AIA President C. Brian Rose with 2010 Wiseman Book Award Winner Judith McKenzie

Each year the James R. Wiseman Book Award Committee will recommend, in time for presentation of the award at the Annual Meeting of the Institute, the work it deems most worthy of recognition in that year. Books and monographs bearing a date of publication within the four calendar years prior to (not including) the year of the Annual Meeting at which the award is made will be eligible for consideration.

AIA members are encouraged to suggest books worthy of the award by sending a Letter of Nomination to the address below. Authors and publishers may also bring their books to the committee's attention by sending a Letter of Nomination and four sample copies for distribution to the committee to the address below. Books may be submitted for the award only once, and should not be re-submitted unless specifically requested by the committee.

Due Date for Nomination
Letter of nomination and books should be received by Institute Headquarters at the below address no later than May 3, 2010.

Wiseman Book Award
Attn: Awards
Archaeological Institute of America
656 Beacon Street, 6th Floor
Boston, MA 02215-2006
(617) 353-9361
FAX: (617) 353-6550
E-mail: awards@aia.bu.edu

Questions about the Book Award may be directed to Deanna Baker, Education and Outreach Coordinator, at the above address.

2010 Wiseman Book Award Winner: Judith McKenzie

Judith McKenzie's The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt c. 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007) is a masterful history of the monumental architecture of Alexandria, as well as of the rest of Egypt, encompassing an entire millennium—from the city’s founding by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. to the years just after the Islamic conquest of A.D. 642. Long considered lost beyond recall, the architecture of ancient Alexandria has until now remained mysterious. But in her work, McKenzie shows that it is indeed possible to reconstruct the city and many of its buildings by means of meticulous exploration of archaeological remains, written sources, and an array of other fragmentary evidence.


The book approaches its subject at the macro- and the micro-level: from city-planning, building types, and designs to architectural style. It addresses the interaction between the imported Greek and native Egyptian traditions; the relations between the architecture of Alexandria and the other cities and towns of Egypt as well as the wider Mediterranean world; and Alexandria’s previously unrecognized role as a major source of architectural innovation and artistic influence. Lavishly illustrated with new plans of the city in the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine periods; reconstruction drawings; and photographs, the book brings to life the ancient city and uncovers the true extent of its architectural legacy in the Mediterranean world.

Past Winners of the James R. Wiseman Book Award

2009	Joan Breton Connelly: Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece
2008	Sheila Dillon: Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects and Styles
2007	Lynne C. Lancaster: Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome: Innovations in Context
2006	Bruce G. Trigger: Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study
2005	Tony Wilkinson: Archaeological Landscapes of the Near East
2004	Gloria Ferrari Pinney: Figures of Speech: Men and Maidens in Ancient Greece
2003	Cyprian Broodbank: An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades
2002	Lynn Roller: In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele
2001	Graeme Barker, David Gilbertson, Barri Jones, and David Mattingly: Farming the Desert: The UNESCO Libyan Valleys Archaeological Survey, Vol. 1: Synthesis, edited by Graeme Barker and Vol. 2: Gazetteer and Pottery, edited by David Mattingly.
1999	Joseph Coleman Carter: The Chora of Metaponto: The Necropoleis
1998	Janet DeLaine: The Baths of Caracalla: A Study in the Design, Construction, and Economics of Large-scale Building Projects in Imperial Rome.
1997	Carol C. Mattusch: Classical Bronzes: The Art and Craft of Greek and Roman Statuary
1996	P. Roger Moorey: Mesopotamian Materials and Industries: The Archaeological Evidence
1995	Andrew Wallace-Hadrill: Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum
1994	Patricia Anawalt and Frances Berdan: Codex Mendoza
1993	Sarah P. Morris: Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art and John Malcolm Russell: Sennacherib's Palace without Rival at Nineveh
1992	Robert Chapman: Emerging Complexity: The Later Prehistory of South-east Spain, Iberia, and the West Mediterranean
1991	Bruce Graham Trigger: A History of Archaeological Thought and Frances Dodds Van Keuren: The Frieze from the Hera I Temple at Foce del Sele
1990	Oscar White Muscarella: Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
1989	Anna Marguerite McCann: The Roman Port and Fishery of Cosa: A Center of Ancient Trade

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