Jeffrey Spier

Jeffrey Bryan Spier is an American classical archaeologist .

Jeffrey Spier earned a BA in Classical Archeology from Harvard University in 1977 . From September 1976 to September 1977 he was Research Assistant at George MA Hanfmann . From October 1983 to April 1988 he studied at Merton College of Oxford University and was there with John Boardman with the dissertation Minor Arts and Regional Styles in East Greece, 700-500 BC doctorate . His specialty are antique gems and cabaret, for example he wrote the catalogs of the gem collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian .

From 2004 he taught as a University Associate in the Classics Department at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ . He was guest curator of the exhibition Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth (2007/08). Since September 2014 he has been head of the antiques department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu ( Getty Villa ).

Publications (selection)

A Byzantine pendant in the J. Paul Getty Museum, in: Getty Museum Journal 15 (1987) 5-14.
Lycian coins in the decadrachm hoard, in: Coinage and administration in the Athenian and Persian empires. The Ninth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, April 1986 (Oxford 1987) 29-37.
Minor arts and regional styles in East Greece, 700-500 BC , D.Phil. Thesis University of Oxford, 1988
Review of: NM Wagoner: Early Greek Coins from the Collection of Joanthan P. Rosen. 1983, in: Numismatic Chronicle 148 (1988) 220-222.
A group of Ptolemaic engraved garnets, in: Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 47 (1989) 21-38.
Blinded with Science: The Abuse of Science in the Detection of False Antiquities, in: The Burlington Magazine 132, 1990, 623-631.
Emblems in archaic Greece, in: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 37 (1990) 107-129.
Un anillo bizantino-occidental en el museo Lázaro Galdiano, in: Goya 216 (1990) 328-330.
Review of: Novella Vismara: Monetazione arcaica della Lycia I. Il dinasta Wekhssere I (Glaux 2, 1989) and Monetazione arcaica della Lycia II. La Collezione Winsemann Falghera (Gaux 3, 1989), in: Numismatic Chronicle 151 (1991) 232– 237.
Two hellenistic gems rediscovered, in: Antike Kunst 34 (1991) 91–95.
Ancient gems and finger rings: catalog of the collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum . Malibu, Calif. 1992, ISBN 0-89236-215-4
Medieval Byzantine magical amulets and their tradition, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 56 (1993) 25-62.
Review of: Elizabeth Bartman: Ancient sculptural copies in miniature, 1992, in: Classical Review 43 (1993) 381–383.
Review of: Erdoğan Işık: Electron Staters from Klazomenai. The treasure trove of 1989, 1992, in: Numismatic Chronicle 154 (1994) 300-302.
with Eleni Vassilika: SS Lewis: notes on a Victorian antiquary and on contemporary collecting, in: Journal of the history of collections 7,1 (1995) 85-102.
with Roy Kotansky: The "Horned Hunter" on a Lost Gnostic Gem, in: Harvard Theological Review 88 (1995) 315-337.
Review of: Marie-Louise Vollenweider: Camées et intailles, 1. Les portraits grecs du Cabinet des médailles. Catalog raisonné, in: Swiss Numismatic Rundschau 75 (1996) 281–284.
Early Christian gems and their rediscovery, in: Engraved Gems: Survivals and Revivals, Washington DC. 1997, 32-43.
Notes on early electrum coinage and a die-linked issue from Lydia, in: Richard Ashton; Silvia Hurter (eds.): Studies in Greek Numismatics in Memory of Martin Jessop Price, London 1998, 327–334.
Conyers Middleton's gems, in: Classicism to neo-classicism. Essays dedicated to Gertrud Seidmann, Oxford 1999, 205–215.
From East Greece to Etruria. A late sixth-century BC gem workshop, in: Periplous. Papers on classical art and archeology presented to Sir John Boardman, London 2000, 330-335.
with Jonathan Kagan: Sir Charles Frederick and the forgery of ancient coins in eighteenth-century Rome, in: Journal of the history of collections 12.1 (2000) 35–90.
Review of: Novella Vismara: Ripostigli d'epoca pre-ellenistica (VI - IV secolo aC) con monete della Lycia arcaica. Aspetti e problemi di distribuzione e di circolazione. Catalogo dei ritrovamenti di Lycia (?) 1972 (?) E Lycia (?) 1973 (?), In: Numismatic Chronicle 160 (2000) 369-372.
A catalog of the Calouste Gulbenkian collection of gems , Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 2001, ISBN 972-8128-70-3
with Melih Arslan; A. Dervisagaoglou: The Demirler, Lycia (c. 1972) hoard (CH 1.6, 8.40, 9.351), in: Andrew Meadows; Ute Wartenberg (eds.): Coin hoards. Volume IX, Greek hoards, London 2002, 87-93.
Middle Byzantine (10th - 13th century AD) stamp seals in semi-precious stone, in: Chris Entwistle (Ed.): Through a glass brightly: studies in Byzantine and medieval art and archeology presented to David Buckton, Oxford 2003, 114–126 .
A lost consular diptych of Anicius Auchenius Bassus (AD 408) on the mold for an ARS plaque, in: Journal of Roman Archeology 16 (2003) 350-354.
A revival of antique magical practice in tenth-century Constantinople, in: Charles Burnett (Ed.): Magic and the classical tradition, Warburg Institute colloquia 7, London 2006, 29–36.
Antique and early Christians gems , Wiesbaden, Reichert 2007, ISBN 3-89500-434-0

Web links

Literature by and about Jeffrey Spier in the catalog of the German National Library
Jeffrey Spier on academia.edu
Interview with Jeffrey Spier

personal data
SURNAME	Spier, Jeffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Spier, Jeffrey Bryan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1955