Epigraphy Seminar Study Trip – Summer 2025: Inscriptions Come to Life in Athens
During June, Columbia students enrolled in the Greek Epigraphy course participated in a unique academic experience through the Epigraphy Seminar Study Trip in Athens, led by Paraskevi Martzavou, Professor in the Department of Classics. Organized in collaboration with the Columbia Global Center in Athens and supported by the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Foundation, the program offered hands-on engagement with ancient inscriptions in their original archaeological settings. Over a week, students explored the city’s rich epigraphic landscape, studying inscriptions in their original archaeological contexts and engaging with leading scholars and professionals in the field.
Learning on Site: Athens as Classroom
During the trip, students explored a wide range of sites across Athens and beyond, using the city itself as a living classroom. They began their visit at the south slope of the Acropolis, examining inscriptions in the Theater of Dionysos and the Asclepieion. At the Epigraphical Museum, they studied important texts including political decrees, religious dedications, and funerary inscriptions, gaining close familiarity with materials from the Archaic through the Roman periods.
Tracing the Inscriptions of Ancient Athens
The students visited the Athenian and Roman Agoras, analyzing boundary markers, statue bases, and civic decrees, and reflected on how these inscriptions shaped public space and memory in the ancient city. At the Acropolis Museum, they encountered examples of imperial power, civic identity, and religious ritual expressed in stone. Their work continued at the Piraeus Archaeological Museum, where maritime and military inscriptions offered a broader regional perspective, and in Syntagma Square, where students examined the modern commemorative language of the Monument of the Unknown Soldier.
Epigraphic exploration of Thebes
The seminar also included an excursion to Thebes, where students visited inscriptions from Boeotia to deepen their understanding of regional diversity in the ancient Greek world. Throughout the week, they engaged with the practical challenges of restoration and preservation in an academic setting, learning about techniques used to protect inscriptions over time.
As part of their visit, students also had the opportunity to meet with the Columbia Global Centers Athens team, sharing their academic interests and reflections on the experience of studying epigraphy in the field
This intensive field-based seminar allowed students not only to sharpen their epigraphic skills but also to experience firsthand the enduring presence of the ancient world in the modern landscape of Athens.
