Sterling Dow (19 November 1903, Portland, Maine – 9 January 1995, Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American classical archaeologist, epigrapher, and professor of archaeology at Harvard University.
[1] After secondary education at Phillips Exeter Academy, Dow matriculated in 1921 at Harvard University[2] and graduated there in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.
[3] As the winner of the Fiske Scholarship,[4] Dow spent the academic year 1925–1926 studying ancient history at Trinity College, Cambridge.
[6] Dow's colleagues in Athens included Bert Hodge Hill, Homer Thompson, William Bell Dinsmoor, Virginia Grace, and Lucy Shoe.
Many of his studies illuminated the political and social institutions of Athens and the men who were involved in them, but he also wrote important papers on the historical setting of the Homeric poems, on religious calendars, and on early writing and literacy.
[8] Ohio State University's Center for Epigraphical and Paleographical Studies administers The Sterling and Elizabeth Dow Fellowship in Greek epigraphy and history.