A Conversation with Dr. Nicole Berlin about Exhibiting Antioch
Dr. Nicole Berlin, Assistant Curator of Collections at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, kindly paid the Phase III research team a virtual visit to speak about her work on the Antioch mosaics in the Davis Museum collections, how this intersects with our work, and to answer our research questions. Dr. Berlin has already curated the virtual exhibition The Antioch Mosaics at Wellesley College which explores the excavation, transportation, and conservation of the Antioch mosaic fragments and coins in the collection. Berlin’s exhibition is an in-depth exploration into the history of the Antioch excavations and how the artifacts reached Wellesley; it even contains video footage—”A Fine Roman Mosaic Comes to Light, 1932”—from the excavation. This work intersects with our research goals, serving to digitize the mosaics and make information and high-quality images available to researchers and the public at large. Another part of the exhibition pieces together digitally mosaic fragments from both their collection and the collection at Princeton Art Museum to show a more complete picture of the ancient mosaic floor. -MB
Two mosaic fragments from the dining room of the Atrium House at Antioch, housed within the collections of the Davis Museum at Wellesley College and Princeton Art Museum, that have been stitched together digitally to reconstruct the whole panel. Courtesy The Davis Museum at Wellesley College and Princeton Art Museum and “The Antioch Mosaics at Wellesley College”
In addition, Dr. Berlin described the process behind and plans for her upcoming exhibition Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City, a loan show opening in September 2026 that will focus on the archaeological material beyond the mosaics and the rich archive of the excavations. In collaboration with Antioch researcher Dr. Elizabeth Molacek, Dr. Berlin has analyzed many of the objects excavated along with the mosaic fragments and similarly dispersed to different institutions, although not always to the same institutions to which mosaic fragments were sent. Through the lens of the archaeological archive and associated objects, Dr. Berlin’s forthcoming exhibition will explore issues of colonialism, gender, and labor in the excavations of Antioch in the ealry 20th century.