From the Greeks and the Romans to the Ottoman empire, the history of Sardis, Turkey, is one of persistent turnover. But its archaeological investigation has been remarkably consistent. Since 1958, the ancient city has been continuously excavated by one of the longest-running institutional projects, the Harvard-Cornell Exploration of Ancient Sardis.

"It's really important that it has institutional continuity," said Benjamin Anderson, associate professor of history of art and visual studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Many of us know and have been mentored by colleagues of the previous generation of excavators. As a result, it's one of the few long-term archaeological projects in the region that has generated a critical mass of data."

For the last several years, Anderson has been documenting the walls and structures of the city's acropolis, which was a major part of the settlement in the Byzantine period, following Roman times.

"This is a city that shows up in lots of ancient historical sources," he said. "But now, just in the last 75 years or so, we have the possibility of telling that story, also, through what the project has found archaeologically."

This summer, thanks to the efforts of the project as well as the local community that has played a critical role in the excavation, the site was inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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