Drew in Umbria

Field School Dates Confirmed for Vicus ad Martis Tudertium 2012 Season

2012-01-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

After much to'ing-and-fro'ing to make sure that I didn't miss out on my daughter's high-school graduation, we've settled on our dates for the 2012 season, our fifth, at the Vicus ad Martis Tudertium site:

24 June - 21 July, 2012

Those include the initial Sunday and final Saturday to make sure that everyone realizes they have to get to Italy the day before we actually get our hands dirty and that the last Friday is a workday. As usual I'll be there a few days earlier to get things set up.

Interested in attending? Check out the project website. And don't forget that you don't have to be a student to join us! Adult participants are welcome to come for a week or more. Contact me for details or see the Visitors section of the website..

Oh, and we've got a nifty flier for this year too, as you can see.

Getting ready for next year

2011-10-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

Yep, we're already working on next summer's season and part of that involves publicizing the field school. Our off-campus office here at Drew just got the Vicus ad Martis project listed on the Study Abroad website. Check it out!

Drew Tube

2011-09-29T20:40:00.000-04:00

Drew University's YouTube channel, Drew Tube, has a short piece up about the dig, featuring current student Alexa Marino, who participated in our fourth season in 2011. A few clips include last year's crew too, so have a look! We're also linked from the main Drew page.

Our web site has also had a little facelift. Check it out!

Dig website updated!

2011-09-18T23:52:00.000-04:00

Phew. Finally got around to updating the dig website. I got inspired by the great photos by our friend Wendy Robinson, as well as the possibilities offered by Apple's nice website-creation software, iWeb. Expect to see some more updates in coming weeks, including a "testimonials" section by dig alumni. (You have been warned!)

Feedback always welcome, of course.

Report on 2010 Season

2011-07-27T19:46:00.000-04:00

The report on the 2010 season has just been published in the FastiOnline FOLD&R series. Knock yourself out.

In the news

2011-07-19T18:50:00.002-04:00

Some items on our closing seminario:
Tamtam

Closing Conference

2011-07-12T12:54:00.002-04:00

An afternoon "Seminario di Studio" at the lovely San Pietro Sopra le Acque is scheduled for tomorrow July 13th, at 3:30 pm. Non mancare! This will substitute for the usual press conference.

Three weeks already?!?

2011-06-30T13:03:00.000-04:00

That was fast!
By now all five of our first-session participants should be home or on their way. The second session is well under way and we'll have a few goodies to report soon. (Sorry, first-session gang, but that's how it goes!) The recent heat has receded somewhat. We got a brief rain shower yesterday and a bit of thunder late today, though no rain in the immediate vicinity.
Thanks again to Amanda, Alexa, Angie, Katelynn, and Michelle for all their hard work!

First (Half-)Week

2011-06-11T02:41:00.000-04:00

We're at our first weekend now, having started on Wednesday. It's rained a bit...OK, it rained a lot on Thursday afternoon, and it's raining lightly this morning. The students have all headed off the Perugia, where we believe a visit to the chocolate factory is on the agenda. The staff are planning an outing to somewhere too.
On site, we've started in with three test trenches, placed according to the results from the geomagnetic surveys of previous years. The water table continues to be much higher than it was in our firs two seasons, perhaps higher even than last year, which means that it still covers the lowest strata we excavated in '08 and'09. This is not helpful. Two of the test trenches are still not quite through the topsoil, so not much to report there.
A presto!

Looks familiar

2011-05-30T13:04:00.000-04:00

Trovato a Imola (BO) un tratto della strada che in età romana collegava la valle del Santerno alla via Emilia: a little bit of Roman road that looks just like ours.

Summer finalized!

2011-02-16T20:45:00.002-05:00

Met today to finalize dates, cost and promo meeting at Drew for this summer's dig session. Sign up now!

Now in AFOB

2011-01-30T21:47:00.000-05:00

Just posted the details for this season's field school at the AIA's Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin. More announcements coming.

Now on Twitter!

2011-01-30T18:31:00.001-05:00

Since I've started using Twitter, I figured I would try to get this blog hooked up with it. So from now on, when I use the word "twitter" in a post, that should get it tweeted.

We'll see. :-)

Update: And it works!

2011 Umbria Field School Info Session at Drew

2010-12-04T12:32:00.001-05:00

Drew students and others in northern NJ can get some preliminary info on the Summer 2011 season at a short info session this coming Monday, December 6, at 4:30 p.m. in Brothers College 215.

