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Repairs are everywhere in Ancient Greek temples, many made during the construction process itself. In almost every case, ancient masons wanted these mends to be ignored, and they would be pleased with how readily we oblige. This talk takes as a starting point a discovery that confounds expectations: an Ionic column capital from Istros (Histria), a settlement on the Black Sea coast of modern-day Romania, with an architectural mend in the shape of a dolphin. This figural repair reveals how stone mends visually expressed the values and beliefs of the people that made them, linking labor, fortune, and healing at the ancient worksite.Samuel Holzman ’11, who graduated from Brown University with a BA in Archaeology and the Ancient World, is Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University’s Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for Hellenic Studies. He is an archaeologist and architectural historian focusing on Greece and Anatolia, from the Early Iron Age through Hellenistic periods. His research is grounded in archaeological fieldwork and the technical study of ancient building methods (Bauforschung). His first book, Bilingual Ionic Column Capitals: Perceptions of the Past in Greek Architecture, which is in production with Princeton University Press, examines how Greek temple builders revisited earlier structures in their designs. It looks closely at nine buildings from Greece, Italy, and Turkey (550-250 BCE) with “bilingual” designs juxtaposing archaic and contemporary Ionic elements. These designs conjured earlier temples that were focal points for conceiving community identities. Prof. Holzman also leads the architectural research team of American Excavations Samothrace.