Faculty ::

 Recent Faculty Publications

Greek & Roman Art
Sculpture
New Technologies for Visualizing Historical Materials

portraiture; the sculptural landscape of the ancient Greek city; the archaeology of Athens

Current projects:

Roman Portrait Statuary in Athens, Mapping the Archaeology of Athens

Sheila Dillon received a Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She teaches courses on Greek and Roman art. Her research interests focus on portraiture and public sculpture and on reconstructing the statuary landscape of ancient cities and sanctuaries. Her books include The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World (2010); Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles (2006), which was awarded the James R. Wiseman Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2008; Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias (2006); and an edited volume A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (2012). Professor Dillon was a member of the Aphrodisias Excavations in Turkey from 1992-2004, has worked at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace, and now spends summers doing fieldwork in Athens. Her current projects include a history of portrait sculpture in Roman Athens, which examines the impact of Roman rule and Roman portrait styles on Athenian portraiture, and a digital mapping project of the archaeology of Athens, a collaborative endeavor centered in the Wired! Lab that involves undergraduate and graduate students at Duke and international colleagues in Athens. Professor Dillon is the Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Archaeology.

• Ph.D. New York University 1994
• M.A. New York University 1989
• B.A. Rutgers University New Brunswick 1987
• AAS Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY

Office Hours:

Thursday 12-2 pm or by appointment.

Teaching (Spring 2024):   (typical courses)

• Arthist 495s.01, Honors thesis workshop Synopsis

  Smith wrhs a266, F 10:05 AM-12:35 PM

1. Dillon, S. The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World. Cambridge University Press, (March, 2010). [available here]
2. Dillon, S. Ancient Greek Portrait Sculpture: Contexts, Subjects, and Styles. Cambridge University Press, (April, 2006). (Winner of the 2008 James R. Wiseman Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America.) [Ancient]
3. Dillon, S; Smith, RRR; Hallett, CH; Lenaghan, J; Voorhis, JV. Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz Germany, (June, 2006). (Reviews: J. Tanner, BMCR 2007.04.07)
4. Dillon, S; Welch, K. Representations of War in Ancient Rome (paperback). Cambridge University Press, (2009). [of%20War%20in%20Ancient%20Rome/?site_locale=en_US]
5. S. Dillon and S. James, co-editors. The Blackwell Companion to Women in the Ancient World.   (January, 2012).
6. Dillon, S. "Portraits of Women in the early Hellenistic Period." Early Hellenistic Portraiture: Image, Style, Context. Edited by Hoff, RVD; Schultz, P.  (October, 2007): 63-83. [available here]
7. Dillon, S. "Women on the Columns of Trajan and Marcus and the Visual Language of Roman Victory." Representations of War in Ancient Rome. Edited by Dillon, S; Welch, K.  (April, 2006): 244-271.
8. Sheila Dillon, . "Subject selection and viewer reception of Greek portraits from Herculaneum and Tivoli." Journal of Roman Archaeology  vol. 13 (Fall, 2000): 21-40.
9. Sheila Dillon, . "Figured Pilaster Capitals from Aphrodisias in Caria." American Journal of Archaeology  vol. 1997 no. 101 (October, 1997): 731-769. [html]
10. Sheila Dillon, . "The portraits of a civic benefactor of 2nd-c. Ephesos." Journal of Roman Archaeology  vol. 9 no. 9 (Fall, 1996): 261-274.