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 ...

Run-up to a new campaign: Gabii pre-season 2012

Returning to Gabii, now for the sixth consecutive year of fieldwork, is always a study in contrasts. Many of us rush to Italy from university classrooms and campuses, fresh off the frantic business of ending an academic term. Arriving at Gabii, things are mostly peaceful. The vegetation has grown high, the poppies bloom, the lizards, porcupines, and harvester ants rule the site. But, a few days of hard work and the archaeological site springs back to life (and action) … but the lizards still stand their ground, reminding us who really owns the place. Thus it has been this season. The pre-season has been busy, from the expansion of our pre-existing area D and the westward expansion of the overall excavation area to create Area F, the staff has been busy preparing the site for the arrival of the full team in Rome.

This season’s goals include continued investigation of a domestic compound in Area D and the exploration of the newly defined Area F that represents part of yet another city block of the urban layout. The team has high hopes for both of these areas and we are especially interested to see the relationship between our excavation area and portions of the city excavated by the Soprintendenza in Rome a decade ago.

Joining us on-site will be over 40 student volunteers who hail from a host of colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. They will participate in all aspects of our fieldwork, including finds analysis, environmental processing, zooarchaeological analysis, and digital modeling and topography.

We are looking forward to an excellent season. Watch this blog space for more updates as the season progresses and also watch our student blog for the diggers’ points of view.

 

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.

Gabii Project 2011 field campaign approaches

After a long (and cold) winter in the United States, it hardly seems possible that summertime could be near, but it does, in fact, approach apace and the Gabii Project team is already hard at work planning another season of fieldwork. In some respects it seems as if the fieldwork of 2010 just concluded a few days ago ... nonetheless there is already a palpable anticipation as we begin to think of being in the field once more. The goals for this campaign center on the continued investigation of features revealed during the first two field campaigns (2009 and 2010), including the ancient city's grid of streets, an industrial zone, and a former area of occupation that transitioned to an ad hoc necropolis in the Imperial period. The investigations in various sectors will again be accompanied by environmental sampling and digital mapping. These threads, woven together, are contributing to the collection of a rich data set for the urban center of ancient Gabii and are already facilitating our study of the site and reconstruction and modeling of the ancient city. We are witnessing the potential of digital recording and modeling, both of which are changing not only procedures in the field but also granting new analytical opportunities. Major questions about Gabii remain, including the chronological trajectory of its rise as well as the onset of its contraction and eventual abandonment.

A look across the Ager Gabinus from July 2010.

The project will again offer its volunteer field program this summer, bringing student volunteers to the field to participate in all aspects of the excavation process. This season the team is once again multi-national and represents many institutions.  Those institutions represented include: the University of Michigan, Brown University, Davidson College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Auckland, Kalamazoo College, Stanford University, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Berkeley, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Bryn Mawr College, Carleton College, Oberlin College, Boston University, Harvard University, Washington and Lee University, and Williams College. The project will also again welcome graduate student participants from the Summer Program in Archaeology (SPA) sponsored by the American Academy in Rome. In 2011 the Gabii Project is pleased that its field program has been certified by the Register of Professional Archaeologists; we also have entered a partnership with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (ICCS) in Rome and have several Centristi signed up to join us in the field. We plan more extensive blogging by staff and students this season, so join us in following those posts over at Ager Gabinus: dispatches from the field.

The project's directors always welcome your inquiries. Watch this space for continuing updates throughout the 2011 field season!

Gabii Project and the Centro enter partnership

The Gabii Project is happy to have entered a new partnership with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (ICCS), the esteemed and venerable study abroad center founded by Brooks Otis and a consortium of American colleges and universities in 1965.  Under this partnership, the Gabii Project and its summer field program will become an official "affiliated program" from the Centro's point of view. Centro students will receive a high priority for selection into the summer field program sponsored by the Gabii Project. Centristi already feature prominently in the organization of the Gabii Project (Jeffrey Becker and Hilary Becker are alumni of the Centro’s spring 1998 iteration) and we look forward to welcoming other Centristi in summer 2011 and beyond.

  

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 website goes live

The Gabii Project is pleased to announce the launch of its new website where, among other content, you will find information about the 2009 fieldwork program for students.