Homer Thompson

Homer Armstrong Thompson ( born September 7, 1906 in Devlin, Ontario; † 7 May 2000, Hightstown, New Jersey) was an American archaeologist Classic Canadian origin. He was from 1947 to 1977 Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He has made ​​, especially as the excavator of the Agora of Athens and the Pnyx, the meeting place of the Athenian popular assembly a name.

Life and career

After studying the subject Classics at the University of British Columbia, which he in 1925 with a BA and 1927 with the M. A. graduating, Thompson earned his PhD in 1929 at the University of Michigan. Here he met the epigraphists Benjamin Dean Meritt, on whose recommendation Thompson staff at the then newly planned excavations of the Agora of Athens was. From 1931 on, he was here first and then Acting Deputy Director since 1945, before it was established in 1947 and formally confirmed in this position. Until 1967 he held the line in this outstanding research project to which he has contributed numerous important publications.

Since 1933, Thompson has also worked as an archaeologist at the University of Toronto and at the same time curator of classical collections of the Royal Ontario Museum. A reputation as a Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1947 largely freed him from his teaching duties and allowed him to fully concentrate on his research on the Athenian Agora.

Homer A. Thompson was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded several international prizes and honors, including in 1991 with the Kenyon Medal for Classical Studies.

Writings (selection )

• Buildings on the West Side of the Agora. In: Hesperia 6, 1937, pp. 1-226. ISSN 1553-5622
• The Tholos of Athens and its Predecessors. Princeton 1940 ( Hesperia. Supplement Volume IV ).
• The pedimental Sculpture of the Hephaisteion. In: Hesperia 18, 1949, pp. 230-268.
• The Odeion in the Athenian Agora. In: Hesperia 19, 1950, pp. 31-141.
• With Richard E. Wycherley: The Agora of Athens. The History, Shape and Uses of an Ancient City Center. Princeton 1972.
• Athens Faces Advertisy. In: Hesperia 50, 1981, p 343-355.