R. Ross Holloway

Robert Ross Holloway was an American archaeologist, founder with Rolf Winkes of the Center for Classical Art and Archaeology at Brown University, and the Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus of Brown University, where he taught from 1964 to his retirement in 2006.

Biography and education

Holloway graduated from the Roxbury Latin School and Amherst College. He took an M.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1960, with a thesis "The elder turtles of Aigina".

Academic career

Holloway joined Brown University in 1964, and rose to become the Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor Emeritus at his retirement. His research interests include Greek and Roman numismatics, Greek art and architecture, the archaeology of Bronze Age Southern Italy and Sicily, the archaeology of ancient Rome and the history of the Early Roman Republic.
Throughout his career, Holloway has used archaeology not merely to support early published texts. but to develop and write history, whether or not it agrees with the literary history. As a reviewer of his work on early Rome and Latium writes
Another reviewer of his work on Constantine similarly indicates that the work was based on a body of evidence different from the traditional text-based studies:
Holloway's field work has centered on Italy and Sicily in the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The radiocarbon dates from his excavations led to a shift of almost five centuries in Early Bronze Age chronology in this area, while the study of the Early Bronze Age blades from Buccino was one of the first to document the use of arsenic as a hardening agent in early bronze metallurgy. On the island of Ustica his excavation of the citadel, the most perfectly preserved fortification of the Bronze Age in Italy or Sicily, discovered the first evidence of native stone sculpture in the same area. At the site of La Muculufa, Butera he discovered a federal sanctuary of the Early Bronze Age, the first to be documented.
A Festschrift, Koine: Mediterranean studies in honor of R. Ross Holloway was published in his honor in 2009. The editor's preface summarizes his career:
In his academic career at Brown Holloway was instrumental in creating an independent home for the archaeology of the classical lands of the Mediterranean in the Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, now succeeded by the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. In 1981, together with Prof. Tony Hackens of the Catholic University of Louvain, he founded the series Archaeologia Transatlantica which reached 22 volumes. This was replaced in 2009, at Brown by, the Joukowsky Institute Publications.

Awards and recognition

Holloway received the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1995.
He held honorary doctorates from Amherst and the Catholic University of Louvain and was a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, an honorary member of the Royal Belgian Numismatic Society, fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, fellow of the American Academy in Rome, foreign member of the Italian Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Studies, foreign member of the National Institute of Italic and Etruscan Studies.

Archaeology of Italy and Sicily

Italy and the Aegean: 3000-700 B.C.,,, 1982. OCLC 8844116
The Archaeology of Ancient Sicily, Routledge 1991.
*Translated into Italian as Archeologia della Sicilia antica, 1995.
The Archaeology of Early Rome and Latium, Routledge, 1994.
Satrianum, The Archaeological Investigations Conducted by Brown University in 1966 and 1967, Brown University Press, 1970.
Buccino, The Eneolithic Necropolis of San Antonio and Other Prehistoric Discoveries made by Brown University in 1968 and 1969, De Luca, 1973. OCLC 1056005
"La Muculufa, The Early Bronze Age Sanctuary: The Early Bronze Age Village," Revue des Archéologues et Historiens d’Art de Louvain, 22, 1990: 11-67, with M. S. Joukowsky, J. Léon and S. S. Lukesh 1990.
"La Muculufa II Excavation and Survey 1988-1991 The Castelluccian Village and Other Areas," editor with T. Hackens,, Providence and Louvain, 1995.
"Ustica I, The Results of the Excavations of the Regione Siciliana, Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali ed Ambientali Provincia di Palermo in collaboration with Brown University in 1990 and 1991," with Susan S. Lukesh and other contributors, Providence and Louvain, 1995. OCLC 34671592
"Ustica II, The Results of the Excavations of the Regione Siciliana, Soprintendenza ai Beni Culturali ed Ambientali Provincia di Palermo in collaboration with Brown University in 1994 and 1999," with Susan S. Lukesh, 2001. OCLC 47975697

Ancient art

A View of Greek Art, Brown University Press, 1973.
Influences and Styles in the Late Archaic and Early Classical Greek Sculpture of Sicily and Magna Graecia, Catholic University of Louvain, Institute of Archaeology and Art History, Monographs, 1975. OCLC 2276760
Constantine and Rome, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2004. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 920 libraries

Numismatics

The Thirteen-Months Coinage of Hieronymos of Syracuse, Antike Münzen und Geschnittene Steine III, Walter De Gruyter, 1969.
Art and Coinage in Magna Graecia, Edizioni Arte e Moneta, 1978.
Wheaton College Collection of Greek and Roman Coins, Ancient Coins in North American Collections, with J. D. Bishop 1981.
The Coinage of Terina, with G,. K. Jenkins, Edizioni Arte e Moneta 1982.
Ripostigli del Museo Archeologico di Siracusa, International Center for Numismatic Studies, Biblioteca vol. 2 1989.
Morgantina Studies, II, The Coins, with T. V. Buttrey, K. T. Erim, T. Groves, Princeton University Press, 1989.
''Ancient Greek Coins: Catalogue of the Classical Collection, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence and Louvain-la-Neuve, 1998. OCLC 43916721''