2003 Runciman award won by Sir John Boardman
Sir John Boardman has won this year’s Runciman Award for his book «The Archaeology of Nostalgia: How the Greeks Recreated their Mythical Past» (Thames and Hudson, 2002). The award, named in honor of the late Sir Steven Runciman, is given to a book about Greece or on some aspect of the Hellenic scene. Sir John Boardman, professor emeritus of the University of Oxford, a member of the British Academy and a distinguished expert on classical art and archaeology, received a medal and a cheque for 5,000 pounds from Theodoros Karatzas, governor of the National Bank of Greece, which sponsors the award, at the Hellenic Center in London on Monday evening. Dr Dorothy Thompson, chair of the judges’ jury, congratulated Professor Boardman on his scholarly, beautifully illustrated, highly accessible book, which embodies a new approach to material culture. «Professor Boardman has thrown new light on the making of a modern civilization out of the relics of the past,» she said. Also short-listed for the award were: «The Archaeology of Athens» (Yale University Press) by John M. Camp; «Who Needs Greek? Contests in the Cultural History of Hellenism» (Cambridge University Press, 2002) by Simon Goldhill; «The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook» (Routledge, 2002) by Sian Lewis; «The Oxford History of Byzantium» (Oxford University Press, 2002), edited by Cyril Mango; «Mount Athos: Renewal in Paradise» (Yale University Press, 2002) by Graham Speake; and «Monumental Tombs of Ancient Alexandria: The Theater of the Dead» (Cambridge University Press, 2002) by Marjorie Susan Venit.
