Hugh Jeffery (UK)

Hugh Jeffery
MSt in Classical Archaeology

I received the Ertegun Scholarship in order to pursue an MSt over the academic year 2014-15, though since I spent the subsequent three years at Oxford working on my DPhil my time in the Ertegun House was rather longer.  My undergraduate studies were in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History. During my masters year I specialised in late antique and Byzantine material culture, and this formed the basis for a dissertation on a medieval cemetery at the site of Aphrodisias in southwestern Turkey. My DPhil thesis broadened the scope of investigation to the entire Middle Byzantine settlement at this site, over the period c. AD 700-1250. This period is comparatively understudied in the Lower Maeander region of Asia Minor. Though archaeological excavations have historically been very dense, the spectacular remains of the classical past have often obscured the enduring presence of the medieval population.

Life After Ertegun House

My thesis combines various different sources of archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct the built environment and social dynamics of medieval Aphrodisias; architecture, sculpture, coins, lead seals and tombs. I am currently resident at ANAMED, the Research Centre for Anatolian Civilisations affiliated with Koç University in Istanbul. The plan is to complete the thesis and to refine the manuscript for publication as a monograph. My interests also encompass the preceding period of late antiquity, and in addition to my medieval research I have published on early angel cult and sixth century urbanism.