Dr. Alexandra L. Lesk
Education
University of Cincinnati, USA 1996 - 2004. Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology
Ph.D. Thesis: A Diachronic Examination of the Erechtheion and Its Reception
Advised by C.B. Rose, J.L. Davis, J.J. Coulton, and K. Lynch. (Download PDF)
Master’s Thesis: The Anatomical Votive Terracotta Phenomenon: Healing
Sanctuaries in the Etrusco-Latial-Campanian Region during the Fourth
through First Centuries B.C. Advised by C.B. Rose and J.L. Davis [Download PDF]
ALincoln College, University of Oxford, UK 1995 - 1996
M.St. in Roman Architecture and Hellenistic Art and Archaeology
Tutored by J.J. Coulton, R.R.R. Smith and E.M. Steinby
Dartmouth College, USA 1991-1995 B.A. cum laude in Classical Archaeology
and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology. Awarded High Honours in Classical Archaeology
Senior Thesis: Amphiaraos and Asklepios: A Comparative Study of Their
Sanctuaries at Oropos and KosMajor GPA 3.9/4.0, equivalent to UK First Class
Foreign Study Program for Classics in Greece, Spring 1993
American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2001-2003
Associate Member 2000
Summer Session Participant 1998
American Academy at Rome 1998
Summer Program Participant
Research and Work Experience
University of Nottingham, Departments of Archaeology and Classics, UK
• Research Fellow and Special Lecturer 2002-2006
• Taught “Topography of Athens", “Introduction to Roman Archaeology,” “Frontiers of the
• Roman Empire,” and “Classical Buildings” to undergraduates
• Taught “The City of Rome” to postgraduates
• Taught seminars for “Ancient Art in Context”
• Advised undergraduate dissertations
University of Cincinnati, Department of Classics, USA
Research Assistant to Professor Getzel Cohen 1997-2001
• Hellenistic city-states in the Near East, Levant and Egypt
Research Assistant to C.B. Rose 1997-2000
• Troy Project topics including the Çan sarcophagus and Roman sundials
Teaching Assistant for Roman Art and Archaeology Course Spring 2000
• Graded exams, lectured and tutored students
Slide Curator for Troy Project 2000
• Organised, labelled, catalogued and prepared Troy excavation slides for use by scholars
• and conference participants
Assistant Editor of NESTOR 1996-1999
• Researched and published a monthly bibliography
• of books, reviews and periodicals on the Aegean Bronze Age
Teaching Assistant for Medical Terminology Course Autumn 1997 and 1998
• Graded exams and tutored students on the Greek and Latin roots used in the medical field
Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Translator and Editor 1997-2000
• Translated French manuscripts to English and edited contributions to the “Women Pioneers in
• Archaeology Project” volumes
Interviewer Winter 1998
• Co-ordinated and conducted video interviews with archaeologists in the United Kingdom
• for the “Women in Archaeology Project”
Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, USA Numismatics Intern 1994-1995
• Researched Greek coin collection for educational and cataloguing purposes
Dartmouth College, Department of Classics, Hanover, NH, USA
Drill Instructor for Ancient Greek 1995
• Taught a fast-paced review class to students taking first year Ancient Greek
Organic Chemistry Laboratory Supervisor 1994-1995
Presidential Scholar Research Assistant to the Late Professor Emeritus Matthew
Wiencke 1994-1995
• Investigated healing sanctuaries of ancient Greece and Asia Minor
Field Experience in Archaeology
Cornell Halai and East Locris Project 2002 – 2007
Director of the Halai Archaeological Project: Directed the excavations of the Archaic
sanctuary, oversaw research on the Hellenistic and Roman settlement and administered
day-to-day tasks on the excavation and fund-raising activities. Activity to resume in future.
