Columbia Summer Program in Italy:
Archaeological Fieldwork at Hadrian’s Villa

Information Session

 Beginning in summer 2014, Columbia’s Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA) will offer a four-week summer program that provides undergraduate and graduate students with the unique opportunity to excavate and learn together at Hadrian’s Villa, a UNESCO World Heritage site near Rome. Students will learn archaeological techniques and think critically about how excavation work allows for deeper insight into the social, political, economic, architectural and artistic history of classical antiquity.

 Hadrian’s Villa is one of the most important archaeological sites of classical antiquity. Its visionary synthesis of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian architectural and artistic traditions has attracted scholarly attention ever since its rediscovery in the Renaissance and has inspired generations of artists, architects, and writers—from Palladio to Le Corbusier, and from Piranesi to Yourcenar.

 APAHA is a program created under the joint aegis of Columbia’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America and H2CU, the Honors Center of Italian Universities of the Sapienza University in Rome. It is promoted by the Department of Art History and Archaeology, the Department of History, and the Classical Studies Graduate Program.

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Date: Wednesday, November 20th
Time: 4-5 p.m.
Place: The Italian Academy,  Library – 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (between 116th and 118th Streets)

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Interested but can’t attend?
Visit Laura Schiff’s office hours in the Office of Global Programs Mondays (3:30-4:30 p.m.) & Tuesdays (2:30-3:30 p.m.) or e-mail her with questions or to make an appointment– [email protected].

The American Academy in Rome announces new Summer Skills Courses in Archaeology: http://aarome.org/news/features/aar-launches-summer-skills-courses-in-archaeology. This year’s course will be on the Documentation and Analysis of Ancient Architecture and will provide students the skills to produce plans, sections and structural analysis of ancient buildings, using a variety of methodologies. The course will involve hands-on study of a Roman temple – Temple A at the Largo Argentina in downtown Rome.

2015 will see the return of the Roman Pottery Summer School.

These courses have been designed to be as affordable as possible, packing maximum information and field work into a three-week schedule.

SUMMER SKILLS COURSES IN ARCHAEOLOGY

These intensive courses are intended to provide graduate students and other professionals in archaeology, history, classics and historic preservation (plus occasional upper-level undergraduate students) with hands-on training in skills essential for contemporary practice. With opportunities to put into practice skills learned during the course, these courses are taught by specialists in the field and are offered in rotation in sequential years.

2014 Program
Documentation and Analysis of Ancient Buildings

2014 Dates
June 3-21, 2014

Application Deadline
January 17, 2014

Lead Instructor
Stephan Zink, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich
In collaboration with ETH Zurich (Institut für Denkmalpflege und Bauforschung, Prof. U. Hassler) and the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali.

Architectural remains represent the largest and most conspicuous body of material evidence for the study of Antiquity. At the same time, ancient buildings are fragmented and highly modified artifacts with long life cycles of construction, decay and reconstruction. The analysis and documentation of ancient buildings is thus an opportunity to understand buildings in time, to make sense of them as social and historical artifact and to address the issues of interpretative documentation and recording of the past.

This three-week course offers an intensive introduction to the documentation, analysis, and interpretation of ancient architecture. Designed for students from all backgrounds, the course will introduce students to buildings analysis through three types of experience. Students will carry out original fieldwork at a Roman temple (the so-called Temple A at Largo Argentina), where they will learn how to produce plans and sections of a complex site using a combination of digital surveying and hand drawings. Afternoon classroom lectures will introduce students to the basic principles of ancient design and construction, as well as to some theoretical questions related to the study and documentation of historical architecture. Finally, weekend field trips to architectural sites in and around Rome will provide an occasion to discuss examples of historical and modern preservation strategies and their approaches in creating ideas of the past through “designing” a ruin.

Instructor: Dr. Stephan Zink is a research fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich where he teaches courses on building archaeology, documentation and construction. He has a PhD in classical archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of a forthcoming book on the architecture of the Palatine sanctuary of Apollo. He specializes in the architecture and design of Roman buildings of the Augustan age, and has worked for many years on the Palatine.

This course will be offered every other year.

Costs
Tuition: $3550
This includes tuition, a shared room, self-catering facilities, two AAR dinners/week and course trips.

Not included: airfare/travel to Rome, contribution to self-catered meals, lunches and weekend meals.

Lodging
Students will be housed at the American Academy in shared room, self-catering apartments, with some meals taken with the Academy community. Days will be hot, long and strenuous and all applicants should be prepared with the proper level of fitness and appropriate clothing.

Eligibility
Admission is competitive as the class size will be limited. The course is intended for graduate students and professionals from archaeology, history, architecture, historic conservation and preservation and other allied fields. Advanced undergraduates should consult the instructor before applying. Applicants from outside American universities are most welcome.

How to Apply
A complete application consists of a cover letter explaining why the program is of interest, a curriculum vitae and two letters of recommendation. Applications and all supporting materials, including recommendations, should be sent by email. The letters of recommendation must be sent directly by the individual referees.
Applications should be sent to Stephan Zink at [email protected].

Call for participants – Study and Dig with the Apolline Project on the Slopes of Mt. Vesuvius

Call for participants – Winter, spring and summer intensive one- and two-week courses offered in specialized areas of archaeological research, in addition to summer fieldwork opportunities.

The Apolline Project is an open research network, which sheds light on the hitherto neglected past of the area to the north of Mt. Vesuvius, in the Bay of Naples. The project has run actively since 2004 and has several components, with current major work focusing on a Medieval church and a Roman villa with baths buried by the volcanoclastic debris of Vesuvius.

The Apolline Project is now accepting applications for its winter, spring, and summer lab courses as well as its summer 2014 field season. Offered lab courses include: human osteology, pottery, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, Roman architecture and Roman marble. Selected participants will have the opportunity to spend additional time before and after their chosen program(s) at the project’s accommodations at no additional charge in order to better explore the region.

For further information, including course descriptions and fieldwork opportunities, visit: http://www.apollineproject.org/dig.html.