{{short description|German classical archaeologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox academic |honorific_prefix= |name=Barbara Borg |honorific_suffix={{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSA}} |birth_date={{birth date and age|1960|12|26|df=y}} |birth_place=Germany |death_date= |death_place= |spouse= |parents= |alma_mater=Heidelberg University, Göttingen University, Ruhr-University Bochum |thesis_title=Mumienporträts – Chronologie und kultureller Kontext |discipline=Classical archaeology |sub_discipline=Geoarchaeology |workplaces=University of Exeter |notable_works={{plainlist| *Crisis and ambition: Roman tombs and burial customs in the third century CE *Roman tombs and the art of commemoration: contextual approaches to funerary customs in the second century CE }}}} '''Barbara Elisabeth Borg''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (born 26 December 1960) is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Scuola Normale Superiore.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Barbara Elisabeth Borg {{!}} ScuolaNormaleSuperiore |url=https://www.sns.it/it/persona/barbara-elisabeth-borg |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=www.sns.it}}</ref> She is known in particular for her work on Roman tombs, the language of classical art, and geoarchaeology.
== Career == Borg studied Classical Archaeology, Philosophy and Geology at Ruhr-University Bochum from 1981 to 1985 and gained her PhD at Georg-August-University, Göttingen, in 1990 with the thesis ''Mumienporträts – Chronologie und kultureller Kontext''. Borg gained her Habilitation and ''venia legendi'' for Classical Archaeology at Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg in 1999 with the thesis ''Der Logos des Mythos – Allegorien und Personifikationen in der frühen griechischen Kunst''.<ref name="Hoffmann 2018">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Borg_Barbara_Elisabeth/CV|title=Academy of Europe: CV|last=Hoffmann|first=Ilire Hasani, Robert|website=www.ae-info.org|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref>
From 1993 to 2004 Borg held various teaching and research positions in Germany including acting Head of Department and Director of the Collection of Antiquities at the Archaeological Institute of Ruprecht-Karls-University. In 2004 she moved to the University of Exeter as professor of Classical Archaeology. She was Head of Classics from 2010 to 2015 and from 2018 onwards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/classics/staff/borg/|title=Professor Barbara Borg {{!}} Classics and Ancient History {{!}} University of Exeter|website=humanities.exeter.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref>
==Honours==
Borg has held a number of visiting fellowships, including the Hugh Last Fellowship at the British School at Rome (2013),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Borg|first=Barbara E.|date=2013|title=Hugh Last Fellowships|journal=Papers of the British School at Rome|language=en|volume=81|pages=388–389|doi=10.1017/S0068246213000275|s2cid=179062207|issn=0068-2462}}</ref> the Senior Onassis Fellowship at the Waterloo Institute for Hellenic Studies (2012),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cac-scec.ca/ccb/ccb18/ccb18_06.0.html|title=CANADIAN CLASSICAL BULLETIN – BULLETIN CANADIEN DES ÉTUDES ANCIENNES|website=cac-scec.ca|access-date=2018-07-31|archive-date=7 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907190728/http://cac-scec.ca/ccb/ccb18/ccb18_06.0.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and a Getty Scholarship at the Getty Research Institute (2011).<ref name="Hoffmann 2018" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.getty.edu/research/scholars/years/2010-2011.html|title=Scholar Year 2010/2011 (Getty Research Institute)|website=www.getty.edu|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref>
Borg has been a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute since 2006,<ref name="Hoffmann 2018" /> was elected to the Academy of Europe in 2012,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Borg_Barbara_Elisabeth|title=Academy of Europe: Borg Barbara Elisabeth|last=Hoffmann|first=Ilire Hasani, Robert|website=www.ae-info.org|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref> and was elected as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sal.org.uk/about-us/fellows-directory/B/#directory|title=Fellows Directory – Society of Antiquaries|website=www.sal.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-07-31}}</ref>
Borg received a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=Major Research Fellowships 2014 {{!}} The Leverhulme Trust |url=https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/major-research-fellowships-2014 |website=www.leverhulme.ac.uk}}</ref>
==Academic work==
Borg's early work emphasised the cross-cultural links of Roman art, including the edited volume ''Paideia: The World of the Second Sophistic'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Paideia: The World of the Second Sophistic |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/178663 |publisher=De Gruyter |language=English |date=2008}}</ref> which places Roman sculpture in the wider context of intellectual and literary culture. Her interest in the history and reception of Roman sculptures is evident in her contribution to the first full publication of the remarkable collection of antiquities at Castle Howard with Professor Henner von Hesberg and the late Andreas Linfert, one of the oldest collections of antiquities in Great Britain and of statues from antiquity.