Gabii Project: 2010 field program

The Gabii Project announces its 2010 field program!

The Gabii Project will again offer a field program for students and volunteers in 2010; the program will run from June 20 until July 31, 2010.  Applications will be accepted online via the project's website and the deadline for applying to the program is January 31, 2010; all qualified students are eligible to apply, not just those associated with the University of Michigan. Notifications of acceptance will be made by March 1, 2010, and accepted volunteers must submit their payment in full by March 25, 2010, in order to secure their spot.  The cost for the 6-week program, inclusive of room and board, insurance, equipment, and local transportation, will be $4,500 (USD).  Academic credit is not offered for participation in the field program.  The information below outlines some of the basic details of the field program; more complete information can be found on the project website.

• Accommodation:
• The Hotel Villa Mercede in Frascati, Italy, will serve as the Gabii Project's base of operations.  The team will be accommodated there and will take their meals during the week at the Balubino restaurant, while lunches will be provided on-site.
• Volunteers will be accommodated in shared rooms (2 to 4 people per room) with a private bathroom.
• Convenient local train service links Frascati to downtown Rome and regional buses provide other transportation options.
• Work on-site:
• Volunteers will work on site 7:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday.  Applicants should note that this is a labor-intensive program and be aware that working in the hot sun is to be expected.  Applicants must be in good health, have passed a recent physical examination, and provide up-to-date records of current inoculations.
• Volunteers will work in small team supervised by experienced excavators.  Additionally, the field program will expose participants to all facets of fieldwork, including working with ceramics and other archaeological materials, environmental sampling, flotation, topography, conservation, and documentation.
• Regular site tours will help keep all team members up to speed on the progress of excavation work.
• Instruction:
• The above-mentioned rotation on-site will be accompanied by various instructional opportunities from 'hands on' instruction in excavation technique to small group instruction on archaeological materials and topography.
• The 2010 field program will include a lecture series (averaging 1 lecture per week) on topics related to the methodology field archaeology and to the archaeology of Central Italy.
• Several weekend outings will be arranged where guided tours will be offered.  In 2009 weekend trips included the Forum Romanum and Palatine Hill as well as Ostia Antica.
• Atmosphere and Experience:
• The Gabii Project is a large team (75-80 people) effort.  Teamwork is the key to our success, but the working conditions can be intense.  The successful applicant will be ready to work as part of a large team and welcome the opportunity to work and learn cooperatively.
• The combined experience of the Gabii Project’s multi-national staff offers volunteers the opportunities to learn and practice some of the latest and most cutting edge techniques of field archaeology.

For more information, please contact Prof. Jeffrey Becker, the Managing Director (gabiiproject (@) umich.edu)

Gabii Project: 2010 staff recruitment

The Gabii Project is Seeking Supervisors and staff members for the 2010 field season

The Gabii Project is an international archaeological initiative focused on the excavation of the ancient Latin city of Gabii located 18 km east of Rome, Italy.  After two seasons of survey and study, a 5-year campaign of excavations began in June 2009 under the direction of Professor Nicola Terrenato of the University of Michigan.  The dates of the season for staff members are June 13 through August 7, 2010; staff members must be available for the duration of the excavation season.


We are seeking experienced excavation staff members to serve as trench supervisors and assistant trench supervisors; we are also seeking specialist staff for the field laboratory, including those with experience in illustration and conservation.  The ideal candidate will have completed a field school program and have at least one prior season of fieldwork experience.  Experience with stratigraphic excavation, Harris matrices, and GIS applications is a plus; while not a requirement, the ability to communicate in Italian would also be advantageous. 


In some cases the project will be able to subsidize the cost of room and board for staff members and, in exceptional cases, may be able to subsidize travel costs for certain staff members. Necessary equipment and daily transportation to and from the site will be provided for excavation staff.


Staff members must be in good health, have passed a recent physical examination, and submit documentation of current and up-to-date inoculations.  Staff members must also be committed to working as part of a large team and providing leadership and guidance for students in the field. Staff members must also have a current passport, valid until at least October 2010, allowing for entry into Italy.


If you are interested in submitting an application for a staff position with the Gabii Project, please send a cover letter, current curriculum vitae, and a letter of reference from someone familiar with your fieldwork experience and credentials to:


Prof. Jeffrey Becker

Managing Director, The Gabii Project
c/o Department of Classics
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West, Togo Salmon Hall 706
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada  L8S 4M2

jabecker@mcmaster.ca or gabiiproject@umich.edu


The application deadline is December 1, 2009.  Electronic submissions are encouraged.  Arrangements may be made for informal interviews either at the AIA/APA meetings in Anaheim, Ca., in January 2010 or via other means.

Gabii Project at the AIA meetings in Anaheim

There will be two Gabii-related presentations at the upcoming 2010 annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Anaheim, California.

Session 2G: Poster Session -- Thursday, January 7, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

"The Gabii Project 2009: The First Season of Excavation"

Anna Gallone (The Gabii Project), Marcello Mogetta (University of Michigan), Nicola Terrenato (University of Michigan) and Jeffrey A. Becker (McMaster University)

Session 1E: Pre-Roman Italy -- Thursday, January 7, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM

"Infant Burials and Emerging Social Hierarchy in Orientalizing Latium"

Jeffrey A. Becker (McMaster University) and Jessica Nowlin (Brown University)

A new plan for Gabii

The Gabii Project is pleased that an article detailing the results of the survey campaigns of 2007 and 2008 is due out in the October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Archaeology:

Jeffrey A. Becker, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato. "A new plan for an ancient Italian city: Gabii revealed". AJA 113.4 (October 2009).

Gabii Project fifth week

The fifth week of the Gabii Project has come to an end and the majority of the team has departed from Frascati. The project is most grateful for the energy, hard work, and enthusiasm that marked the 2009 season, and thanks all of the team members for helping us to achieve so much in this first excavation season. In the coming weeks a season roundup will be posted here, so stay tuned ...

Gabii Project fourth week

The fourth week of fieldwork at Gabii was exceptional and hugely productive. With the overburden of colluvial silts removed in many areas, our team spent the balance of this week investigating stratified contexts, which is of course very exciting. Across the site progress has been marked not just by hard work but also by enthusiasm as staff and volunteers alike push ahead to complete work in their respective areas. In some sectors the tops of tumbled walls are coming into view, while in others the challenge remains interpreting features cut in the volcanic bedrock of Gabii. We also continue to investigate the network of streets within the urban area, since a main goal of this campaign is to begin to establish a chronological sequence for the urban grid. As week five arrives it is time to complete excavation of a number of features and work on the completion of various documentation before we can really begin to digest the results of this season.

Summer Program in Archaeology (SPA) at Gabii

The Summer Program in Archaeology at the American Academy in Rome offers graduate and advanced undergraduate students an opportunity to come to Italy to engage archaeology firsthand by means of site visits and a month of archaeological fieldwork. This season five SPA participants came to Gabii to work in the field and lab and the Gabii Project could not be happier about having had them aboard. Since the SPA attracts students from a broad spectrum of interests within Classics, Archaeology, and Mediterranean studies, the contribution the students bring is correspondingly broad. In the give and take of field archaeology, fresh and different viewpoints are extremely valuable. At Gabii this year were Catherine Baker (Cincinnati), J. Marilyn Evans (Berkeley), Duncan MacRae (Harvard), Casey Shamey (Missouri), and Miriam Tworek-Hofstetter (Texas).