Gabii

I haven’t written in this blog for a while because I finished up with school and haven’t been around the libraries as much (or at all- to be completely honest).

Right now I’m actually in Italy! I’m here on an archaeological dig called the “Gabii Project” that’s run by the University of Michigan. I found out about it through my archaeology professor, Christopher Ratte, who taught a class I took in the fall that just so happened to be the best class I ever took. I spoke to him after class a few times and told him my interest in being an art conservator and he hooked me up with the conservators at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, which, as you can tell from my posts before, was one of the best experiences of my life and has really opened my eyes to the field of conservation (archaeological conservation to be specific). I decided while taking my class with Ratte that I wanted to be part of a dig the following summer and he recommended this program and here I am!

I really lucked out with this dig because we were able to receive a grant to pay for a majority of the costs by Chrysler/Fiat, and really all I had to pay for was my flight to get over here. This is where I lucked out even more! When I received my boarding pass I realized I didn’t have a seat assignment so I talked to the people at the main desk and they offered me an alternative of stopping in Amsterdam but only I’d be sitting in business class. I thought it over and decided that non-stop was still a better option. I found out not too long after that that I would still be flying non-stop but I was bumped up to business class. Business class for an overseas flight is absolutely amazing. I started the night off with a glass of champagne, had a three course dinner, watched 2 movies on my personal television, enjoyed a massage from my chair, and pretty much slept the whole way laying down almost completely flat.

As soon as we landed in Italy I was reminded how much I love this country. It’s beautiful! The train station was a little confusing but knowing some Italian has definitely helped me out so far. We made it to the hotel, which is very nice, but the room is TINY! It’s probably a 10X10 room that we are expected to share with three people. But it’s ok… as soon as we figured out we can put our clothes in piles underneath the bed we were fine. We get fed three times a day during the week. Breakfast is at 6:30 and we leave for the dig at 7. We get panini (sandwiches) at the field at 1PM but we are soooo hungry by that time! Luckily we get a 20 minute break at 10AM where we can bring our own snacks to hold us over until lunch time. Dinner is at 8 and of course by then we’re also pretty hungry too. The dinners have been great! They usually involve a pasta, a meat, and a dessert—a typical Italian meal.

The first week of digging has been exhausting but very exciting! I’ve been working on what is a called a glariot road, which is a essentially a dirt road. It’s not terribly exciting, considering a lot of people have been finding graves, but it’s incredibly important and a lot of the directors have been spending some time with us because they didn’t expect there to be a road there and it’s changing a lot of what they were thinking about the area I’m working in. We’ve been finding plenty of pottery, bones, and I even found a couple of loom weights the other day (weights that held down strings in looms for the production of fabric). My trench mates joke that I’m all about the finds, which makes sense because I want to be a conservator! I found out that there is actually no conservation that goes on at this site, which is a little bit of a bummer but at least I’m learning about the process of excavation and getting my hands dirty in the field! (literally).

On Thursday, the third day of digging, my trench supervisor disappeared for a bit and came back to tell us that he thinks we’ll be having an exciting day that day but wasn’t allowed to tell us why. About an hour after that the directors called everybody over to show us a tomb that they had found in my area! This was especially unusual because our area was considered to be an industrial part of town and it would be a very unusual spot for a tomb. There was a giant stone slab that was removed that afternoon for all of us to see, and all of us crossed our fingers that it would be filled with beautiful grave goods, but alas it was just a very well preserved skeleton from the 6th century BC (ho hum… just kidding!). The osteologist told us later that the skeleton was that of a female aged 30-40 years old. She was very tall for a female, and very robust, however, her hips were large, which is the true indicator of her sex. On either side of her coffin were two more graves as well, which could not be excavated until the stone coffin was removed as well, which we were able to watch the next day. We have yet to hear what they found inside! National Geographic paid a visit to see this all the way—maybe I’ll be in their documentary!

This has been an amazing experience so far, and to think of all the things we found in just a week, is a promising sign for the rest of the season! I found out this weekend that the town we’re staying in (Frascati) is actually a very neat place with plenty to see itself, which leaves me excited for some future exploring! I went downtown Rome yesterday, which was also very exciting, but I destroyed my feet because I wore the wrong shoes—lesson learned—and we walked around everywhere! I’m taking it easy today (Sunday) to recover for the long week ahead of digging!