Davis Museum’s Antioch exhibition pairs ancient artifacts with records of their excavation

The Davis Museum at Wellesley College opened its Antioch exhibition to visitors in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on September 25, 2026, after a September 24 reception. More than 140 artifacts appear alongside photographs, film and documents from the city’s excavations, giving visitors a view of how the objects were found, recorded and moved into museum collections.

The exhibition, Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City, occupies the museum’s lower-level Chandler and Bronfman galleries. Wellesley College and the local Swellesley Report published separate accounts of the fall opening on September 29. The local outlet estimated that about 150 students, college employees and residents attended the reception; that figure is its estimate, not a museum count.

What the Antioch excavation records show

The exhibition examines Antioch-on-the-Orontes, the ancient city at the site of modern Antakya in Türkiye, and the legacy of excavations there in the 1930s. According to the museum, it brings together objects from five museums with archival photographs, field notes and film footage. Wellesley College also describes maps, letters and other documents among the material on view.

Nicole Berlin, the Davis Museum’s associate curator of collections, curated the exhibition. She told Wellesley College that the records allow visitors to see ‘not only the ancient objects but also the circumstances in which those objects were excavated and documented.’ That pairing makes the excavation itself part of the story visitors encounter in the galleries.

The Davis Museum says the show grew from a multi-year project developed by Berlin with Elizabeth Molacek, Wellesley students and archaeological partners Banu Özdilek and Onur Tıbıkoğlu. It names the Baltimore Museum of Art, Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard Art Museums, Princeton University and Worcester Art Museum among institutions involved in new provenance research. Those partnerships help explain how an exhibition about one ancient city can bring together material held across several collections.

Why present-day Antakya is part of the story

Berlin also asked visitors to see Antioch as more than an ancient site. ‘It is Antakya, a modern city in Turkey where people still live, work, and study,’ she told Wellesley College. She connected that continuing community to the destruction the area suffered in the 2023 earthquakes. The exhibition’s account of excavation and collecting therefore sits alongside a reminder that the place from which the objects came has a present-day life.

What else visitors can see at the Davis Museum

The fall opening included a second exhibition, Shi: Stories in Stone, curated by Yuhua Ding. Wellesley College says it explores rocks, minerals and fossils through the Chinese concept of shi, meaning stone or rock. The Swellesley Report described both exhibitions in its account of the opening, giving local visitors two new displays to see during a museum trip.

How to visit the Antioch exhibition

The Davis Museum lists the Antioch exhibition in its Chandler and Bronfman galleries. Its events page also lists public tours led by student guides on Saturdays, with places available free on a first-come, first-served basis. Tour dates and subjects can change, so visitors seeking a guided visit should check the museum’s current events listing before travelling.

The Swellesley Report says parking is free in Wellesley College’s Visitor Parking facility off the Route 135/Central Street entrance. Visitors can use the museum’s exhibition and events pages to check the display and any scheduled tours. Published sources disagree on the exhibition’s closing date: the local report and an older museum listing give May 30, 2027, while a newer museum events page gives December 20, 2026. The museum should confirm the final date before readers rely on either listing.