Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity

Formed in 1932, the Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and its Vicinity was chaired by Princeton University's Charles Rufus Morey and included representatives from the Louvre, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, the Fogg Art Museum, and Dumbarton Oaks. Princeton's involvement with the excavation of Antioch begins in 1927 when the French Antiquities Service asked if Princeton would be interested in excavating the ancient city of the Roman Empire. A year later Charles Rufus Morey made a formal proposal and a six-year term was granted starting in 1931. When the initial term expired a second six-year excavation term was agreed to, however by late 1939 the effects of the Depression as well as political changes in the region which hampered the export of antiquities had slowed the expedition. Work on the project was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War.