Andrew L. Goldman has been a faculty member at GU in the History Department since 2002. He served as the Alphonse A. and Geraldine F. Arnold Distinguished Professor from 2015-18 and for numerous years as the chair of the Classical Civilizations Department. His fields of special interest are the history and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. He received his BA from Wesleyan University (1988), and his MA and PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1993 and 2000, respectively). Before arriving at GU, he spent several years studying and teaching abroad, in Ankara, Turkey, as a Fulbright Fellow and instructor at Bilkent University (1995-97), and in Rome as an instructor at Duke University's Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (1999-2000). Dr. Goldman was also the Rodney S. Young Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (2000-01), an institution at which he continues to conduct research (as a consulting scholar through 2020).
At the 91³Ô¹ÏÍø main campus and in its study abroad programs, Dr. Goldman contributes to the History and Classical Civilizations Departments by instructing introductory through advanced undergraduate coursework on the history and archaeology of the ancient world. Using a broad range of textual sources, artifacts, and, more recently, Virtual Reality reconstructions of ancient sites, Dr. Goldman encourages his students to explore social, political and economic issues pertinent to the ancient world as well as our world today, examining topics such as global commerce, social diversity and identity, and the rise and decline of complex state entities across a period which spans from the 3rd millennium B.C. until the end of the Roman Empire. More recently he has begun to teach a First Year Seminar on ancient Pompeii, using the site as a means to explore different facets of ancient culture and its modern reception in novels, music and film.
For over 30 years, Dr. Goldman has worked as a director, research analyst or excavator at numerous ancient sites in the Mediterranean, including Çatal Höyük, Oinoanda, Kerkenes Dag, and Gordion in Turkey, Paleopaphos in Cyprus, and the Aegates Islands of the northwestern coast of Sicily. Since 2014, he has served as the field director of the Sinop Regional Archaeological Project (SRAP) excavations on the Kale (castle) of Sinop, working closely with colleagues from U.S. and foreign universities to rediscover the history and culture of ancient Sinope on the Black Sea coast of northern Turkey. As part of this project, Dr. Goldman directs an archaeological field school for undergraduates which allows students to learn proper archaeological method and practice, to explore the ancient world of the Black Sea region, and to immerse themselves in modern Turkish culture within the beautiful seaside town of Sinop.
Dr. Goldman also maintains a strong passion for bringing the ancient world to life and a dedication to developing community programming and outreach opportunities focused on the ancient world. Recent projects include the 3-month exhibition, “Roman Myth and Mythmaking”, co-curated with Dr. Paul Manoguerra at the Jundt Art Museum in the fall of 2017. The exhibition, which featured nearly 120 ancient objects from three East Coast institutions, brought over 5000 visitors to the GU campus (as well as a troupe of Roman reenactors to the Herak Quad). Dr. Goldman has also continued to bring local, regional and national lecturers to campus on an annual basis, providing the GU and Spokane community with access to some of the most engaging speakers in the fields of archaeology, ancient history and Classics. Such efforts include the 2020 lecture series “Revealing Pompeii: Its Past, Present and Future”, the 2017 GU colloquium “Archaeology and the Humanities”, the 2016 lecture series “Perceptions of Roman Myth, Memory and Culture” (supported by a Spark Grant from Humanities Washington), and the 2010 “Greek Week” lecture series, held in tandem with the GU Theater Department’s production of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. In recognition of such contributions, Dr. Goldman has received several honors for his teaching, advising and professional work at 91³Ô¹ÏÍø, including two 91³Ô¹ÏÍø University Exemplary Teaching Awards (2019, 2008), a Digital Humanities Fellowship (2019), a Faculty Exemplary Award for Professional Service (2017), and the GU Compass Award (2014). In 2025-26, he has been selected as the Professor-in-Charge of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (ICCS) in Rome, a study abroad program for archaeology and Classics students run by Duke University.
When he’s not teaching at 91³Ô¹ÏÍø or excavating in the field, Dr. Goldman is an active member of local and national institutions which promote scholarly and public discussion of the ancient world and the field of archaeology. He is a recent past president of the Spokane Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), and has served as a traveling lecturer for national AIA since 2008. In 2024, he was the recipient of the AIA’s prestigious Joukowski Award for Distinguished Service, and he was elected as a Society Trustee for a 3-year term (2024-27) on the National AIA Board of Trustees. Since 2006 he has led numerous tours of Turkey for GU students and community members as well as other individuals, students and scholars. His continuing affiliations include the AIA, the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest (CAPN), the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), the Association of Ancient Historians (AAH), and the Vergilian Society.
And when he’s not doing all of that, Dr. Goldman likes to spend quality time with his wife Amy, their Bernese Mountain dog Torch, and their Norwegian Forest cat Atticus. His other areas of interest include hiking, skiing, rowing, pottery and gardening.
Books
Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome. 3rd Edition. With Charles Gates (Routledge 2024).
Selected Publications on Roman Gordion
“Roman Fineware Production and Circulation in Central Turkey”, in G.R. Tsetskhladze (ed.) Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period (Colloquia Antiqua 24; Leuven: Peeters, 2019), 235-52.
