An intense week at Gabii

The second week of the 2012 field campaign has come to a close - and it was an intense week of work and activity at Gabii. Not only were normal excavation operations in full swing - with the team accomplishing an amazing amount of work - but a steady stream of colleagues and consultants came by the site to see what the Gabii Project has been up to recently. 

In the excavation sectors, progress continues in two main areas of excavation for 2012. one sector (Area F), located on the extreme western edge of the excavation area, gives us a look at yet another city block of the ancient grid and the remains of structures therein. Area F diggers have also been learning at first hand about the site formation process at Gabii, wherein the accumulation of huge natural layers of colluvial soil have played a leading role in the post-occupation phases of the city. Digging the colluvium can be frustrating, but the chance appearance of sporadic finds carried along in these erosional events has made for some interesting discoveries. Cutting through the silt at warp speed, area F should see more structural remains in week three. In a more centrally located sector (Area D), another part of the team continues to investigate a late archaic complex that came to light in a significant way in 2011. This area, too, is working its way through the remains of abandonment, robbing, and collapse of ancient structures, hopefully in search of well-stratified layers relating to the habitation of the complex. 



Pier Matteo Barone (center) at Gabii.



Visitors were in abundance this week. Among them were project consultants, including Dr. Pier Matteo Barone (Roma Tre) who is carrying out a new campaign of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) study at Gabii, Robyn Veal (Sydney) who is studying charcoal evidence from the site, and soil micromorphologist Dr. Cristiano Nicosia (Brussels) who is on-site to study the soils themselves and the role played by soils in the site formation. We also were visited by surveyors from the University of Texas Ostia Synagogue Area excavations. 

Cristiano Nicosia at Gabii.

On July 4th, 2012, Gabii hosted a half-day visit by 2012 NEH Summer Seminar ("Communication, Empire, and the City of Rome") participants in a group directed by Richard Talbert (UNC-Chapel Hill) and Michael Maas (Rice). In addition to a tour of the ancient city and the Gabii Project excavation site, the seminar participants engaged in lively discussion about networks, modelling, and 3-D digital applications and their role in documenting and reconstructing ancient world view. On Friday, July 6th, 2012, David S. Potter (University of Michigan) visited Gabii after having given a talk for the field school students at the American Academy in Rome the previous evening. Also on Friday, Dr. Fabrizio Marra (University of Rome 'La Sapienza') visited Gabii. Marra is a geologist interested in the geology of central Italy and is going to be collaborating with staff member Jason Farr (Michigan) who is carrying out a Ph.D. thesis on tufo quarries at Gabii. 

NEH summer seminar participants at Gabii.

David Potter (left) visited Gabii.

Trench tours concluded week two.

All in all, a busy week. On to week three ...

Getting oriented

25 June – today dawned hot and hazy, but our team was glad to welcome the 2012 group of student volunteers to the site who bused out from Rome to start work at 8am. Today’s time on-site was given over to the preliminary activities that must come at the start of any campaign, from the distribution of equipment and safety gear to tours of the archaeological area of Gabii and of our own site, and finishing with the students’ orientation to living in Rome conducted by Accent International. It was a busy day all around. While the students toured, the staff continued to work on-site and all is primed for a quick start to excavation tomorrow morning.

Nicola Terrenato welcomes the team to the site.

The new students receive a tour of the site.

Field director Anna Gallone discussing the side streets at Gabii.

More photos:

Gabii Project 2012 - week one

"Coils over Spoil – Metal detecting and archaeological interpretation at Gabii" at 22nd TRAC 2012

The use of metal detectors in Mediterranean archaeology regularly generates a lot of discussion on the internet. The Gabii Project carried out a controlled experiment using metal detectors to check stratigraphically excavated soil with metal detectors in order to track the recovery rates of metallic artifacts - and we have some interesting and significant results to share! The first look at this evidence will be offered by Laura Banducci (Ph.D. candidate, IPCAA, University of Michigan) and Jason Farr (Ph.D. candidate, IPCAA, University of Michigan), who will present their study as a poster entitled "Coils over Spoil – Metal detecting and archaeological interpretation at Gabii." This presentation will take place as part of the 22nd Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) taking place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The poster will be presented on 30 March 2012, from 5.30 to 7.00 pm.

