Kenan Erim

Kenan Erim (1929 – 1990) was a Turkish archaeologist whose legacy is the lifelong dedication and the dazzling discoveries made in Aphrodisias in Turkey, through the contemporary excavations he launched.

Vita

Professor Kenan Tevfik Erim (born 13 February 1929 in İstanbul; died of a heart attack 3 November 1990 in Ankara) was best known as the excavator of the site of Aphrodisias from 1961 until his death.

Although of Turkish birth, Kenan Erim was raised and educated in Geneva, Switzerland, and undertook university studies in the USA. He took his first degree in Classical archaeology at New York University in 1953, and his PhD at Princeton University in 1958. From 1957 he spent one year lecturing at Indiana University, and from 1958 he was hired at NYU, where he bacame full professor in 1971, and remained until his death. NYU still conduct the excavations at Aphrodisias to this day.

Honours

• 1986: Liberty Medal of New York City
• 1987: Commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy
• 1988: National Geographic Society Centennial Medal

Bibliography

• 'Morgantina', American Journal of Archaeology 62 (1958), pp. 79-90 (reprinted in Morgantina Studies II, Princeton University Press, 1989)
• 'Two inscriptions from Aphrodisias', Papers of the British School at Rome 37 (1969), 92-5
• 'A letter of Gordian III from Aphrodisias in Caria' (with J. Reynolds), Journal of Roman Studies 59 (1969), 56-58
• 'The copy of Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices from Aphrodisias in Caria' (with J. Reynolds), Journal of Roman Studies 60 (1970), 120-140
• 'Diocletian's Currency Reform, a new inscription from Aphrodisias' (with J. Reynolds & M. Crawford), Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971), 171-77
• 'A portait sculpture of Domitian from Aphrodisias, Opuscula Romana 9 (1973), 135-42
• 'The Aphrodisias copy of Diocletian's Price Edict' (with J. Reynolds), Journal of Roman Studies 63 (1973), 99-110
• 'Aphrodisias' (with J. Reynolds) in (edd. Inan, Alföldi), Römische und frühbyzantinische Porträtplastik aus der Turkei (Mainz, 1979), nos. 173-209
• K. T. Erim, A relief showing Claudius and Britannia from Aphrodisias, Britannia 13 (1982), 277-81
• 'Sculptors from Aphrodisias: some new inscriptions' (with C. Roueché), Papers of the British School at Rome 50 (1982), 102-15
• Aphrodisias, City of Venus Aphrodite, 1986
• Aphrodisias Bibliography (with J. de la Genière) in Aphrodisias de Carie: Colloque Lille 1985, Paris, 1987, 159-165
• 'Sculptors of Aphrodisias in the inscriptions of the city', Festschrift J. Inan (Istanbul, 1989, appeared 1991), 517-538.

References

• G.W. Bowersock, 'Kenan Tevfik Erim, 1929-1990', American Journal of Archaeology 95, (1991), pp. 281-283 (available online from Jstor at [1])
• [Kenan Erim] in the Turkish Wikipedia