More details (and a downloadable calendar link) on the Drew website here.

See you there!

Buona festa di San Felice!

2010-11-02T19:56:00.002-04:00

A short piece on the local patron saint. A bit weak on the historiography, but they do work in a plug for the site.

The View From Your Window - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

2010-07-27T18:58:00.001-04:00

One year later, but who am I to complain?

Un anno dopo, ma io chi sono?

The View From Your Window - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Vicus vBlog 6 (courtesy of RAI 3)

2010-07-25T09:16:00.002-04:00

This year's press conference coverage.

Vicus vBlog 5 (courtesy of RAI 3)

2010-07-17T05:32:00.000-04:00

Blast from the past: last year's press conference coverage from RAI's TG3.

Second Session Ends!

2010-07-17T05:18:00.000-04:00

Another three weeks have gone by, another couple of visitors in the trenches, a whole bunch of soil excavated, a mess of coins and a few other very interesting finds. It's just me left in Massa Martana now, as Sarah and the students have gone down to Rome (Scott should be on the plane as I write this).
Lots of work to do to close up the site and get the finds catalogued and stored until next year, so more soon! At right the official (for what that's worth) end-of-session photo.

XIII

2010-07-17T04:50:00.000-04:00

The dolium turned out to have the number 13 scratched into its shoulder before firing (in Roman numerals of course). Here's a shot of Sarah and Federico holding up their find after the press conference—for which we left the dolium beautifully in situ—at the end of our official "day after the last day," with a close-up of the number from another photo as inset.

Conferenza Stampa

2010-07-17T04:40:00.001-04:00

Reports of the now traditional end-of-season press conference (updated as I get them):

Last Day!

2010-07-16T14:52:00.001-04:00

As is traditional, during yesterday, the official "Last Day" of the season, a lovely find turned up: at least half of a large dolium (storage vessel) resting virtually on top of the lovely cocciopesto floor Sarah has been excavating for a few days now. Some may prefer the 17 coins that were found just to the north in this same area yesterday, but the dolium has its charms. More tomorrow.

Seen in Cordigliano

2010-07-14T17:43:00.003-04:00

On the way home from dinner at Carlo's last week.

Finally!

2010-07-14T17:17:00.001-04:00

Five weeks into the dig, I finally found a reasonably priced version of the tent I wanted to get from the start. Officially it's a "gazebo" here in Italy, and it needs some sheets or something on the sides to keep the sun out when it isn't overhead, but still, an improvement.

Vicus vBlog 4

2010-07-05T10:03:00.000-04:00

Here's another installment of video showing a bit of what goes on when we're not on the site. Enjoy!

Laura learns a new Italian word: Parrucchiere

2010-07-01T13:38:00.000-04:00

UPS student Laura Hollister has been practicing her Italian in the trenches, but today she went native and got her hair cut. First time it's been short since she's been three, she says. You never know what'll happen.

First Session Ends!

2010-06-26T05:05:00.000-04:00

Despite a short train strike yesterday, it seems that the students from the first session were able to make it to Rome and most should now be at the airport awaiting their flights. Rangar and his wife Jen and daughter Poppy are safely on their way to Perugia and thence to Florence, and Sarah is down at a conference at the Villa Vergiliana in Cuma...which leaves me in Massa, trying to keep up with the blog!

We had a terrific first session. Some interesting finds, lots of topsoil removed to expose more (and more!) walls, good food and new friendships. Here's our "official" end-of-session group photo at the right. (Clicking on it will bring up a larger size.)

High- and low-lights of the session include finding a second burial (mostly destroyed before we got to it), a few wonderfully preserved coins, France and Italy falling out of the World Cup (and USA and Portugal making it!), the annual party at the Massa Martana circolo (with the usual karaoke performances), our first dig volunteers, Pam and Gordon Mettam (on whom more later), terrific weather with only one rain day, and trips to Ponte Fonnaia, the catacombs, Carsulae, Perugia, Todi, Rome and elsewhere.

Some other photos, in no particular order:

Vicus vBlog 3 (courtesy of RAI 3)

2010-06-23T13:37:00.000-04:00

Italy's third national channel came to the site last week to do a piece on us. See if you can figure out which part is staged. :-)

Rain!