Veal to discuss ancient fuel economies in Ann Arbor

Robyn Veal of the University of Sydney will discuss ancient fuel economies in a talk at the University of Michigan on February 23, 2012. Veal is particularly interested in the role played by wood and wood charcoal fuel in the ancient Mediterranean. In her talk she will consider evidence from Bronze Age sites in Sardinia as well as evidence from Gabii where she is presently studying charcoal remains recovered by the Gabii Project.

If you're going, here are the details:

“Ancient Fuel Economies: Bronze Age Pran’e Siddi to Roman Gabii”

Dr. Robyn Veal (British School at Rome and University of Sydney)

February 23, 2012, from 12.00 to 1.00pm

University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology

1109 Geddes Avenue • Ann Arbor MI 48109 • (734) 763-6095

Location: Ruthven Museums Building Room 2009

Gabine research and the web

The Gabii Project team is a multinational group and is, during the winter and spring, dispersed among many countries, several continents, and quite a few time zones. Despite being in different places, the work of the project goes on as we work not only on post-excavation projects but also on moving various studies to publication. In this off-season work, the project is increasingly aided by the collaborative potential offered by internet platforms; team members routinely confer and meet to discuss research projects and plan excavation strategy and policy for future seasons.

Today, the team tried a new experiment, that being a collaborative research seminar online - thus, webinar. Through the miracle of Skype (thanks, Skype!), we convened for nearly four hours with almost 20 team members for a thought-provoking and stimulating session. We heard reports on various work in progress, including work on the dating and contextualization of Gabii's orthogonal plan (Marcello Mogetta), investigation of recovery rates for metal artifacts (Laura Banducci and Jason Farr), human osteology (Kristina Killgrove), quarrying of the local tufo, lapis Gabinus (Jason Farr), and anthropomorphic terracottas (Chiara Pilo). In addition to these reports we also discussed, thanks to Laura Motta, Marcello Mogetta, and Ivan Cangemi, an ongoing sampling experiment on-site that allows us to consider unit volume and recovery rates for various anthropic and organic materials. 

The webinar was a great success and an excellent case study in harnessing the power of the web to promote collaboration and discussion. The team plans future webinars in the next months to continue our fruitful discussions of this morning.

Gabii Project at the 2012 AIA meetings

The Gabii Project will be well represented at the upcoming meetings of the Archaeological Institute of America to be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The AIA will convene January 6-8, 2012, at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown (1201 Market Street · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107 USA). 

The following Gabii Project presentations are planned:

• Friday, January 6, 2012, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM. Rachel Opitz, Anna Gallone, Marcello Mogetta, and Nicola Terrenato. "The Gabii Project: the 2011 season" in AIA Poster session 2J 
• Sunday, January 8, 2012, 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM: Anna Gallone. "The Use of Lead in Central Italian Funerary Contexts: The New Evidence from Gabii" in Paper session 7B (Roman Funerary Images and Ritual) 

Also on Friday, January 6, material related to the Gabii Project will be presented in a colloquium session focused on 'Comparative Urbanism in the Ancient Mediterranean World.' In that session, organized by Jeffrey Becker and Jamie Sewell, material relevant to Gabii will be part of papers by Becker ("Storied pasts? Archaic and Republican Urbanism Compared"), Marcello Mogetta ("Urban Villages: Comparing Iron Age Settlement Structure in Greece and Italy") and in the discussion offered and moderated by Nicola Terrenato.

We hope to see many of our Gabii Project friends and alums in Philadelphia!

Gabii Project announces its 2012 volunteer field program

Gabii Project 2011 team photo

The Gabii Project will offer a field program for students and volunteers in 2012; the program will run from June 24 until July 28, 2012.  Applications will be accepted online via the project's website and the deadline for applying to the program is February 28, 2012; all qualified students are eligible to apply, not just those associated with the University of Michigan. Notifications of acceptance will be made by March 16, 2012, and accepted volunteers must submit their payment in full by April 2, 2012, in order to secure their spot. No volunteer may participate in the program if the program fee has not been settled in full.  The cost for the 5-week program, inclusive of accommodation in Rome, Italy, insurance, equipment, and local transportation, will be $3,600 (USD) in 2012. At this time the possibility of receiving academic credit for participation in the field program is still being negotiated. A final decision will be reached before the application deadline. A credit option might involve an additional fee.

