Location: San Gemini, Perugia, Italy

Season Dates: June 16, 2013 - July 27, 2013
Application Deadline: April 15, 2013

Website: http://www.valdosta.edu/~jwhitehe/Carsulaeweb/Carsulae_home.htm

Program Type
Field school
Volunteer

Affiliation: Valdosta State University

Project Director: Jane K. Whitehead, Valdosta State University

Project Description

     Carsulae was a Roman city that developed in the late third century BCE along the Via Flaminia, approximately 100 kilometers north of Rome in modern Umbria. The major public buildings were excavated from 1950 to 1970, but the great majority of the ancient city lies undisturbed in what is now a beautiful archaeological park.
     The Roman baths, which lie at the threshold of the southern entrance to the city, were excavated in the 1950s by the then-superintendent of archaeology, Umberto Ciotti.   Since 2004, when our project began, we have been exploring the structure further in order to determine its entire plan as well as the form of its earliest phase, which, if contemporary with the founding of the city, may be one of the oldest Roman baths in existence. In fact, recent excavations have revealed Roman reuse of massive structures that appear to be earlier than the traditionally accepted date of the founding of the city. We are also investigating the possibility that the baths had a distinctive function as a place of healing.
     Grants in 2011 from Italian sources have allowed us to construct a roof over the ancient remains. The greater protection from the elements that this provides has allowed us to open up areas to excavation that are more structurally delicate and to begin to expose the entire structure of the baths so that consolidation and eventual reconstruction can begin in 2014.
     The results of the 2012 season were surprising. We discovered walls running in all directions from the main structure, walls that had never appeared in the site plans of previous excavations. They give evidence for other rooms as well as for the ancillary functions of the baths: the supply and drainage of water and the circulation of hot air from the furnace through the hypocaust. Most dramatic is the discovery, in situ, of the central design of the mosaic floor of the tepidarium; this was thought to have been removed long ago. 
     The 2013 season will be dedicated to further exposing the central rooms of the baths and also to developing a plan to consolidate and conserve the fragile architecture of the entire bath complex.

Period(s) of Occupation: Roman

Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: 3 weeks

Minimum Age: 16

Experience Required: None

Room and Board Arrangements

All participants are housed (three or four to a room) in the historic Hotel Duomo in the beautiful small hill town of San Gemini, 3 kilometers from the site. All rooms have air conditioning and private baths. Wireless Internet is available in the public rooms of the hotel. Three meals per weekday are provided as is breakfast on weekends.

Cost: $850 per week

Academic Credit
Name of institution offering credit: Columbia University
Number of credits offered: TBA
Tuition: TBA

Contact Information
Prof. Jane K. Whitehead
MCL Dept, Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698
USA
Ebarc2013@gmail.com
Phone: 229-259-4915
Fax: 229-333-7416

Recommended Bibliography

Whitehead, Jane K, Excavation Reports 2005 - 2012, available in the "Links" section of the excavation website

Morigi, Alessia, Carsulae: topografia e monumenti, Atlante tematico di topografia antica, III Supplemento, 1997, Rome
Bruschetti, Paolo, Carsulae, 1995, Rome
Ciotti, Umberto, San Gemini e Carsulae, Nov-80, 1976, Rome