2010-06-21T17:51:00.000-04:00

The rain finally caught up to us today.
After a very wet winter and spring, we were doing pretty well in Umbria, even as north Italy was getting pounded with heavy rains and flooding. That ended this weekend, as the rains hit on and off, finally settling on "on" most of this morning, with the result that we took a break from digging.
After the sun made a brief appearance this afternoon, I planned a quick trip down the Via Flaminia to visit Carsulae and get an update from Prof. Jane Whitehead on their first day of excavation. Carsulae is a little south of us (about 20 minutes by car) and somewhat up in the mountains, so the weather is a bit different...and we managed to find some rain there.
Bottom line: I got to run my first forced-march across an archaeological site in inclement weather. Nothing like the infamous Centro Attack on Pompeii, led by Prof. Paul Harvey in Spring '86, but I do what I can. We ended up damper and slightly worse for wear, but wiser for our experience of the "Pompeii of Umbria."
The forecast for the rest of the week is better, with no rain and highs only in the mid-80s.

Coins

2010-06-16T09:06:00.001-04:00

As in past years, we're finding a good number of coins again this year, exclusively Roman bronze issues so far. Coins are always fun to find, but yesterday we came upon a pair of coins in a "good" stratum, that is, a stratum of soil that lies below the plough zone and which we can place in relationship to other layers and structures on the site (like a wall or floor, or another stratum of soil). This means a lot more to archaeologists than how well preserved the coins are, because it allows us to use the coins to say something about the history of the site, instead of only admiring them for how nice they look (which is also enjoyable).

What was interesting about these two coins is not only that they were found close to one another (about 20 cm apart), but also that they date to approximately the same time (AD 230s and 240s) and that the later one is in remarkably good condition, so little worn that it could not have been in active circulation for very long.

It's a sestertius of Phillip "the Arab," emperor of Rome in the 240s, who was lucky enough to celebrate the 1000th birthday of the city (21 April 248). Here's an image, which is not as sharp as it might be, but which still shows amazing detail in the hair and eyes. You can perhaps read the inscription, which runs from about 7 o'clock, around over his head clockwise: "IMP M IUL PHILIPPUS AUG."

Recent Press

2010-06-16T05:56:00.000-04:00

Massa Martana's hard-working "stagista" sent out a few press releases yesterday and today. And we had a visit from the local edition of the national network, RAI. So I'll post these as I get to them.

Vicus vBlog 2

2010-06-12T13:52:00.001-04:00

Installment #2. Took me a few days to get the audio done (but it's my third post today!).

The Anthropologist's View from my Window

2010-06-12T13:21:00.000-04:00

The place we're staying at hosts wedding receptions on the weekends and our kitchen overlooks the garden where they party. Today we got a great view of an interesting wedding game, in which the groom dons what appears to be a large banana with a needle attached to its end and the bride a belt of balloons which the groom bursts using his, uh, banana.

First identifiable coin of the season

2010-06-12T13:06:00.000-04:00

While I was off in Perugia on Friday, one of the teams found two Roman coins, one of which was in excellent condition. Although we believe the stratum it was found in is essentially the bottom of the plough zone, and so not very informative for dating any phase of the site, it's always fun to find a nicely preserved coin. The obverse has the profile of Faustina the Younger, the cousin and wife of Marcus Aurelius and mother of Commodus (of Gladiator fame), while the reverse, shown here, has the goddess Juno with her favorite bird, the peacock, to her left. Faustina is called "Augusta" on the coin, a title she was given in AD 161; she died in 175 after a trip to the Roman east with Marcus, so the manufacture of this coin can be fairly narrowly dated. (Ooh, and I took this picture with my nifty new tripod, which lets me do macro shots like this even in low light.)

The Fleet

2010-06-06T06:22:00.003-04:00

With 10 students, three faculty and a couple of family members to boot, we needed more than one car this year, so we got three (at least for a few weeks). The two we got from the agency at the airport in Rome are identical: "Natural Power" Fiat Puntos, i.e., ones that run on regular gas or methane (CNG). Methane filling stations are a bit hard to find, but there's one just outside Todi, a slight detour on a road we take fairly regularly, so no big deal. I filled up the methane tank yesterday, a first for me. Overall it's supposed to cost about half of what gasoline cars do per kilometer driven. The car automatically switches over to methane once it starts up, assuming there's methane in the tank, then switches back if the methane runs out. Our biggest problem with them so far is that they're identical, so we have to be sure to grab the right key, or take both sets. I'm thinking about treating them like the ubiquitous black luggage and tying a ribbon around the antenna of one. Otherwise a big "1" and "2" in soap on the doors. :-) Compared with last year's diesel Bravo, they're dogs though; not nearly as much power.