“New Evidence for Non-Elite Burials in Central Turkey”, in J. R. Brandt, E. Hagelberg, G. Bjørnstad and S. Ahrens (eds.), Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times. Studies in Archaeology and Bioarchaeology (Oxbow Books, 2017), 149-75.
“The Octagonal Gemstones from Gordion: observations and interpretations,” Anatolian Studies 64 (2014) 163–97.
"A Pannonian auxiliary's epitaph from Roman Gordion", in Anatolian Studies 60 (2010) 129-46.
"A Preliminary Report on the Roman Military Presence at Gordion, Galatia", with J. Bennett, in A. Morillo, N. Hanel, E. Martin (eds.), The XXth International Conference of Roman Frontiers Studies, Leon (Espana), Septiembre 2007 (Madrid, 2009), 1605–16.
“The Roman-period Cemeteries at Gordion in Galatia”. Journal of Roman Archaeology 20 (2007) 299–320.
The Aegates Islands Maritime Project
“The Bronze Helmets from the Battle of the Aegates Islands”. With A. Rose. In J. Royal and S. Tusa, The Site of the Battle of the Aegates Islands at the End of the First Punic War. Fieldwork, analyses and perspectives, 2005-2015 (L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2018), 115-42.
The Sinop Kale Excavations
“Sinop Kalesi Archaeological Excavations, 2015-16 Field Seasons”. With O. Doonan, H. Vural, A. Bauer, J. Rempel, E. S. Sherratt, U. Krotscheck, P. Maranzana and E. Sökmen. In S. Steadman and G. McMahon (eds.), The Archaeology of Anatolia: Recent Discoveries (2015-16). Vol. 2 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017), 176-96.
Preliminary report: “Sinope Ancient Kale Excavations 2015: towards a new model of mobile fishing communities and incipient trade in the Black Sea.” With O. Doonan, H. Vural, A. Bauer, J. Rempel, E. S. Sherratt, K. Domzalski, and A. Smokotina. Antiquity Project Gallery (April 2016), http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/doonan351.
Roman Military Equipment
“Weapons and the Army”, in J. D. Evans (ed.) A Companion to the Archaeology of the Roman Republic (Blackwell, 2013), 123–40.
As a field archaeologist, Dr. Goldman has worked at numerous ancient sites in the Mediterranean, including Çatal Höyük, Oinoanda, Kerkenes Dag, Gordion and Sinop. His chief area of interest is the material culture of the Roman world, and he has published on Latin inscriptions, carved gemstones, Roman military equipment, Roman cemeteries and funerary practices, Roman pottery and trade routes, as well as other related topics. His research has been supported by grants from Harvard’s Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Research Institute in Turkey, and 91³Ô¹ÏÍø University.
Beginning in 1992, Dr. Goldman joined the excavation team at ancient Gordion in central Turkey, where he studied the economic, military and social history of the small Roman-period settlement that flourished there between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D. With the support of grants from the Loeb Foundation at Harvard University, he directed excavations exploring the Roman-period settlement and its cemeteries in 2004-05, revealing for the first time material evidence (e.g., armor, weapons, barracks buildings) that indicated Roman Gordion was a minor military base during the 1st and 2nd centuries. The base, which is the first site of its type ever to have been investigated in Turkey, served as a collection and communications node along a major Roman highway, a road station (statio) that was something akin to a rural state police base crossed with a Pony Express post.
Dr. Goldman’s most recent projects are located in Sicily and the Black Sea region. In 2013, he was invited to publish the Roman military equipment recovered from the Mediterranean seabed near the Aegates (modern Egadi) Islands off the western coast of Sicily. The ancient helmets are part of the debris field associated with the final winner-take-all battle of the First Punic War (265-41 B.C.), as the Roman Republic and its arch-nemesis Carthage fought for supremacy over the western Mediterranean. As such, these finds represent some of the oldest known Roman military equipment ever recovered from a secure battlefield context. His work continued at this important site in October 2023, when he surveyed recent finds from the deep diving operations in Favignana and Palermo in Sicily with the cooperation of the Soprintendenza di Mare, RPM Nautical and Global Underwater Explorers/Società per la Documentazione dei Siti Sommersi.
Since 2014, Dr. Goldman has served as the field director for the Sinop Kale Excavations (SKE), a long-term archaeological project dedicated to exploring the ancient city of Sinope on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. Originally settled as a Greek colony in the late 7th century B.C., this site was one of the largest, wealthiest and most politically influential cities in the Black Sea region for over 2,700 years. The annual project has a team composed of specialists from nearly a dozen countries, and Dr. Goldman has taken undergraduates from GU and other institutions to work at the site as part of the 91³Ô¹ÏÍø-in-Sinop study abroad program. The SKE receives financial support from 91³Ô¹ÏÍø and several partner institutions, including California State University at Northridge, Queens College CUNY, and the University of Sheffield, as well as from public and private sources which include the National Endowment for the Humanities and National Geographic.
