Two Foundation Awards Finance Science Projects

Harvard won a total of $625,000 in grants during the last two days from two national agencies to continue scientific work in materials research and archaeology.

Harvard is among 12 universities awarded grants yesterday by the National Science Foundation. Harvard received $575,000 for its Materials Research Laboratory.

A $50,000 grant was announced Wednesday by The National Endowment for the Humanities, to finance Harvard's continued archaeological excavating work in Sardis, Turkey.

Peter S. Pershan, director of the Materials Research Laboratory, said yesterday of the NSF grant. "The money is in support of work which has been going on for a number of years. The laboratory is involved in researching transistors, semi-conductors, metals and other inorganic and amorphic materials."

Defense

Harvey Brooks, dean of the Engineering and Applied Physics Department, which is in charge of the laboratory, said yesterday Harvard formerly received money for this use from the Defense Department.

"A number of years ago the Defense Department decided to switch materials research to the jurisdiction of the National Science Foundation," he said.

Brooks, who is a member of the board of the science foundation, said that at no time did Harvard engage in classified work for the Defense Department.

MIT, Brown and the University of Massachusetts were the other three New England Colleges receiving similar grants. The MIT award was $1.7 million, while Brown received $1.09 million, and the University of Massachusetts won $225,000.

Pershan said MIT and Brown received larger grants because they had larger research programs. "Many schools across the country received more than we did. We just don't have as big a program as some other schools," he said.

The $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will pay for field research and the completion and publication of data collected during 17 years of work at Sardis by Harvard and Cornell.

The dig is under the direction of George M.A. Hanfmann '38. Hudson Professor of Archaeology.

Hanfmann said yesterday that the Sardis dig "has been called the most important archaeological excavation of this century." He said the ancient capital of Turkey was significant because it served as a link between Mediterranean and Near-Eastern cultures.

He said that the people of Sardis coined the first money. "This discovery was responsible for a sudden economic and cultural development which blossomed throughout Europe," Hanfmann said.

His team has uncovered many buildings and artifacts in the Turkish soil. In 1973 the expedition unearthed an impregnable fortress once admired by Alexander the Great. Diggers discovered its ten-foot thick walls by following a hunch that an inconspicuous stone might belong to the ancient structure.

Other discoveries include an early Christian basilica more than 200 feet long, 40 graves dug into the ruins of the church, and important sculptures of the Lydians, rulers of the ancient city.

Hanfmann said his job was to oversee the general operation of the project, including its financial aspects. "I don't get to do much digging anymore. That's a luxury I don't have time for," he said