Car 2 is a pale yellow diesel Fiat Qubo. Very easy to tell apart from the other ones, and kind of like the Nissan Cube. I have not driven it yet, but Rangar Cline tells me that it rides a bit high, but has better pick-up and power than the Puntos.

Oh yeah, five students arrived safely yesterday. We picked them up at the Orvieto train station and got them into the apartments in Massa. Four more are on their way as I write, and one seems to have missed a connection due to a flight delay. Not quite sure where she is, but hopefully on a plane somewhere approaching Italy. Opening dinner tonight and on to the site tomorrow. We've had a few good days of sun now, so the water table should at least be falling, if not actually down below the level of our excavations.

VideoBlogging?

2010-06-03T19:32:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd give it a try. After much fussing with iMovie, here's my first attempt:

Hitting a Good Patch

2010-05-29T11:28:00.002-04:00

Maplewood's on-line news site, MaplewoodPatch, has a short piece on the dig, including some pictures. Check it out!

Deadline extended!

2010-03-26T18:08:00.002-04:00

The official deadline for dig applications in now March 31st. Don't wait! We've got a good group coming and would love some more.

For Helen

2010-03-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

A suggestion for this year's dig song.

Drew Magazine

2010-01-12T09:34:00.000-05:00

Nice piece on the dig in the Drew magazine.

Etruscan News article

2009-12-09T09:31:00.002-05:00

Check us out on p. 15: http://ancientstudies.fas.nyu.edu/docs/CP/963/etruscannews_vol11_winter2009.pdf

Dates for 2010

2009-10-24T11:24:00.002-04:00

We're extending our season a bit this year, to six weeks from four, and splitting into two three-week sessions. The dates will be 6 June to 17 July.

End-of-Dig Press Conference

2009-07-07T11:39:00.002-04:00

In case you're in the area...

This year's surprise

2009-06-26T13:07:00.003-04:00

So here's this year's clean-up surprise: a gladiator on a lamp disc (~3cm tall). He's holding a curved sword in his right hand and a rectangular shield in his left. Looks to be the Thraex-type gladiator. No sign of him on the fragment until the pottery from that area got washed.

Wrapping up

2009-06-26T13:01:00.003-04:00

Some more afternoon rain gives me the excuse to post this year's artsy photo.

Busy helping with the drawing of sections from the trenches, taking more photos of finds and various parts of the excavation, and now moving the inventory into my database.

Meanwhile we're scheduling some more meetings (mayor, potential donors) and some more visits for "remote sensing" via geo-magnetic survey and thermograph. Keep posted for results!

Done!

2009-06-21T05:08:00.002-04:00

Well, done with active digging anyway. The students are home (or should be) and Sarah and I are off to Rome today whence she leaves Tuesday. More soon.

Coin!

2009-06-09T16:07:00.003-04:00

OK, a little excitement today as we re-explore a few areas from last year. A lovely coin of 7 BC by the moneyer P. Lurius Agrippa (who is not M. Agrippa; coin here on another site).

Also the girls posed for the lovely shot at right.

Buona Domenica!

2009-06-07T12:35:00.003-04:00

A day off from digging after a full Wed-Sat trying to make up for the lost time on Monday and Tuesday on account of the rain. Our walls continnue to multiply and grow, we had another small piece of architectonic terracotta (which is exciting, but only in a tantalizing way), and more of the cocciopesto flooring discovered last year was exposed.

Sarah hit Terni (museum, amphitheater and waterfall!) and I got taken out on a great walk in the mountains behind Foligno. Thanks to Dorica, Giovanni, Anna and Ivo!

Recently noted

2009-06-07T12:30:00.001-04:00

A short notice of my report on the excavation at the last AIA conference back in January.

Buona Festa della Repubblica!

2009-06-02T11:38:00.002-04:00

And a happy June 2nd to everyone outside Italy!