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Elizabeth | last=Bartman | journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology | title=A remarkable collection of art in North Yorkshire | volume=21 | year=2008 | pages=542–548 | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/remarkable-collection-of-art-in-north-yorkshire-borg-barbara-von-hesberg-henner-linfert-andreas-with-hiller-irmgard-graefe-erhart-gundlach-rolf-oehler-hansgeorg-die-antiken-skulpturen-in-castle-howard-monumenta-artis-romanae-xxxi-reichert-verlag-wiesbaden2005-pp-202-figs-3-pls-105-4-in-colour-isbn-3895004405/C6FA6CA0D2F2A147434264E2EA8D7E69 | doi=10.1017/S104775940000489X | s2cid=232346920 | accessdate=5 September 2020 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Borg's recent work on Roman tombs and burial customs of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, resulting in two monographs in 2013 and 2018, has been widely recognised due to Borg's meticulous and thorough treatment of the material evidence.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/crisis-and-ambition-9780199672738?cc=us&lang=en&#|title=Crisis and Ambition: Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century AD Rome|date=2013-11-15|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199672738|series=Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation|location=Oxford, New York}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bockmann|first=Ralf|date=2017-03-04|title=Crisis & Ambition. Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century CE Rome by Barbara Borg (review)|journal=Journal of Early Christian Studies|language=en|volume=25|issue=1|pages=149–151|doi=10.1353/earl.2017.0005|s2cid=51802672|issn=1086-3184}}</ref> Her conclusion that 'the open-air display of sarcophagi was much more common than is attested by preserved or documented examples or that multiple burials were frequent in sarcophagi' (Katharine Meinecke)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ajaonline.org/book-review/2568|title=Crisis and Ambition: Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century CE Rome|date=17 December 2015|website=American Journal of Archaeology}}</ref> has been supported by further work on imperial funerary monuments in the Suburbium of Rome.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1086/RESvn1ms23647825| title="Nero's Tomb" and the crisis of the third century: Roman sarcophagi as public and private monuments| journal=Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics| volume=61–62| pages=132–151| year=2012| last1=Thomas| first1=Edmund| s2cid=193586509| url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/15003/1/15003.pdf}}</ref> Borg's ''Blackwell Companion to Roman Art''<ref>{{cite web |title=A Companion to Roman Art |url=https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Companion+to+Roman+Art-p-9781405192880 |website=Wiley.com |language=en-gb}}</ref> provides a substantial evaluation of methodological approaches to the different media and zones of Roman art, with a range of experts in the different sub-fields highlighting critical issues and approaches.<ref>Review by Alice Landskrom, BMCR 2017.01.09 http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2017/2017-01-09.html</ref>
Borg has commented that her work on funerary culture aims to bring together all available evidence and to demonstrate that customs were shared between Christians and non-Christians in the Roman world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://classicalstudies.columbia.edu/events/classical-dialogues/crisis-ambition-tombs-and-burial-customs-in-third-century-ce-rome-by-barbara-borg/|title=Crisis & Ambition: Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century CE Rome by Barbara Borg {{!}} Classical Studies Graduate Program|website=classicalstudies.columbia.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827205924/http://classicalstudies.columbia.edu/events/classical-dialogues/crisis-ambition-tombs-and-burial-customs-in-third-century-ce-rome-by-barbara-borg/|archive-date=2018-08-27|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Borg's most recent work is a micro-history of the first part of the Via Appia.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Professor Barbara Borg {{!}} Classics and Ancient History {{!}} University of Exeter |url=https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/classics/staff/borg/ |website=humanities.exeter.ac.uk}}</ref>
== Selected publications ==
* ''Roman tombs and the art of commemoration: contextual approaches to funerary customs in the second century CE'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018) * ''A Companion to Roman Art'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015) * ''Crisis and ambition: tombs and burial customs in third-century CE Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 2013) * with H von Hesberg and A Linfert ''Die antiken Skulpturen in Castle Howard'' (Wiesbaden, Reichert, 2005) * ''Paideia: the world of the Second Sophistic'' (Berlin, de Gruyter, 2004) * ''Der Logos des Mythos. Allegorien und Personifikationen in der frühen griechischen Kunst'' (Wilheim Fink Verlag, 2002) * ''"Der zierlichste Anblick der Welt" : ägyptische Porträtmumien'' (Mainz, von Zabern, 1998) * ''Mumienporträts : Chronologie und kultureller Kontext'' (Mainz, von Zabern, 1996)
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borg, Barbara}} Category:Academic staff of Heidelberg University Category:German classical scholars Category:German women classical scholars Category:Living people Category:Academics of the University of Exeter Category:1960 births Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Category:British women archaeologists Category:German women archaeologists Category:British women historians