American Friends of Herculaneum
promoting appreciation for herculaneum

The American Friends of Herculaneum (the AFoH) are scholars, students, docents, and amateurs of all levels interested in the ancient culture, the volcanic catastrophe, and scientific rediscovery of Herculaneum. Formally incorporated in 2011 and directly affiliated with the UK Friends of Herculaneum Society (est. Oxford 2004), our common objectives:

to advance the education of the public concerning Herculaneum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in particular to create an archive of materials related to its study
to promote research on Herculaneum, including the continued investigation of the Villa of the Papyri, and the publication of important research
to promote the conservation, for the benefit of the public, of artefacts and buildings at Herculaneum

We hope you'll join us!

Supporting High Quality Scholarship

AFoH Board and membership proudly supports annually one graduate research fellowship and another for an undergraduate student.
Janet S. Dunkelbarger won the 2018 competition for the graduate award and used the funding to support her research on "Dining in the Gardens of Herculaneum and Pompeii." Caitlin Knortz won the undergraduate prize.

Why join the American Friends?

The AFoH promote public awareness of issues pertaining to Herculaneum.
We support students of papyrology, archaeology, history, and classical philology, and all who have even amateur interest in ancient Herculaneum benefit from membership.
Annual meetings, semi-annual publications of the newsletter, and on-site visits to Naples and Herculaneum arranged every other year (next in 2020) keep AFoH members up to date and well connected.
All donations and membership subscriptions are tax deductible. Join here.

Where We've Been

AFoH scholars have lectured in prominent venues from Malibu to Boston and beyond. Their studies of Herculaneum take them even farther afield.
Above, Ambra Spinelli, AFoH Scholar 2016, takes measurements for her doctoral thesis in the Casa di Tramezzo di Legno.

Presenters and Presiders from 2019 SCS Panel — Brent Seales, Carol Mattusch, David Sider, Mantha Zarmakoupi, Jacqueline DiBiasse-Sammons

Actively Fostering Young Scholars

AFoH membership supports one graduate ($2500) and one undergraduate ($1500) fellowship annually.
The 2019 competition calls for applications before 1 April 2019. Click for full information.
Janet Dunkelbarger, who won the 2018 graduate award makes her report available here

An exciting initiative in 2018 brought many AFoH members to donate especially to support the Ancient Graffiti Project documenting graffiti inscribed on walls in Herculaneum. Crowdsourced donations and a pledged from the American Friends of Herculaneum resulted in a donation of over $4200 in Spring 2018.
Above, Gracie Gibson, AFoH Scholar 2017, photographs a graffito at Herculaneum with Dr. DiBiase Sammons, her professor.

Where We're Heading

The Getty Villa in Malibu, CA will mount an extraordinary exhibit of artifacts from Herculaneum's Villa dei Papiri, not to be missed!
26 June thru 28 October 2019
The American Friends of Herculaneum are coordinating a day of lectures, "Reading the Herculaneum Papyri: past, present, and future"
Saturday 19 October 2019. Plan to come!
AFoH will enjoy special tours and a reception.

The Getty show will feature the bronze Drunken Satyr from the Villa dei Papiri, which is being conserved in the Getty labs in preparation for the June opening. The Iris blog has an article by AFoH Board member Ken Lapatin.
Read & watch it here.

Call for Papers: The paper panel at the 2020 Society for Classical Studies (Washington DC) sponsored by the AFoH is called "The Villa of the Papiri at Herculaneum: Pieces of the Puzzle". Abstracts are due by 1 March 2019.
Click this link for full information.

Drunken Satyr, bronze found at Villa dei Papiri (1754), NM 5628

American Friends of Herculaneum promoting appreciation for herculaneum