The rain finally stopped late this morning. (It had stopped late yesterday too, but started up again overnight.) The sun even came out. With luck we'll be able to do some work on the site tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, the crew went off to Rome for a couple of days, colleague Sarah Harvey went for today, and I hit Terni this morning, where they have a lovely archaeological museum with finds from the Bronze- and Iron-age cemeteries in and around the city, as well as lots from the Roman period, including a lovely epigraphical collection. Yesterday Sarah and I made it to the wine museum in Torgiano (no samples, alas).

Rain!

2009-06-01T04:04:00.001-04:00

And lots of it! No digging for a couple of days and the gang is off to Rome.

Bastardo and other places

2009-05-31T07:02:00.004-04:00

Took a little spin in the car Saturday morning and visited a few towns, like Bastardo (yes, it also means what you think it means), Torri and Marcellano. Good thing I didn't wait until today, because it's raining now. (Picture from Torri.)
In other news, excavation in our west trench revealed a fairly large section of cocciopesto floor, which is fairly high up in the stratigraphy (still in the topsoil really), and therefore seems to confirm the theory that there was a later building phase (still Roman).

How long is that wall?

2009-05-28T16:38:00.004-04:00

So we took off the upper layers of topsoil above the end of our very long wall, using the geomagnetic survey data from last year as a guide. Answer to the post's question: about 22.5m or 75 Roman feet. The picture shows the end of the wall to the left after the removal of topsoil.

The Gang's All Here!

2009-05-25T14:46:00.003-04:00

Start of the second season, and everyone has arrived safely!

Very hot here in Italy, with temperatures in the low 30s (upper 80s and low 90s for those in Fahrenheit-land), but some hope of a break on Wednesday. Of course they are predicting cool weather for the weekend too.

Good news: gas is much cheaper than last year and so is the euro (which has been on the rise in the past few weeks, so let's hope that stops). We also have internet in our office/lab/storeroom in Massa Martana. (Still searching for a title for this workspace; all suggestions gratefully accepted.)

Today we went to the site, shot some points on the handy-dandy Total Station very generously loaned to us by Bryn Mawr – and ably run by Bryn Mawr '10 Sophia Wolfenden. We also have begun to run into various friends we made last year.

Tomorrow, picks hit the ground!

Summer Application Deadline Extended

2009-04-04T09:48:00.001-04:00

The Off-Campus office has extended the application deadline for our summer program another two weeks, until April 15th. SIgn up now!

The new fliers are here!

2009-02-27T00:16:00.007-05:00

OK, so it's not that exciting, but here's the new advertisement flier, suitable for downloading and sharing with all your college-age friends.

In the Fasti Online

2009-01-14T10:35:00.003-05:00

The site is now registered with the on-line Fasti, which is essentially a collection of "summary notices of excavations throughout the area of the Roman Empire." Always fun to see what's going on in the world of Roman archaeology, but if you want to cut to the chase, our site can be found here.

AIA Talk

2009-01-13T16:34:00.009-05:00

Here's my AIA talk (with the slides in the right order, for those of you who were there). Text coming soon. Click on the movie itself to open a larger version (31.5MB) in the QuickTime player.

E" target="quicktimeplayer" qtsrc="http://users.drew.edu/jmuccigr/vicusadmartis/aia_talk_2009/AIA_2009_sm.mov" qtsrcdontusebrowser="TRUE" type="video/quicktime" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">

Field School 2009!

2008-12-28T14:51:00.007-05:00

We're all set to go for next year's field school on Drew's end ( we're still awaiting approval from the superintendency, but that should be a formality). Here are the main details, all pretty firm, but subject to change in the next few weeks:

Dates: 23 May - 20 June 2009
Cost: $4,500
Credits: 4

See the more official website here.
I'm also working on a way to have interested non-students come and participate for a week in early June. Stay tuned.

New Coin ID

2008-12-18T21:56:00.012-05:00

Up late last night tracking down the identity of one of our tiny coins from last season. It's about 1.5cm in diameter, made of silver, and was originally a bit too dirty to read well, but thanks to the restorers at the museum in Perugia, it was cleaned late in the summer and I got to photograph it in September, when I was around for the conference.
So here it is with only very minor cleaning to get off the easiest dirt:

You can clearly make out the profile of a head looking right on the obverse (left) with some writing behind it ("III V..."?), and some pretty shapeless blobby thing on the reverse (right) with maybe some letter, an "M"?, to the left. A surrounding circle of dots can pretty easily be filled in for both sides.
Now here it is cleaned:

