Department of History

Upper Sabina Tiberina Archaeological Field School

Overview

The Upper Sabina Tiberina Archaeological Field School is a summer program designed to teach undergraduate students about archaeological field and laboratory methods, geophysical prospection in archaeology, cultural preservation and conservation techniques, and the archaeology of ancient Italy. The course is taught on site in central Italy, and participants learn through first-hand experience excavating at the Vacone site as well as through lab work, assisting in geophysical studies, lectures and readings. Participants live in the small village of Casperia where students have the opportunity to learn about life in modern as well as ancient Italy. The Upper Sabina Tiberina region itself forms part of the northwestern corner of the region of Lazio, and is located approximately 30 to 40 miles north/northwest of Rome.

Participants in the school receive six undergraduate course-credits from Rutgers’ Office of Study Abroad which sponsors the field school, in collaboration with the Departments of History and Earth and Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-Newark and the American Academy in Rome. The field school course credits may be counted toward a variety of departments and majors, including Classical Studies, History, Anthropology, and Art History. Enrollment in the field school is not restricted to Rutgers University students, and applications from prospective participants at other colleges and universities are welcome.

Research Aims of the Project

For a more detailed narrative, click here.

Our team’s ultimate aim is to assess archaeologically a select cluster of Roman villa sites in the Upper Sabina Tiberina, focusing on the Republican period (third to first century BCE), in order to investigate regional patterns of rural habitation and agricultural exploitation. Our villa sites are situated in an area defined by the Tiber on the east, mountains separating the region from Umbria to the north and the Reatine valley to the East, and the edge of the Farfa river valley to the south (ca. 250 sq. miles). We seek to substantiate archaeologically the point at which the historical characterization of the Sabina in the late Republic is perceptible in the rural built environment, providing evidence of agricultural intensification and subsequent economic development. To this end, we plan to excavate one Republican villa site in the area (Vacone), while conducting geophysical survey at other known villa locations with comparable evidence of Republican habitation.

GOOGLE EARTH MAP: http://g.co/maps/vspm6

The first part of our strategy is to excavate the villa near the town of Vacone as the cornerstone for a comparative regional project assessing the Roman Republican rural habitation in the area in terms of its scale, mode of agricultural exploitation, and diachronic development. This selective excavation at Vacone will be combined with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the immediate environs of this villa and other villas in the subject group. Research goals include estimating the size of both the villas and the surrounding land they exploited, assessing the choice of villa locations from the standpoint of topography and ecology, and incorporating a GIS database with detailed physical and chronological information about the group villas.

Our team has selected Vacone for excavation based on information derived from earlier interventions by the office of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio and our own GPR survey of the central area of the villa. The villa has two standing criptoportici (underground chambers/corridors) built in opus incertum style masonry, which would date it to the late Republican period. The interventions supervised and published by Giovanna Alvino of the Sorpintendenza in the 1980s shored up these substructures and carried out limited excavation in the area above each criptoportico. The work on the lower criptoportico uncovered a mosaic floor running along the length of its roof. Several thresholds were also unearthed that appear to open into mosaic-floored rooms in the area between the two criptoportici, presumably part of the villa’s domestic quarter. Our GPR survey of this area, conducted in October 2011, confirms the presence of anomalies consistent with room walls. Exploration of the upper criptoportico revealed a space for the pressing of wine or oil adjacent to the end of the criptoportico, with a channel running down to a collecting basin in the criptoportico itself. Today the portion of the site between the criptoportici, where we intend to begin excavation, is on publicly owned land, and the remainder of the villa site would seem to be under local farmland and associated privately owned buildings.

 

South Criptoportico, Vacone

We plan to conduct field-operations at Vacone from July to August for five summers, starting in 2012, followed by several study-seasons to analyze the data collected. Simultaneously, we will conduct geophysical survey (GPR) at some of the other villa locations in the area, starting with the “Terme di Agrippa” villa near Montebuono.


Casperia

The archaeological team is hosted by the historic, beautiful village of Casperia some three miles from the site of Vacone (http://www.comunedicasperia.it/). See below for more on specifics of accommodations. The town is within commuting distance from Rome, and has become a popular bed-and-breakfast location, which gives it a more cosmopolitan feel than the rest of area.

Basic services are available in Casperia, which has a post office, two cafes, a grocery store where essential supplies can be purchased, an internet café, a convenience store, a bank with an ATM, and two restaurants. There is also a public bus-stop which stops every 30 minutes and drops off passengers in front of a train station (at Poggio Mirteto) that can take students to Rome in 40 minutes. Students are encouraged to travel to Rome or other nearby locales on weekends.

