J. J. Coulton

John James (Jim) Coulton (1940–2020) was a British classical archaeologist with a particular expertise in ancient Greek civic and religious architecture.

Life and academic career Jim Coulton was born in the village of Pentney, Norfolk, on 24 February 1940, and was educated at Winchester College and St. John's College, Cambridge. He completed a doctorate in classical archaeology under the supervision of William Hugh Plommer. He went on to teach at the Australian National University, Canberra (1964–1968), the University of Manchester (1968–1969), and the University of Edinburgh (1969-1979), before succeeding John Boardman as Reader in Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Merton College. Coulton retired in 2004 as Emeritus Fellow of Merton. A Festschrift was published to mark his retirement, Architecture and Archaeology in the Cyclades: Papers in Honour of J.J. Coulton, edited by M. Yeroulanou and M. Stamatopoulou (Oxford, 2005). He later acted as a consultant to the Zagora Archaeological Project, under the auspices of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens.

Coulton participated in the Aphrodisias excavations researching the temple of Aphrodite and its conversion into a Christian church in late antiquity.

Publications J.J. Coulton, The Architectural Development of the Greek Stoa (1976) J.J. Coulton, Greek Architects at Work: Problems of Structure and Design (1977; reprinted 1988) J.J. Coulton, "Highland Cities in South-West Turkey: The Oinoanda and Balboura Surveys", in Ancient Anatolia: Fifty Years' Work by the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, edited by R. Matthews (London, 1998), pp. 225-236. E.S. Sapouna-Sakellaraki, J.J. Coulton, and I.R. Metzger, The Fort at Phylla, Vrachos: Excavations and Researches at a Late Archaic Fort in Central Euboea (British School at Athens suppl. 33; 2002) J.J. Coulton (ed.), The Balboura Survey and Settlement in Highland Southwest Anatolia (2 volumes; British Institute at Ankara Monographs 43; 2012)

Honours and awards Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (1982) Geddes-Harrower Professor at the University of Aberdeen (1988–1989)