You can pretty well see that the head on the obverse has some kind of covering on its back half, while "III V..." is clearer and calls to mind the standard abbreviation for "triumvir": "III Vir." The reverse is still a bit unclear, though now the lettering to the left very clearly spells out "M. ANT" for M[arcus] Ant[onius], good ol' Marc Antony. You can also barely see some letters on the right and something vertical in the middle there, rising above the central blob.
So we've got a small silver coin dating to the period of the Second Triumvirate, which is therefore the oldest datable coin we found. And it's pretty easily findable on-line. I'll give the American Numismatic Society's record here, because they've got a nice standard way to refer to coins in their collection (which is on-line and searchable), thanks to fellow UMich alum Sebastian Heath, who is their Research Scientist in charge of such things.
Their description of our quinarius is:

obverse type: Concordia head r., wearing diadem and veil
obverse legend: III.VIR.R.P.C
reverse type: Two hands clasped around caduceus
reverse legend: M.ANTON C.CAESAR

And here's their image:

Useful Thing with Circles

2008-10-29T11:13:00.010-04:00

After watching one of our Italian grad students use a compass and ruler in a very impressive, but ultimately tedious way to calculate the diameter of the rim of a fragmentary vessel (= potsherd), I went on-line to search for a nice printout of concentric circles to make the job easier. Well, I found a couple, but they all printed out wrong, so I made my own this week using VectorDesigner, a decent vector-based drawing program that I got in one of those MacHeist packages.

Anyway, here's the pdf for anyone to use. Make sure that you check the scale after printing. I forgot to turn off the auto-scaling in my printer driver the first time and it ended up shrunk by a tiny bit.

Addendum 29 June 2009: Nearly a year later, I find a bunch of nicer versions of these at the bottom of this page.

Google Earth

2008-10-24T13:58:00.007-04:00

Sitting here on our GIS workshop at Drew, it occurs to me that I have never posted a Google Earth bookmark for the site. So here's one for the church of S. Maria in Pantano. We excavated just north of the church.

AIA Fellowship

2008-10-20T14:04:00.002-04:00

Interested students con find out about the AIA's Jane C. Waldbaum Archaeological Field School Scholarship here.

Sad news

2008-10-19T19:07:00.003-04:00

The mayor of Massa Martana died in a car accident last week as he was on his way to Austria to establish Sister City relationship for his town. He was a good friend to us and our project and will be missed.

Latest news may be found here.

Giornate Europee del Patrimonio

2008-09-27T07:43:00.001-04:00

The latest press release is here.

Thinking ahead

2008-09-14T19:50:00.005-04:00

Here's a little publicity flier for next summer. It shows senior Brady Eskilson with the stack of five coins he excavated in the final days of the dig.

Feel free to print and distribute. :-)

Itineraries

2008-09-07T16:54:00.007-04:00

Our site of the Vicus ad Martis Tudertium shows up not only in some inscriptions (see this earlier post), but also in a few ancient and medieval itineraries, which are basically a kind of simple map for trips. Instead of representing the world in a more or less accurate two-dimensional image, itineraries are lists of places along a given route with the distance between each place given in Roman miles. (Of course you can combine these with what look to us more or less like maps, and then you get something like the Peutinger Tablet.)
Thanks to the internet tubes, several of these itineraries are available on-line:

The Itinerarium Gaditanum ("Cadiz Itinerary") - in which "Martis" or "ad Martis" can be found near the end of the list, 16 (or 17 in one case) miles from Mevania (modern Bevagna) and 17 (or 13 or 18) miles from Narnia (yes, Narnia).
The Tabula Peutingeriana ("Peutinger Tablet") - which is a distorted 2-D map with a number of itineraries put on it in a kind of semblance of geographical reality. (You can search for other versions too.) To find "ad Martis", scroll all the way to the right in the image I've linked to. You'll see Roma there, as a seated figure in a biggish circle. Can't miss it. Above Roma's head is a largish, red letter "A" and a bit above that an "M." Go left from the "M," to "U" then "N" then "E" then "C" (keep going and you'll get "Picenum" backwards). Under the "C" is one bit of writing. Ignore it. Under that, you'll see "vii ad Martis xvi." Careful observers will note that the next stop on this itinerary is neither Mevania nor Narnia.
It's also in the Antonine Itinerary, but I can't find an on-line version of that.
The stupid Bordeaux Pilgrim skipped us on his way from Rome to Milan, and took the eastern branch of the Flaminia.

