Editors: Diane Conlin will be on the CU-Boulder campus and available for interviews through Thursday, June 16. She will then be accessible by e-mail through June 21 before beginning the field school. For photos call Mike Liguori, (303) 492-3117.
A Roman emperor's most ambitious and personal building project will be uncovered and analyzed by a team of students and scholars from the University of Colorado at Boulder when a new excavation and field school in Italy begins June 26.
The fourth-century A.D. Villa of Maxentius, located just outside the walls of Rome, is where CU-Boulder classics and art history Assistant Professor Diane Conlin will join Italian scholars and colleagues from Michigan's Kalamazoo College to lead excavation and field school activities from June 26 to July 30. The field school plans to convene at the site for the next four summers.
The opportunity for American scholars and students to excavate and document a major imperial site in Rome is rare, according to Conlin.
"As we all prepare to head off to Rome for this summer's season, we anticipate an exciting and rewarding seven weeks in the field," she said. "Fourteen undergraduate and graduate students from CU-Boulder are participants, selected through a competitive application and interview process in partnership with Nancy Stubbs, CU Study Abroad director.
"This is a true collaborative and interdisciplinary venture, both within CU-Boulder and with colleagues and institutions in the U.S. and in Italy," Conlin said. In addition to CU-Boulder student scholars, students from Kalamazoo College, the University of California-Davis, Michigan State University and Carleton College will join in as members of the field school," Conlin said. Twelve professional archaeologists and specialists will staff the school.
The Villa of Maxentius is a key site for scholars studying ancient Rome's transition from paganism to Christianity, as well as the development of Late Roman imperial palace architecture, Conlin said. It is among a number of important archaeological sites located on the Via Appia, the first and most well known ancient Roman road.
In preparation for this summer's excavation, the American team, including Conlin, CU-Boulder classics Associate Professor Noel Lenski and classics graduate students Rachel Kahn and Holly Scripter, completed initial mapping of the site in summer 2003 and collected a number of artifacts. They used a custom-made digital mapping system and database with GIS technology designed by the project's technical team to streamline the sharing and publishing of data and to eventually produce virtual walk-throughs of the site.
Kahn, now a doctoral student at Cambridge University in Great Britain, will rejoin the team this summer as an assistant trench supervisor.
The suburban stretch of the Via Appia, where the Villa of Maxentius is located, was once lined with tombs, temples and luxurious countryside retreats for Rome's wealthy elite. Maxentius ruled Rome from 306 to 312 A.D. and built monuments at his villa to commemorate his only son, Romulus, who drowned in the Tiber River at age 9.
"One major question that we hope to answer is why Maxentius built this grand villa complex outside of the defensive walls of the city when he had full control of pre-existing imperial palaces located in the heart of the capital," Conlin said. "Was it an architectural demonstration to the Roman senate and people of Maxentius' confidence, power and respect for Roman traditions? Or was Maxentius perhaps attempting to associate himself with the increasingly powerful Christian community of Rome by constructing his villa next to the various Christian structures located along this section of the Via Appia?"
Limited investigations of the site were conducted in 1825 and again in the 1960s, but three decades of damaging, invasive vegetation had to be cleared by Italian authorities before the American team could begin survey work.
Organizers hope that as the field school becomes established, student tuition and fees will help the project become increasingly self-supporting. The team was awarded a second generous grant from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation at Harvard University for the 2005 excavation season. However, finding patrons to support the excavation remains a top priority.
"The continuing support of archaeology enthusiasts and benefactors of CU-Boulder is a major key to the ongoing success of this unique research project and rewarding teaching program," Conlin said.
Conlin holds a joint appointment in the departments of classics and art and art history. She has taught Roman and Greek art and archaeology at CU-Boulder since 1998 and has made numerous trips to Italy to study Roman archaeology, architecture and sculpture. In 1990 she was awarded a two-year fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, and her book, "The Artists of the Ara Pacis," was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book by the Association of College and Research Libraries in 1997.
Chapters from her second book, "Political Art and Imperial Identities in Flavian Rome," are currently under review at Cambridge University Press.
For more information about the excavation and classical art and archaeology in the CU-Boulder classics department visit .