Sterling Dow

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Sterling Dow (born November 19, 1903 in Portland (Maine) , † January 9, 1995 in Boston ) was an American classical archaeologist and epigraphist who taught at Harvard University from 1936 to 1970 .

Life

Sterling Dow earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1925 and then went to Cambridge University College for a year on a Fiske Foundation scholarship , where he studied ancient history. Upon his return to Harvard, he joined ancient historian William Scott Ferguson , who promoted Dow's career. After completing his master's degree (1928), Dow stayed in Athens from 1931 to 1935 as a Guggenheim Fellow and a scholarship holder at Harvard University, where he made his first experiences in archaeological field work and documented numerous inscriptions. Among other things, he invented his own contact technique . During these years the American excavations took place in the Agora of Athens . In Athens Dow collected material for his doctoral thesis, with which he obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1936. received his doctorate .

After his doctorate, Dow taught and researched until his retirement (1970) at Harvard University, first as an instructor, then from 1949 as the John E. Hudson Professor of Archeology . His research focus was Greek epigraphy. Dow published five monographs and more than 150 essays and reviews.

After his retirement, Dow taught as a Distinguished Professor at Boston College, and from 1978 as a Blegen Distinguished Professor at Vassar College . He received three honorary doctorates. After his death, a Sterling Dow Fellowship was established at the Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies at Ohio State University .

literature

  • Alan L. Boegehold et al. (Ed.): Studies presented to Sterling Dow on his Eightieth Birthday (= Greek, Roman and Byzantine Monographs. Volume 10). Duke University, Durham (North Carolina) 1984 (with a short biography on pp. IX – XI and list of publications up to 1983 on pp. XIX – XXXVI).
  • William M. Calder III : Sterling Dow † . in: Gnomon . 68: 572-574 (1996)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dow, Sterling
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Portland (Maine)
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1995
Place of death Boston