Global Economy

2008-09-07T16:38:00.003-04:00

So it turns out you can buy the same water here that we regularly drank in Italy. 'Course, the label's in English here.

Pottery Stamps

2008-08-26T00:54:00.008-04:00

Over the course of the summer, we found three pieces of terra sigillata marked with stamps.

First, an intact "CV" (closest to OCK 2275.5, AD 25-50, but with less space between the letters and the border of the enclosing rectangle):

Second, a partial stamp, showing the last two letters of "L.N.P." (OCK 1226.14, 15 BC - AD 5). The inital "L" seems to have been lost in the ridges (i.e., the stamping was poorly done):

Finally, the longest of the three, a "Surisc[us] | L. Non[i]" where the "u" and the "r" of "Surisc" run together in a "VR" ligature (OCK 1282.2, 10 BC+):

Upcoming Conference

2008-08-19T13:15:00.005-04:00

A weekend of culture in Italy, the Giornate Europee del Patrimonio, will feature a small conference at S. Maria in Pantano on Saturday, 28 September at 5.30 p.m. More info here. Stop by if you're in the area.

Post-Dig Press

2008-07-23T22:46:00.004-04:00

A second press release went out after the dig was finished. Find it here, here, and here.
A completely separate article may be found here.

Still here

2008-07-23T22:45:00.002-04:00

Well, as expected, posting frequency took a nose dive as the dig got underway. I'm back at home now, so expect some updates as the summer goes on.

Todi Sotteranea

2008-07-01T18:29:00.004-04:00

Lots going on at the site, but more on that later. Today we went underground in Todi, visiting some ancient channels underneath the city. And by "visiting" I mean going hunched over through 2,300-year-old passage-ways cut into the rock on which Todi sits. A few moments of discomfort for me at the start, I don't mind saying, but by the end, it was terrific.

More Press

2008-06-24T13:17:00.007-04:00

Well, the conference went fairly well, even though it ate up most of our morning. A few new stories today, mostly using the same text from our previous release, but with some new bits thrown in. (Here, here, here, here, here, here and here.)

Porca miseria!

2008-06-22T17:32:00.002-04:00

Ouch. In the fine tradition of Americans in Europe, I've become a soccer fan in time for the European Championship. Italy just lost to Spain in overtime on the calci di rigore, which for some reason seem to be called "penalty kicks" in English. Not so great for the defending world champs, but it does free up some upcoming evenings.

Conferenza Stampa

2008-06-21T05:13:00.006-04:00

Hitting the big-time here in the Tiber River Valley, as the release for Monday's press conference arrives on-line in the local newsletter.

Update

Another notice here.

Week-end!

2008-06-20T13:33:00.002-04:00

Summer has arrived with a vengeance, as it's been sunny and over 30 here for the past couple of days, so everyone was feeling the end of the week today. Add that to our press conference on Monday and the near complete absence of unwashed finds and we were left with little to do. That meant a free afternoon for the American ragazzi, who prepared for their big weekend trip to Rome and Pompeii.
Yesterday we had a second ancient urbanism lecture and I gave them a couple of assignments to be done "on-site" in Rome and Pompeii. Beats the heck out of looking at pictures in Madison.
On the site, we're getting a much better sense of what's going on as we clear out more of the collapsed material ("crollo" is everyone's new Italian word) to leave the original walls of whatever building it was that we're working around. Some nice intact plaster on a few walls, and more coins - some even datable! - to help with chronology.
No photos as yet and I haven't scanned the excellent drawings by Gen Puleo, but we've got one of these from a good context:

Colleghi

2008-06-18T16:43:00.006-04:00

Our excavations include the participation of several Italian colleagues, graduates of Italy's University of Perugia. Below are Stefano Spiganti, Claudia Constantino, Ilenia Argentieri, and Serena Trippetti, newly outfitted with Drew baseball caps.

A Totally Sunny Day

2008-06-18T13:16:00.003-04:00

Oddly enough for Italy in June, today's post merits its title. Yesterday it rained lightly for most of the afternoon, so we stayed at home and then headed to the museum for a lecture (by me) on ancient urbanism. A bit more tomorrow, and the students who are off to Rome and Pompeii this weekend will have the background to do the homework I'm going to give them.

