Our Mission Statement

The Center for Global Antiquity (CGA) exists to support research on the cultures, religions, and histories of ancient civilizations in a global context, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary research, comparative research, and research that reaches beyond the West. We define “ancient” broadly and primarily methodologically, as relating to all past cultures for which we cannot rely on evidence preserved in the specific archival forms associated with Western modernity. The exact chronological limit differs by geography, but outside Europe it typically corresponds to the early stages of European colonization, while in Europe it occurs during the early medieval period.