With great sadness...

It was with great sadness that we report the death of Lady Patricia Daunt on 2nd of October 2023 aged 84 at her home in Islington. In the early 1990’s Patricia wrote to Professor R.R.R. Smith, who had recently been appointed director of the Aphrodisias excavations, offering to take over as Chairman of The Friends of Aphrodisias Trust. Patricia brought the Friends back to life, and soon the Friends’ annual contributions became a significant part of the excavation’s budget. Aphrodisias hugely benefited from the diplomatic expertise and social contacts that Patricia and her husband Sir Timothy Daunt, the UK’s Ambassador to Turkey, brought with them.  Her energy and love of Aphrodisias were evident in the regular tours of Anatolia that she organised with groups of friends, tours whose final destination was always Aphrodisias. She will be greatly missed.

Silchester Roman City Walls and Amphitheatre

The next Friends outing will be to Silchester on 8 October 2024.

Silchester, which is just south of Reading, contains the archaeological site of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, , a settlement contemporary with Aphrodisias. Beside the remains of an amphitheatre it has one of the best-preserved Roman walls in the country.

On Thursday 3rd October, the Friends have been offered a wonderful opportunity to walk the site with its brilliant longtime excavation director, Prof. Mike Fulford, who has just completed and published a major excavation of one of the settlement’s main city blocks. The tour will last 1.5 – 2 hours, after which an excellent British countryside lunch may be available at Silchester Farm. Failing that, less elevated refreshment will be found at the Red Lion in Mortimer West End.

We will meet at the site at 11 AM. Travel from central London is about a one-hour drive, or a 45 minute train journey from Waterloo or Paddington to Bramley or Mortimer where further transport to the site itself will have been organised. The cost for this trip, not including travel and lunch, will be £60. We very much hope you’ll be able to join us. Please let me know.

30th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Tuesday 5th March 2024

The 30th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture will be held by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, on Tuesday 5th March 2024 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and will be preceded by the AGM.

Guided tour of Petworth House, October 2023

We have been given the exciting opportunity of a guided tour of Petworth House by the curator, Emily Knight, which will include a talk from Prof Smith on the Petworth collection of Roman portrait busts and statues.

29th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Thursday 16th March 2023

The 29th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture was held by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, on Thursday 16th March 2023 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and will be preceded by the AGM.

The statues of Aphrodisias and their sculptors, Monday 9th January 2023

Dr. Julia Lenaghan, the Mica and Ahmet Ertegün Senior Aphrodisias Researcher and Aphrodisias Project Administrator will speal on ‘The statues of Aphrodisias and their Sculptors’, in discussion with Professor Bert Smith. This meeting was held at 6.30pm on Thursday 17th February 2022, at Daunt Books, 83 Marylebone High Street, London W1.

28th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 9th March 2022

The 28th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture was held by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, on Wednesday 9th March 2022 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture commenced at 6.30pm, and was preceded by the AGM.

Working with the statues of Aphrodisias, Thursday 17th February 2022

Dr. Julia Lenaghan, the Mica and Ahmet Ertegün Senior Aphrodisias Researcher and Aphrodisias Project Administrator spoke on ‘Working with the statues of Aphrodisias’, in discussion with Professor Bert Smith. This meeting was held at 6.30pm on Thursday 17th February 2022, at Daunt Books, 83 Marylebone High Street, London W1.

27th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 19th May 2021

The 27th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, was held on Wednesday 19th May 2021 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture was commence at 6.30pm, and was preceded by the AGM.

26th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 4th March 2020

The 26th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, was held on Wednesday 4th March 2020 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and is preceded by the AGM.

A visit to the exhibition "Last Supper at Pompeii", Monday, 6th January 2020

On Monday 6 January at 11.30 am the curator Dr Paul Roberts has very kindly offered to show a group of 20 Friends round his exhibition "Last Supper at Pompeii" which is on at the Ashmolean Museum till 12 January and which has been very well received. Bert will then kindly host us to lunch at Lincoln College after which a slightly smaller group is invited to a presentation back at the Ashmolean given by the curator and expert on Roman provincial coinage, Dr Volker Heuchert, on the coins that would have been circulating at Aphrodisias in ancient times.​

The Cast Collection of Antique Sculpture, Monday, 13th May 2019

Professort Bert Smith showed a group of Friends round the cast collection of antique sculpture at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford on Monday 13 May.

25th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Tuesday 5th March 2019

The 25th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, was held on Tuesday 5th March 2019 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and is preceded by the AGM.

An Exhibition on the Cult of Antinous, Monday, 11th February 2019

A group of Friends visited a small exhibition in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford on the cult of Antinous, mounted and curated by Bert Smith, on Monday 11 February at 2 pm.