Corinth Excavations of the ASCSA Spring 2002
Trench Supervisor: Excavated modern through Roman layers, processed pottery and finds
oversaw four workmen
Greek-American Excavations at Halasmenos, Crete Summer 2001
Trench Supervisor: Excavated an Iron Age ‘megaron’, processed and recorded finds, drew
1:20 plans and scarps, and oversaw four workmen Pottery Administrator: Oversaw daily
transport and processing of pottery
Cortona Excavations of the University of Alberta Summer 1999
Trench Supervisor: Excavated a Roman villa, processed and recorded finds
Janiculum Mills Excavations at the American Academy in Rome Summer 1998 Excavator
Troy Excavations of the University of Cincinnati Summer 1997
Pottery Analyst and Ceramics Co-Registrar: Processed pottery from Roman houses,
the Odeon and a kiln, and entered the information into an internet accessible database
Palaikastro Excavations of British School at Athens Summer 1996
Video Notebook Editor: Made daily videos of on-site excavations and created a video
notebook cross-referenced with the archaeological field notebooks Darkroom Supervisor:
Developed and printed contact sheets and prints for publication of site and small finds
photographs.
Agora Excavations of the ASCSA Summers 1994 and 1995
Excavator: Investigated the area around the Stoa Poikile, the crossroads of the Panathenaic
Way and Byzantine/Frankish remains north of the Agora
AWARDS
Louise Taft Semple Fellowship 1996 - 2004
• $15,000/year to support graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati Tuition Scholarship 1996 - 2004
• $12,000/year to cover tuition at the University of Cincinnati
Cedric Boulter Fellowship 2003
• $500 to support dissertation research during the summer of 2003
Samuel Kress Travel Fellowship 2001-2002
• $5,000 to support travel to foreign research institutions for doctoral dissertation
Dorot Foundation Graduate Student Travel Award 2002-2004
• $1164 to cover travel expenses to deliver papers at the AIA Meetings in Philadelphia,
• New Orleans and San Francisco
University of Cincinnati Graduate Student Council Scholarship 2001
• $450 to cover travel and expenses to Smith College Archives to consult documents
• on Harriet Boyd Hawes, Northampton, Massachusetts
University Research Council Summer Fellowship 2001
• $1,700 to support two months’ dissertation research in Athens, Greece
ASCSA Field Scholarship 2000 $3,000 to participate in the American School of Classical
• Studies at Athens Summer Session
Mary A. Sollman Scholarship 1998 $1,400 to participate in the American Academy
• at Rome Summer Programme
Lincoln College Graduate Research Award 1996 £318 awarded by the Senior Tutor’s
• Committee for travel to the excavations at Palaikastro
Dartmouth General Fellowship 1995
• $3,000 to support graduate studies at the University of Oxford
Presidential Scholar 1993 - 1995
• $500 for production costs of Senior Honours Thesis after at wo-year research programme
• in Archaeology
Raynolds Expedition Fund Grant 1994
• $2,000 to conduct research in Greece and Turkey on ancient healing sanctuaries
• for Honours Thesis
Academic Citations from Dartmouth College 1993-1995
Ancient Greek, Physics, Greek Mythology, Independent Study on Foreign Study Programme
Headmaster's Award 1991
• For highest achieving all-around student at the Lycée Canadien en France.
Conference Papers
World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, Manchester, “Northern Stars” Panelist,
12 November 2006.
Hegemony and Cornucopia: Classical Scholarship and the Ideology of Imperialism,
University of Nottingham, “Greek Identity, the British Empire and the Exploitation for
the Elgin Marbles,” 10 December 2005.
ArchaeologicalInstitute of America 106th Annual Meeting, Boston, “Hellenistic Kings on
the Athenian Akropolis: Re- dating the Repairs to the Erechtheion,” 8 January 2005.
Myth and Image: Augustan Rome, Egypt and the East, University of Wales Aberystwyth,
“The Reception of Vitruvius: the Conflation of ‘Caryatid’ and the Erechtheion ‘Korai’
in Augustan Rome, 9 July 2004.
Archaeological Institute of American 105th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, “Graffiti on
the Erechtheion,” 3 January 2004.
Classical Association Centenary Conference, University of Warwick, “The Lamp of Kallimachos
and the Erechtheion,” 13April 2003.
Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Seventh Annual Meeting of Postgraduate
Researchers, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, “New Images of the
Erechtheion by European Travellers” 22 February, 2003.
