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Edith Porada Dies—Art Historian and Archaeologist

Edith Porada, a leading authority on ancient cylinder seals, died on March 24 at age 81. A Viennese native who received her doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1935, Porada was the Arthur Lehman Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and honorary curator of seals and tablets at the Pierpoint Morgan Library. Porada also directed Columbia’s excavations on the Phlamoudhi plain in northeastern Cyprus in the early 1970s. There, on a remote hill, her team uncovered a Hellenistic sanctuary that proved the existence of close commercial ties between Cyprus and Greece in the late Bronze Age (1500 B.C.). A $1 million gift from an anonymous donor allowed Columbia University to create, in 1983, an Edith Porada professorship of ancient Near Eastern art history and archaeology. A remarkable scholar and teacher, Porada actively led graduate seminars until her death. She is survived by her sister, Hildegard Randolph.

Renewed Harvard Semitic Museum Makes Its Debut

The Harvard Semitic Museum has filled two positions to replace the ten staffers it dismissed late last year.^a Joseph A. Greene has been named assistant director, and James A. Armstrong becomes assistant curator.

Greene, the only laid-off staffer to be re-hired, previously served as curator of publications at the museum and begins his new position immediately. His field work has focused on archaeological sites in Jordan and Cyprus. Armstrong, who takes up his post on September 1, is a specialist in the archaeology of Mesopotamia and Syria and is a Mellon Fellow in anthropology at the University Museum in Philadelphia.