An Illustrated Talk on the Recent Discoveries in the Tetrapylon Street, Thursday, 10th January 2019

On 10 January at 6.30 pm in Daunt Books, 84 Marylebone High Street, Dr Ine Jacobs, the Field Director of the Aphrodisias Excavations working with Bert Smith gave a talk on the recent discoveries made during archaeological work on the Tetrapylon Street – an area of excavation to which the Friends have contributed.

A visit to the collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, 17th May 2018

Peter and Renate Nahum, owners of the Leicester Galleries in Ryder Street for many years, have again generously offered to take a small party of Friends round their important art collection, now installed in their fine Georgian house at 5 Bloomsbury Square.

24th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 7th March 2018

The 24th Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, will be on Wednesday 7th March 2018 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and is preceded by the AGM.

Aphrodisias: Talk by Professor Andrew Wilson, Monday 28th November 2016

Professor Andrew Wilson, who gave us such an interesting talk on the South Agora a few years ago, has very kindly agreed to give us an update on developments on the ground there and in his researches. He is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire at Oxford University and in charge of excavations at the so-called South Agora of Aphrodisias. The talk will be at Daunt Books, 83 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4QW, at 6.30 for 7 pm on Monday 28 November.

22nd Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 24th February 2016

The 22nd Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, will be on Wednesday 24th February 2016 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and is preceded by the AGM.

Thomas Kaefer in conversation with Bert Smith and Trevor Proudfoot on his work as Architect in Chief at Aphrodisias, Tuesday 21 April 2015

Having finished the ‘rebuild’ of the Celsius Library at Ephesus more than a quarter of a century ago, Thomas Kaefer and Gerhard Paul were invited by Kenan Erim, then Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, to rebuild the gateway into the Precinct of the Temple of Aphrodite, now known as the Tetrapylon. They completed the re-erection of this magnificent monument in 1990. Twenty five years later, both architects are still at work in the Sebasteion and Hadrianic Baths. It is a unique honour for the Friends not only to have Thomas Kaefer talk to us in London on the anastylosis of these fine buildings but also to have the chance to launch Ahmet Ertuğ’s Ancient Theaters of Anatolia, the text of which is by Bert Smith – a magnificent tome: interesting, beautiful and destined, like all previous Ertuğ books, to become a collectors’ item.

A visit to the collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, 14th April 2015

Peter and Renate Nahum, owners of the Leicester Galleries in Ryder Street for many years, have again generously offered to take a small party of Friends round their important art collection, now installed in their fine Georgian house at 5 Bloomsbury Square.

21st Kenan Erim Annual Lecture on Wednesday 25th February 2015

The 21st Kenan Erim Annual Lecture, given by Professor R.R.R. Smith, Director of Excavations at Aphrodisias, will be on Wednesday 25th February 2015 at the Art Worker's Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT. The lecture will commence at 6.30pm, and is preceded by the AGM.

A guided tour of the Lycian and Carian exhibits at the British Museum, 23rd January 2014

Dr Ian Jenkins, Senior Curator at The British Museum responsible for the ancient Greek collections, has, by popular demand, very kindly invited us to meet him by the Lion of Cnidus in the Great Court at 5pm on Thursday 23 January, in order to introduce us to the Museum’s unrivalled collection of Lycian and Carian architecture and sculpture.

A visit to the collection of Peter and Renate Nahum, 25th February 2014

Peter and Renate Nahum, owners of the Leicester Galleries in Ryder Street for many years, have generously offered to take a small party of Friends round their important art collection, now installed in their fine Georgian house at 5 Bloomsbury Square.

Visit to Painshill Park, April 2013

Painshill Park was created by the Hon. Charles Hamilton between 1738 and 1773. It is today the finest remaining example of an eighteenth century English landscape park. On 10th April 2013, 22 Friends enjoyed a private guided tour of this beautiful park, with Michael Gove, Chief Executive of the Painshill Park Trust.

Trevor Proudfoot, of Cliveden Conservation, (and Aphrodisias), showed us around the Crystal Grotto, where his team were doing an outstanding job of restoration.

Aphrodisias Film Evening, March 2013

On Tuesday 12 March 2013, the Friends held a film evening in conjunction with the Anglo-Turkish Society.

The two films shown were Professor Christopher Miles’ iconic 1984 Aphrodisias film, together with Professor George Janossy’s video of the 2012 visit to the site by a party of Friends of Aphrodisias.

The event was held at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centre in Central London, and a total of 50 people attended, most of whom went on to enjoy dinner at the  TAS Turkish restaurant.