Brien K. Garnand studied Ancient History, Classical Philology (Greek and Latin) and Northwest Semitic Philology (Hebrew, Phoenician), as well as Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, all in the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World at the University of Chicago. His dissertation research concerned the depiction of Phoenician votive rituals in ancient textual sources and in modern scholarship.
Research interests
Ancient Mediterranean History (Ethnography and Geography); Ancient Colonization; Early Alphabetic Writing; Archaeology of the Central Mediterranean
Recent and ongoing research projects
NINO Visiting Research Fellow (Leiden): study of stelae and urns in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in collaboration with Ruurd Halbertsma (RMO) and, in the case of XRF analysis of urns, with Dennis Braekmans (Leiden) and Monica Ganio (GRI).
ASOR Punic Project (Cambridge MA): preparation of the final archaeological report of American excavations at the tophet, or the Precinct of Ba‘al and Tinnit in Carthage (Regulus-Salammbô), in collaboration with Joseph Greene (HMANE); this includes both the excavations of F.W. Kelsey (1925 UMichigan) and L.E. Stager (1975–79, UChicago/Harvard) and corresponds with an exhibition on their 50th/100th anniversaries (2025).
Anchoring Ancient Colonization (Nijmegen/Groningen): study of non-coercive methods of social and economic control utilized by Greek and Phoenician colonizers, and how they were accepted or resisted by indigenes, specificially in Sicily and Libya.
Ethical and Inclusive Archaeology (AIA-Washington DC): a listening roundtable series to understand how the discipline of archaeology (AIA) can become more inclusive, with Miko Flohr (Leiden).
CREWS Program (Cambridge): study of the use of individual alphabetic characters as abbreviations in place of entire fomulae on Phoencian-Punic votive dedications.
GRI Villa Scholar (Malibu): study of artifacts and texts to understand methods used for maintenance of physical and conceptual boundaries between Phoenicians and Greeks.
Recent and ongoing publications
Forthcoming: Carthage, the “Precinct of Tanit” (tophet): The American Schools of Oriental Research Punic Project: The Stager Excavations (1976-1979), vol.1-2. Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant 6.1-2 (L.E. Stager †, J.A. Greene, and B. Garnand, eds.)
Forthcoming: Open/Closed Borders: Ethnic Identity and Material Culture. Philistines, Canaanites and Phoenicians. Getty Research Institute Publications.
Forthcoming: Determining North African Ceramic Fabric Types through X-Ray Fluorescence. Getty Research Journal (with D. Braekmans and M. Ganio)
Forthcoming: Challenges in Publishing Legacy Ecavations: The University of Michigan (1925) and ASOR Punic Project (1975-1979) Campaigns. Un siècle de recherche sur les sanctuaires dits tophet, Institut national du Patrimoine (Imed ben Jerbania, ed.)
Forthcoming: Poetic Parallelism in Phoenician and Punic Curses. ‘A Kind of Magic’: Cross-Disciplinary Studies on the Ancient Mediterranean World in Honor of Christopher A. Faraone (C. López-Ruiz, ed.)
Forthcoming: Carthage, the “Precinct of Tanit” (tophet): The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Punic Project: The Stager Excavations (1976-1979).
Forthcoming: Carthage, the “Precinct of Tanit” (tophet): The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Punic Project: Kelsey Excavations (1925).
Forthcoming: The “Punic” Inscription on a Miniature Votive Altar from Selinus (JPGM 81.AA.143). Getty Research Journal
Forthcoming: Formulaic Patterns in Phoenician/Punic Inscriptions. Rivista di Studi Fenici 50
Forthcoming: Infants as Votive Offerings in Ancient Carthage (edited thematic volume of the Journal of Ancient History)
2022: Phoenician Synthesis: Patterns of Human Sacrifice and Problems with Ritual Killing. The Value of a Human Life: Ritual Homicide in the Ancient World. Papers on Archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities. Sidestone Press (K. Innemee, ed.)
2020: Review of B. D’Andrea, 2018: Bambini nel “limbo”. Rivista di Studi Fenici 47
2020: Phoenicians and Greeks as Comparable Contemporary Migrant Groups. Greeks Across the Ancient World. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (F. De Angelis, ed.)
2019: Phoenicians and Carthaginians in Western Imagination. Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean (B. Doak and C. López-Ruiz, eds.)
2013: Infants as Offerings: Demographic Patterns in tophet Burials. Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici 29/30 (with L.E. Stager, J.A. Greene)
2013: Phoenicians on the Edge: Geographic and Ethnographic Distribution of Human Sacrifice. Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici 29/30