Archaeological Institute of America 104th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, “The Roman
Reception of the Erechtheion –Athens, Rome and Spain,” 4 January 2003.
15th Symposium of History and Art, Reusing the Past, Monemvasia, Greece, “Erechtheion
Maidens: The Reception of Vitruvius in post-Classical Architecture” 20 July 2002.
Archaeological Institute of America 103rd Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, “An Obsession
with Symmetry: Placing Harriet Boyd Hawes’ Unpublished Treatise on the Riddle of the
Erechtheion” 6 January 2002.
Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Fifth Annual Meeting of Postgraduate Researchers, University of Liverpool,“The Anatomical Votive Terracotta Phenomenon in Central Italy:
The Corinthian Connection” 24 February 2001.
Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, Fifth Annual Meeting of Postgraduate Researchers, University of Liverpool, “Urban Dynamics and State Formation” Session Chair, 24 February 2001.
First Annual Graduate Research/Scholarship Forum, University of Cincinnati, Poster Session:
“The Anatomical Votive Terracotta Phenomenon in Central Italy: The Corinthian Connection”
4 April 2000.
PUBLICATIONS:
Journal Articles
Lesk, Alexandra L. “Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum: Pliny, Vitruvius and the
Semiotics of the Erechtheion Maidens at Rome,” Arethusa 40 (2007): 25-42.
Conference Papers
Lesk, Alexandra L. “New Images of the Erechtheion by European Travellers,” in SOMA 2003
Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology,edited by Camilla Briault, Jack Green,
Anthi Kaldelis and Anna Stellatou, BAR S1391 (2005): 85-92.
“The Anatomical Votive Terracotta Phenomenon: the Complexities of the Corinthian
Connection,” in SOMA 2001 Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology, edited by
G. Muskett, A. Koltsida and M. Georgiadis,BAR S1040 (2002): 193-202.
Conference Abstracts
Lesk, Alexandra L. “Hellenistic Kings on the Athenian Akropolis: Re-dating the
Repairs to the Erechtheion,” Abstracts-Archaeological Institute of America
106th Annual Meeting 28 (2005): 91.
“Graffiti on the Erechtheion,” Abstracts-Archaeological Institute of America 105th Annual
Meeting 27(2004): 23-24.
“The Roman Reception of the Erechtheion: Athens, Rome and Spain,”
Abstracts-ArchaeologicalInstitute of America 104th Annual Meeting 26 (2003): 7-8.
“An Obsession with Symmetry: Placing Harriet Boyd Hawes’ Unpublished Treatise
on the Riddle ofthe Erechtheion,” AJA 106 (2002): 296.
Dissertations and Theses Lesk, Alexandra L. A Diachronic Examination of the Erechtheion and Its Reception. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2004.
The Anatomical Votive Terracotta Phenomenon: Healing Sanctuaries in the Etrusco-Latial-
Campanian Region during the Fourth through First Centuries B.C. Master’s Thesis,
University of Cincinnati, 1999.Amphiaraos and Asklepios: A Comparative Study of
their Sanctuaries at Oropos and Kos,Undergraduate Thesis, Dartmouth College, 1995.
Other
Blomerus, Paul and Alexandra L. Lesk, "Using AutoCAD to Construct a 4D Block-by-Block
Model of the Erechtheion on the Akropolis at Athens, II: Connecting a Database to an
AutoCAD Model", CSA Newsletter XX (2008) No. 3.
Blomerus, Paul and Alexandra L. Lesk, "Using AutoCAD to Construct a 4D Block-by-Block
Model of the Erechtheion on the Akropolis at Athens, I: Modeling the Erechtheion in
Four Dimensions", CSA Newsletter XX (2007) No. 2.
Lesk, Alexandra L., Eric Robinson, and Paul Blomerus. Visitor Display Boards
for Halai Archaeological Site in East Lokris, 2004.
Gran-Aymerich, Eve. “Jean Dieulafoy” Alexandra L. Lesk and Paul Blomerus,
Trans., in Breaking Ground: Pioneering
Women Archaeologists: Volume I, Getzel Cohen and Martha Joukowsky, eds.,
University of Michigan Press, 2004: 34-67.
