Four distinguished authors explore the topography and architecture of the ancient city of Sardis, in western Turkey, and its graphic recording since the 18th century. The site and its Lydian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman finds have been studied for 45 years by the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, sponsored by the Harvard University Art Museums and Cornell University. The drawings here document architecture, excavations, and surveys: the oldest are hand-measured, precise pencil-and-ink renderings from the Age of Enlightenment; the most recent were created using electronic and computerized technologies.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis at the Fogg Art Museum, August 23, 2003–January 18, 2004.

Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr. (University of California, Berkeley) is the field director at Sardis. Nicholas D. Cahill (University of Wisconsin, Madison) is the senior excavator at Sardis. Philip T. Stinson (NYU) is the supervising architect at Sardis. Fikret K. Yegül (University of California, Santa Barbara) is the specialist for the Artemis Temple at Sardis.

This publication was funded by the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund in the Andrew W. Mellon Publication Funds, with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and from a gift in memory of Burriss Young, Helen Burriss Young, and Francis Hastings Young.