel, featuring drone videos of the excavation sites.
• Articles focused on Sardis in the Harvard Art Museums’ online magazine: Index including an article on the work of GSD students at Sardis: https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/a-model-city
• In Situ Newsletters of the Standing Committee on Archaeology: Spring 2017 , Spring 2020, Spring 2024
• Experience a day in the life of a Sardis excavator through the eyes of Sarah Eisen and Rebecca Deitsch, PhD students of the Department of the Classics at Harvard University: https://www.sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/about-day-in-the-life 
• ‘Wings Over Sardis’ provides spectacular curated drone footage of Sardis and the activities of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis: http://sardisexpedition.org/en/essays/about-wings-over-sardis#flying-through-sardis
• Worldwide Week at Harvard 2020, 24 hours of Harvard program, Legacies of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis in Turkey: Learn about the impact of the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis at Harvard and Turkey, and the experiences of participants who have been involved from its earliest days through the present: https://worldwide.harvard.edu/24hh-24-hours-harvard (You will need to click in the video that is streamed from Part 2 on the sixth blue dot at time stamp 4:32:22, which is the start of the Sardis session.)