Urvinum Hortense 2019

Location: Collemancio, PG, IT

Season: June 3, 2019 to July 26, 2019

Session Dates: June 2 - June 14, June 16 - June 28, June 31 - July 12, July 14 - July 26,

Application Deadline: March 1, 2019

Deadline Type: Rolling

Website: http://laboratorioarcheol.wixsite.com/unipg

Discount for AIA members: 5%

Program Type:
Field school

RPA Certified:
no

Affiliation:
1. Università degli Studi di Perugia 2. Comune di Cannara

Project Director:
Prof. Gian Luca Grassigli

Project Description:

Project Description: The Field School of Urvinum Hortense is directed by Prof. Gian Luca Grassigli and led by the University of Perugia, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza per i beni ambientali, archittettonici, artistici e storici dell’Umbria. Due to its academic excellence and cutting-edge innovation in fieldwork techniques, including computer modeling work the excavation of Urvinum Hortense is an opportunity for education in a magnificent Roman archaeological site.

About Urvinum Hortense: In the small town of Collemancio di Cannara, on the hill of La Pieve, there are still visible monumental structures of the Roman Municipium of Urvinum Hortense. The urban center was in a strategic geographic location that gave it the control of the Valley of Tevere. The first research on the settlement was led by the archaeologist Giuseppe di Costanzo (second half of 19th century) and by  Professor Giovanni Canelli Bizzozzero at the beginning of 20th century. The first monumentalization of the area is speculated to be around the 3rd century. During this phase the Tripartitie Tuscanic Temple was built in opus quadratum. Thanks to the epigraphical data collected it is possible to understand the municipalization of Urvinum Hortense as a consequence of  the Social War in 90 AD.

This time period has the first traces of urbanization, for example there is a road axis in opus spicatum near to the pre-roman temple. Can be testified also a phase of Imperial Age: in fact at the second century AD belongs a monumental roman bath decorated with a huge nilotic mosaic preserved in the Museum of the City. The settlement has a continuity of life testified by the presence of a Christian Church built around 9th century AD, nearby the Tuscanic Temple.

The archaeological excavation was restarted in 1984 and led by the Università degli Studi di Perugia. The last considerable discovery was a Roman house, with a painted wall showing a veiled woman. 

During the last excavation campaign, has been discovered a medieval cemetery that is related to the activity of the Christian Church, a huge public building with two lines of pillars and some rooms with mosaics and wall paintings referable to the roman bath. 

Project Aims & Objectives: The Urvinum Hortense Project is guided by two main objectives.  First, it seeks to build a better understanding of the topography of the ancient roman municipal, as well as its relationships with the other roman cities of Umbria (Hispellium, Spoletium, Fulginium).  Second, it aims to be a productive and stimulative place where students from all over the world can share their experiences, learn techniques and strategies of survey, excavation, archaeological stratigraphy, sampling procedures, field data collection, recording methods, documentation and report preparation.

Schedule: The Urvinum Hortense Field School will run for two months in 2019. The Field School begins on Sunday June 2th, with a welcome dinner for all participants, and the last working day is Friday July 26th. The normal working day is from 7:30AM to 4:30PM, with a coffee break and a lunch break. We will work five days a week, with Saturday and Sunday being days off.

On Saturdays there is the possibility to organize some field trips to Rome (160 km from Cannara) or Florence (150 km from Cannara) or to other relevant sites and museums in Umbria, like Assisi (10 km) and Perugia (30 km). During the firsts two weeks of July in Perugia will be the Umbria Jazz Festival, the most popular jazz festival of all Italy. 

Before you arrive, you will be provided with necessary background information, including a field school handbook with brief introduction to the site, outlining our aims, metods and results. This handbook will also serve to provide further practical information about room and board offered.

On your first working day you will be given a half-day introduction to the site and the field techniques that we will be using. You will be assigned to a particular trench and site supervisor on the excavation, who will be on hand to give you constant guidance.

Your supervisor will be at your complete disposal during the experience. There is the possibility that during the following weeks you will be rotated through different tasks, allowing you the chance to try your hand at all aspects of excavation. At the end of every two weeks all participants will be kept up-to-date with overall site progress by means of a site tour.

Your experience will be supplemented with lectures given by field school staff and visitors. These will provide participants of all levels with an understanding of the wider context in which the work at the site is situated.

Period(s) of Occupation: Roman Period to the Medieval Age

Notes:
Roman Architecture; Ancient Topograpnhy; Excavation; Finds Processing; Photogrammetry; Archaeological Computing; Archaeological Draw; GIS.

Project Size: 25-49 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Two weeks

Minimum Age: 18

Experience Required: None

Room and Board Arrangements:
Room and Board Arrangements The fee includes tuition, accommodation, workdays meals and Sunday dinners, transportation from Roma Fiumicino Airport and daily transport to/from the site. Airfare and health/travel insurance are not included. Accomodation: All participants will be staying in a comfortable hostel in the town of Cannara (3 km far away to the site). Expect to share the room with three or four other participants, with 3 to 4 people sharing a bathroom. The hostel has a common room and a courtyard at your complete disposal. Free Wi-Fi access. In the City of Cannara free laundry-service is available. Catering: You will be taking an Italian breakfast in the hostel before being picked up to go to the site. Packed lunches are provided at the site, as well as unlimited quantities of bottled water. Tea, coffee and biscuits are served in the mid-morning break. Mondays- Fridays and on Sunday evenings the whole team meets for a dinner in a local restaurant, specialized in Italian food (mostly pizza). There are options available for vegetarians and gluten free, and it is crucial that dietary requirements have been specified in advance within the application process. Need to bring: trowel; workwear (in particular safety shoes).   Cost: 2 week $1.500, 4 weeks $2.800, 6 weeks $4000, 8 weeks $5200