The Italian bank holidays have made this week a short one regarding exploration, allowing for time to calibrate the intense days of research we have been part of since we arrived. With anything up to 11 hours of walking, seminars, lectures, tours and project work 6 days a week, there hasn’t been much time for rest and it has been […]
Day 15 – Monday was the second day exploring the Campus Martius for the City of Rome awardees and we started with the Montecitorio obelisk. The monument is now situated in Piazza del Parlamento, where we were also introduced to Mark Bradley, an Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Nottingham who was joining us for the day. […]
Day 11 – The Esquiline Hill is one of many hills that collectively create the topography of the city of Rome. It’s elevation made it a quieter area than the bustle of the city centre for those with enough status to afford the land. Large Domus and gardens were more than just a spectacle and provided privacy for the elites […]
Day 8 – On Monday the group took a trip on a minibus to the Alban Hills, stopping briefly at Villa Palazzola (Venerabile Collegio Inglese) to admire the remains of a tomb, embedded in their back gardens. Onward from Rocca di Papa we climbed the road, paused to admire the beautiful Lago Albano and then continued up the Albano mountains […]
Day 4 – The following day the City of Rome group marched down to the Insula of the Aracoeli, which is not far from the Theatre of Marcello. Here, once again with special access, we explored the four floors of the remains of apartments and workshops from the 2nd Century CE, built in a similar way to the aforementioned Mithraeum. […]
Greetings from the British School at Rome (BSR), I am currently sat in the library with a stack of books on Roman Republican history to my right and a sunny garden to my left. This first week has been a whirlwind of adventure and knowledge! There is so much to discuss I shall have to post more than once a […]
Today I start my journey to the British School at Rome (BSR). In all my previous years of being an archaeologist (since 2001!) I have had many adventures to far off places and this will not be the first time I have been to Rome. This studentship, however, is possibly the most prestigious position I have obtained and it wasn’t […]
Final week and pack down The final week of this evaluation dig at Dunyvaig Castle produced a high profile find (see earlier blog), gained the interest of newspapers both national and local, helped educate hundreds of primary and secondary Islay school children, whilst uncovering some fantastically preserved stratigraphy. Trench 1 GPS- recorded the location of seal, cleaned the floor surface […]
The trenches have been working full steam ahead this week with the new students settling into their roles and gaining confidence in recently acquired skills. Layers have been cleaned, photographed, planned, sampled and levelled in all three trenches. Trench 1 had a wonderful discovery of a seal bearing the name of John Campbell of Cawdor. This name has belonged to […]
The press release is now out and so I can finally share with you all some wonderful news! We have found the seal of John Campbell of Cawdor! With an engraved date of either 1598 or 1593 (the jury is still out), this seal is an exquisite archaeological find that is both rare and highly informative. Either date would corroborate […]