In order to apply

1. Please complete the online application form. Please complete all required fields.  
2. Then, please be sure to ask two professional recommenders (who know you either from an academic setting or a prior fieldwork experience) to send letters on your behalf to Dr. Jeffrey Becker (gabiiproject-at-umich.edu - replace at with @) not later than February 28, 2012.

Travel

• Volunteers are responsible for covering their own travel costs to and from Italy.
• The point of arrival is Rome, Italy. Rome is served by two airports that handle international traffic. These are Leonardo da Vinci airport, also known as Fiumicino (FCO), and Ciampino airport (CIA) [also known as Aeroporto di Roma-Ciampino or Giovan Battista Pastine Airport].  Fiumicino handles long-haul international flights while Ciampino tends to receive short-haul, EU zone carriers.
• The arrival packet distributed to confirmed volunteers will include specific arrival information and information and logistical details. 

Accommodation in Rome, Italy

Accent International residence

• The team will be accommodated in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood in dormitory/apartments provided and administered by the study abroad firm Accent International.
• Student accommodations have two to four bedrooms with one to two bathrooms per residence.
• All accommodations have been renovated recently and include common area, kitchen facilities, refrigerator, washing machine, television, and wireless internet. On-site 24-hour/7-days-a-week logistical support is also included.
• Team members will also have access to a study center / business center operated by Accent International.
• The program fee covers the cost of lunch (Monday-Friday), but not other meals which are self-catering.

 Work and instruction on-site at Gabii

• Volunteers will work on-site Monday through Friday, usually arriving on-site by 7.30am. Prospective applicants should note that this is a labor-intensive program and be aware that working long hours in the hot sun is to be expected.  Average daytime temperatures will be in the range of 90˚ F or higher.
• 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 teams 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.  A regular rotation will be established for field program participants.
• Regular site tours (usually once every 7 to 10 days) will help keep all team members up to speed on the progress of excavation work in the various areas of the site.
• Several optional weekend outings will be arranged where guided tours will be offered by staff members.  In past years weekend trips have included the Forum Romanum and Palatine Hill as well as Ostia Antica.

2011 volunteers at Ostia Antica

Atmosphere and Experience

• The Gabii Project is a large team (50+ 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.  Additionally, an excellent staff to student ratio guarantees close instruction in field methodology. 

For University of Michigan Students

• You may be eligible for financial aid via the University of Michigan.
• You may be eligible for University of Michigan credit by enrolling for a fall 2012 independent study with Professor Nicola Terrenato. Contact Marcello Mogetta with your questions.
  

A note on funding

Students accepted for the field program are encouraged to seek outside funding sources to support their participation as the Gabii Project does not offer need-based financial support. Possible sources include one's home department or institution, as well as various competitive fieldwork fellowships like those administered by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Etruscan Foundation.

Trench tours on-site in 2011

Need more information?

Please contact Dr. Jeffrey Becker via email.

Download the .pdf version of the field program flyer.

Gabines on the Ianiculum?

Yes, it can happen - a geographic convergence of sorts, Gabines coming to the hills of Rome. This was the case on the evening of Saturday, July 9, 2011, when the American Academy in Rome and the University of Michigan's Office of Development hosted a reception for friends of the Gabii Project in the Academy's Bass Garden. Welcoming the group were project director Nicola Terrenato, Brodie Remington from the Office of Development, and T. Corey Brennan, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor-in-Charge of the School of Classical Studies at the American Academy. The welcome highlighted the strengths of the University of Michigan and its tradition of Roman studies and Classical archaeology, as well as the ties between the two institutions. After a discussion in the garden about the aims of the Gabii Project, the group adjourned to the Casa Rustica on the Academy's grounds for a visit with the lead sarcophagus excavated at Gabii in 2009. It was a lovely evening - with perfect weather - and the Gabii Project is grateful to its friends and supporters for coming out to share in both a lovely evening in Rome and in our fieldwork outcomes.