The Rostovtzeff Lectures³

The Rostovtzeff Lectures are delivered annually at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW). Named after the great ancient historian Michael I. Rostovtzeff, who came to the United States after the Russian Revolution and taught at Yale University, and whose prodigious energies and sprawling interests led him to write on an almost unimaginable range of subjects, the lectures present scholarship that embodies ISAW's aspirations to foster work that crosses disciplinary, geographical, and chronological lines.

The Rise of Coptic: Egyptian versus Greek in Late Antiquity Jean-Luc Fournet
Coptic emerged as the written form of the Egyptian language in the third century, when Greek was still the official language in Egypt. By the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641, Coptic had almost achieved official status, but...
The Political Machine: Assembling Sovereignty in the Bronze Age Caucasus Adam T. Smith
The Political Machine investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, Adam Smith demonstrates that...
The Origins of Monsters: Image and Cognition in the First Age of Mechanical Reproduction David Wengrow
It has often been claimed that "monsters"--supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species--play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. The Origins of Monsters advances an...