Jessica Lamont awarded the 2025 James R. Wiseman Book Award by Archaeological Institute of America
Lamont was honored for her first book, which examines the use of curse tablets in ancient Greece and beyond.
Jessica Lamont, Assistant Professor of Classics and (by courtesy) History, was awarded the 2025 James R. Wiseman Book Award by the Archaeological Institute of America for her book In Blood and Ashes: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Greece (Oxford University Press, 2023).
The Wiseman Book Award is the AIA's highest annual honor. It is awarded to an author who has published an outstanding scholarly work in the preceding four years.
Lamont's book is the first synthetic study of curse tablets in the ancient Greek world and examines the "cultural pressures that drove the use of curse tablets, charms, spells, and other private rites." Her investigation walks readers through the use of the earliest curse tablets in court cases, their adoption outside of ancient Greece, and their evolution into curses meant to bind rivals and lovers.
The selection committee wrote that Lamont's research on curse tablets "integrates their archaeological context for the first time in a focused yet compelling way," and that her work illuminates "the charged emotions often involved in personal relationships that is unavailable through other types of ancient evidence."
Lamont received the award and was celebrated at an awards ceremony hosted by the AIA in Philadelphia in January.