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What to Expect

Accommodations and Meals

Students will live in an elementary school in the main square of Casperia. It is equipped with kitchen and bathrooms with showers. Students will live approximately three to five people to a room. Various (adult) staff will be living with the students in the school (in separate rooms) to assist and supervise them. All students and staff will be provided with 2 meals a day Monday through Thursday, with lunch only on Fridays (they will be “off” ca. 4pm on Fridays). Lunch will be “cold,” provided on site picnic-style. Dinner will be prepared at a local restaurant. Students will be provided with some provisions to make a quick breakfast in the mornings. For weekends, students are encouraged to travel to Rome or other nearby locations, though they can stay at the school if they wish. A hired school bus will take students to and from the school to the work-site.


Casperia, Street

Students will need to bring certain special items:

  • Pillow
  • Bed sheets (bottom and top)
  • Towels (2 is probably enough)
  • Pants (everyone is only allowed to work in pants, jeans)
  • Work boots (steel-toe preferred or very hard sole)
  • Trowel (a flat-bladed one that has been sharpened; Marshalltown brand Premier Line 45 5 5-Inch by 2-1/2-Inch Pointing Trowel is best, which costs ca. $12 on Amazon.com)
  • If students use contact lenses, plan to wear glasses on site, if at all possible

A Typical Weekday (weekends are free)

7:30 AM: Depart for work at Vacone

8:00 - 10:30 AM: Work at the site

10:30 - 10:45 AM: Snack break, refreshments provided

10:45 AM - 12:30 PM: Work at the site

12:30 - 1:00 PM: Lunch break, picnic lunch provided

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Work at the site

3:00 PM: Close down work at the site, return to the dig house

3:30 - 5:30 PM: Lab work, class meeting, field trip or dig house cleaning duty (depending on the day)

5:30 - 7:30 PM: Free time

7:30 - 8:30 PM: Dinner

8:30 - 11:00 PM: Free time

11:00 PM - 7 AM: Quiet hours in the dig house

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Instructors and Project Leaders

Gary Farney (Project Director) is an associate professor and departmental chair (History) at Rutgers University-Newark. He has participated in a number of excavations in Italy and is a trained numismatist. His research focus is on ancient Italic group identity, including Sabines, and the formation of Roman identity from the various Italic groups.
Dylan Bloy (Excavation Director) is a visiting assistant professor of archaeology at Tulane University. He has not only participated in a half-dozen excavations in Italy and Greece, but has taken a leadership role in several (including the villa excavations at Ossaia de la Tufa in Cortona
Kimberly Brown (Survey Director), of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has participated in over a dozen field-archaeology projects around Italy and the Mediterranean, many in a leadership role, with a particular emphasis on both field and geophysical survey.
Dana Goodburn-Brown MSc ACR is an accredited archaeological conservator and founding director of AMTeC Coop - a not-for-profit co-operative dedicated to the investigation, care, reproduction and presentation of archaeological artefacts and past technologies. She has worked on developer funded archaeological conservation projects for most of the 25 year career, and instigated the first PARIS (Preservation of Archaeological Remains In-Situ) conference, when working at the Museum of London 1987-1997. Her work on international projects include Zeugma , SE Turkey; Chersonesos, Crimea, Ukraine; Baharia, Egypt; Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyaTeoCmuLM) and Ras al’ Kaimah, UAE. She recently obtained a MSc in Sustainable Heritage from UCL.
Francesca Marzilli, a native of Casperia with a degree from the University of Rome, is a professional archaeologist who has led ten archaeological projects in central Italy, most of them in the Sabina region.
Giulia Masci (Site Director) has a PhD from the University of Turin where she teaches and researches. Her primary research interests  include  the  formation  of  Sabine  identity  and  the  concept  of  “Romanization.”  Her  family-home is in the Upper Sabina Tiberina where she has conducted much of her research.
Matt Notarian is a visiting assistant professor in classical studies at Tulane University. He has participated in a number of archaeological projects in Italy, Greece and the USA, most recently at an imperially owned villa outside of Rome. His research focuses upon the archaeology and survey of Rome’s countryside, particularly the capital’s influence upon
regional development.
Ian Travers, who also has a great deal of field experience on four continents, is a cultural heritage management professional. Ian’s   technical expertise will be essential for helping us to formulate a needs-assessment and an actionable plan, especially to preserve the mosaics and painted wall plaster that we anticipate finding at the Vacone excavations.

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Program Costs and Scholarships

An approximate estimate of costs will be $4500 for NJ residents and $5500 for out-of-state residents. This fee includse tuition and all expenses (room, board, program-related transportation within Italy) for the duration of the program, with the exception of textbooks and meals on weekends. Airfare to Italy is not included in the fee, and participants are expected to make their own travel arrangements to Italy.

The actual program fees will be communicated to applicants once they have been officially established with the university administration; the fees are not expected to change substantially, if at all.

Some limited scholarship money may be available for Rutgers University-Newark students with demonstrated financial need.  Those students who have demonstrated financial need should contact Prof. Farney (gfarney@rutgers.edu) for more information about this. Scholarships will be awarded on the basis of merit within the pool of students with demonstrated financial need.

Applicants are also encouraged to apply for outside scholarships in support of participation in archaeological excavations:

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Photo Gallery

To view images taken at the site, click here.