G. Roger Edwards, 94, archaeologist

G. Roger Edwards, 94, a University of Pennsylvania archaeologist and museum curator for 30 years, died June 9 at the Quadrangle, a Haverford retirement community, where he had lived for 20 years.

While studying overseas in the late 1940s, Dr. Edwards became fascinated with ancient ruins at Athens, Corinth, Cyprus, and Gordion in Turkey.

He made his life's work excavating the sites and studying ancient artifacts including Greek pottery, on which he was an expert. His fieldwork spanned 1946 to 1967.

Dr. Edwards graduated in 1931 from Lewis High School in Southington, Conn., and earned an undergraduate degree two years later from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

In 1937, he received a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University.

He earned his doctorate in classical archaeology from Penn in 1939.

Dr. Edwards served in the Army from October 1941 to October 1945, according to a 1957 resume on file at Penn.

He was personnel sergeant major in hospital units at Keesler Field, Biloxi, Miss., and Camp Carson, Colorado Springs, Colo., from January 1942 to January 1944, and he served in the Pacific theater, including Yokohama, Japan, from February 1944 to October 1945, the resume said.

Dr. Edwards started his career as assistant curator at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

In 1950, he moved to Philadelphia and took dual posts as assistant professor of classical archaeology and assistant curator of Penn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

He rose to full professor and museum curator and held those posts until 1980, when he retired with the title of professor and curator emeritus.

Dr. Edwards was best known as an "objects person," able to understand the significance of whatever tiny shard lay before him, said Donald White, professor of classical archaeology emeritus at the museum.

"These were skills which can't be readily taught or easily acquired," White said.

In September 1954, the Evening Bulletin reported that Dr. Edwards was the "last digger" to leave excavations at the ancient Cyprus city of Curium, wrapping up work that had begun in 1933.

The report called the work "one of the longest archaeological explorations in one spot in the history of the museum."

Finds over the years included "a Hellenistic theater and a palatial villa with mosaic floors and bathing establishment dating to the early fifth century, A.D.," the report said.

Dr. Edwards lived in University City until moving to Haverford in 1989.

He is survived by two nieces and a cousin.

A memorial service will be held at the museum in November, but plans were incomplete.