The Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World (AAMW) is an interdisciplinary program for research and teaching of archaeology,^[1] particularly archaeology and art of the ancient Mediterranean (Greece and Rome), Egypt, Anatolia, and the Near East, based in the Penn Museum of the University of Pennsylvania.

History

Doctoral work in Mediterranean and Near Eastern Archaeology has been a feature of the University of Pennsylvania since 1898, largely in response to the excavations undertaken by the Penn Museum. Nearly 200 dissertations in Old World Archaeology and Art have been produced at Penn in the course of the last century.

The eminent archaeologist Rodney Young, the director of the Penn Museum's excavations at Gordion^[2] that uncovered the royal tomb of King Midas, strengthened the graduate program during the 1960s and 1970s.

Core faculty

The current Chair of the Program is Thomas F. Tartaron. Other notable faculty include Philip P. Betancourt, Lothar Haselberger, Holly Pittman, and C. Brian Rose.

Current fieldwork

• Gordion, Turkey
• Halil Rud Archaeological Project, Iran
• Marsa Matruh, Egypt
• Villa Magna, Italy
• Vrokastro, Crete, Greece
• Mount Lykaion, Greece
• Ur, Iraq
• Tell es-Sweyhat, Syria

Notable alumni

The AAMW program and its predecessors have graduated^[3] a number of prominent archaeologists, including:

• George Bass (PhD., 1964), professor emeritus at Texas A&M University and an early practitioner of underwater archaeology
• Crawford "Greenie" Greenewalt Jr. (PhD., 1966), past director of the excavations at Sardis and professor at the University of California, Berkeley
• Philip Betancourt (PhD., 1970), Director of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory and professor at Temple University
• G. Kenneth Sams (PhD., 1971), past director of the Gordion excavations and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Jeremy Rutter (PhD., 1974), ceramics specialist and professor at Dartmouth College
• Zahi Hawass (PhD., 1987), past Minister of Antiquities of Egypt
• Jodi Magness (PhD., 1989), co-director of the excavations in the late Roman fort at Yotvata, Israel and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill