We are pleased to share that Lyvia Morgan has been awarded the Archaeological Institute of America’s 2024 James R. Wiseman Book Award. The Wiseman award honors an academic book on an archaeological topic from the past four years. Morgan’s book, Keos XI: Wall Paintings and Social Context. The Northest Bastion at Ayia Irini, published by INSTAP Press in 2020, considers the miniature frescos from the department’s excavations. The volume is gorgeously illustrated and includes some of Morgan’s own watercolors.

UC Classics excavated Ayia Irini, Keos, Greece from 1960-1972 under the direction of John (Jack) Caskey. His and subsequent work revealed Ayia Irini to be a town with a long history of settlement from the late Neolithic to the Classical period. After Caskey’s death in 1981, Elizabeth Schofield (Ph.D. University of Cincinnati Classics Department) took over the direction of the study and publication of the material. Schofield assigned Morgan publication of the Bronze Age wall paintings from the Northeast Bastion; the results of Morgan’s study, which she began in the 1980s, are presented in this book, in which she also contextualizes the paintings within the wide context of the Aegean world.

Be sure to check out the publication, available on Jstor, and please join us in congratulating Dr. Lyvia Morgan!