Nice progress on the site as we have finally started to get to some layers below the topsoil. Some walls have emerged and numerous small coins (folles), most of which are too beat up to be of much use in close dating. The ones that are well enough preserved seem late 3rd - early 4th c. AD. Too soon to go very far with that though.

On a lighter note, last night the Azzurri finally won a game in the European soccer championship, so the sports pages are striking a happier tone.

Che cosa?

2008-06-13T18:27:00.001-04:00

Remarkably the day passed without any rain. We mostly uncovered the previously excavated trenches from last November. A nice Constantinian coin and some other "stray" finds. Tomorrow to some new areas.

Arrabbiata

2008-06-12T13:23:00.005-04:00

The title of this post is both the style of my pasta at lunch today and the state of the aforementioned deities. Having stopped raining briefly after lunch today, it started up again and new continues lightly. The eastern skies (over the Apennines) are clearer, but the forecast isn't very good...better than today, but not good.

Here's a photo of almost everyone in the Roman cistern at Todi.

The Gods must be angry

2008-06-12T02:37:00.003-04:00

After a promising start yesterday, we had to stop after a fairly short - but drenching - downpour in the mid-afternoon. Today we awoke to rain.

Meanwhile at home, temperatures near 100 (low 30s, as they'd say here) and massive winds and power outages.

Inscription

2008-06-06T11:39:00.005-04:00

Well, as expected, all three inscriptions are in the CIL ("Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum") volume that deals with this part of Italy, XI. Here's a photo of the inscription that gives the name of the site. I had to play with it a bit to get it to be readable (ok, mostly readable), so it appears to be in black and white, though it isn't. You can make out in the big second line "MART. TUDE" which is the middle of "Vicus Martis Tudertium", that is, "Settlement of the Mars of the people of Todi."

Sunday we plan to start the geomagnetic survey, in collaboration with Tomaso Mattioli from the University of Perugia. Should be good.

Someday the big trailer will arrive from the local town ('nuff said, if you know about Italian bureaucracy and work habits).

Arrivato!

2008-06-04T16:39:00.003-04:00

I arrived Sunday in Italy without incident, despite the massive thunderstorms on the East Coast during the day.

Spent the day with my colleague Carlo Zoccoli, visiting a few places, including the site of the excavations where we observed a few inscriptions embedded in the wall of the medieval tower next to the church. Two have been published already, but perhaps not the third.

The first is over the small door to the tower and reads:

PỌḄḶỊCIA·A·L·
SALVIA

The other two were noted by Becatti back in the 30s and include one of the inscriptions that mentions the place by name.

Today's lesson: Always Bring the Camera

Fun with Satellites

2008-05-24T18:25:00.008-04:00

Drew prides itself on its incorporation of technology into learning. Me too...or maybe it's more accurate to say that I just like playing with computer stuff.

In any case, I'm incorporating a few fun technologies into the dig and courses for this summer, mainly to do with mapping. The first one relies on all those satellites the U.S. has put around the planet in order to provide itself (and incidentally the rest of us) with a fairly good idea of our position on the globe. These Global Positioning Satellites provide a constant stream of data that can be read with all sorts of GPS devices, and now I've got three of these babies: the GT-31 from Locosys. (I got mine from The Midwest Speed Quest link on that page. This is a windsurfing site: these units are waterproof and float.)

They don't show maps like the units found in cars, but they do track and store your position so that you can download it later. In fact you can create multiple tracks and save them onto an internal SD card for transfer to your computer. On your computer, you can run some free software that converts these files into numerous formats, including Google Earth's native kml and the file format for OpenStreetMap.org, which is how we're going to use them in Italy, but more on that another time.

Meanwhile, here's a screen shot from Google Earth. I got hungry and went to get some hot-and-sour soup (gratuitous unnecessary personal information, just like a real blog!), and took along the GPS unit. You can see that my path isn't perfectly mapped - I didn't stagger all over the street on my way there - but it isn't bad either. (Click on it to download the Google Earth file.)

In principio...

2008-05-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

I start this with the best of intentions...and enough self-knowledge to realize that my good intentions may not be enough, and this blog may fail miserably. Nevertheless it's meant to be a running account of our excavations in Umbria, starting officially in June, 2008. I won't be the only one blogging; expect to hear from students, collaborators and the occasional "special guest."

So stay tuned.