We used to have “balloon” debates in school: The hot-air balloon is losing height and, to avoid disaster, people must be jettisoned. To avoid this fate, everybody must justify why they should remain on board and their classmates then vote them “on” or “off.”
In reality, the result was determined entirely by one’s popularity. But perhaps this is always the case. In seeking to avoid funding cuts, for example, museums or cultural services are often considered easy targets, since archaeologists and heritage professionals are far less useful than doctors, engineers, or mathematicians. Beyond archaeology itself, cultural heritage has few friends, one might argue.
But I present the argument that far from being the irrelevant or outdated subject some politicians, career advisers, and university leaders might consider it to be, archaeology is essential to the future of humanity and planetary health. This is for three main reasons. First, archaeologists have the capacity to think about and to understand humanity of the past, and to project that insight into the future. Second, archaeologists are uniquely placed to comprehend the many and complex ways in which humans, over time, have related to their environment and environmental and other processes, such as the changing climate, migration, or pandemics. And third, archaeology provides opportunities for everyone to benefit, whether in terms of physical (by undertaking surveys or excavations) or mental health (through social interaction or artifact handling, to address loneliness or anxiety, for example).
York Archaeology’s Archaeology on Prescription project is one example of this: The program enables adults facing various conditions to gain a detailed understanding of life in a specific area of York, and in the process to improve their health and well-being, on top of volunteerism’s generally positive health effects, as demonstrated by a 2024 article.
In my new book, Wicked Problems for Archaeologists, I examine a few creative ways that we can use archaeology to help directly address some of the global challenges that threaten both human and planetary health. The book’s main argument is that as archaeologists we need to stop thinking only about the past and also think about the future. We also need to engage more with policymakers to help them address their challenges and opportunities.
Wicked Problems
Wicked problems emerged from research in the late 1960s to devise ways of using outcomes from the United States’ NASA-funded space program to help resolve urban problems such as crime and poverty. The definition of wicked problems as those that are “complex, intractable, open-ended, and unpredictable” captures both the scale of these problems and the difficulties they entail. We also now have “super-wicked problems” that introduce the additional dimension of time (or the lack of time to be precise). Super-wicked problems are in addition to the original 10 characteristics of wicked problems, defined by Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber:
Time is running out;
There is no central authority, or only a weak authority, to manage the problem; and
The same actors causing the problem are required to help solve it.
Both climate change and environmental pollution are examples of super-wicked problems in which archaeologists have recently become involved, including my own work in the Galápagos and the wider South Pacific region. Social injustice, crime, and conflict are widely used as examples of wicked problems.
Small Wins
I suggest that the only realistic way to achieve success with wicked and super-wicked problems, and ultimately to make a difference, is by adopting a small-wins framework. These small wins (also referred to as small gains or nudges) align well with what universities in the UK refer to as impact, which, for the purposes of the UK’s Research Excellence Framework is defined as, “an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, beyond academia.” Small wins have been defined by theorist Karl Weick as, “a series of concrete, complete outcomes of moderate importance [that] builds a pattern that attracts allies and deters opponents.” The strategy of small wins incorporates sound psychology and is sensitive to the pragmatics of policymaking. Examples of small wins include the plastic pollution work in the Galápagos and neighboring coastal South America, and the Archaeology on Prescription project, referred to previously.
But even with small wins, we need to be careful. Wicked problems are deeply entangled with one another, meaning that any solution to one problem may exacerbate other problems elsewhere. Climate change and social injustice are a well-known example of this entanglement.
Promoting Success
Once small wins have been achieved, as archaeologists, we need to tell influential people about the outcomes so that our museums and galleries, local services, and archaeology departments are not threatened with closure by people who fail to understand the significance (or the potential) of the work we do.
For this conversation to happen, we need spokespeople who are good at communicating and have access to data and projects that deserve to be talked about. Archaeology needs influencers, or policy entrepreneurs as they are sometimes referred to. As archaeologists, we have not always been very good at this. It is probably why climate scientists on the IPCC don’t take much notice of us.
Preparing Archaeologists for a Wicked Future
We also need to think about how we manage people, resources, and priorities within our profession and how we prepare students for wicked futures. Management leadership scholar Keith Grint has explained how, across disciplines, academics need to be collaborative and passionate leaders inspiring an even more collaborative and passionate next generation. These, he thinks, are essential qualities for creating structures conducive to successfully addressing wicked problems.
We should also be looking to create (and teach our students to prepare for) some entirely new business models that provide the foundations for success: for example, new board structures that provide opportunities for younger people. Often advisory boards and boards of trustees are composed of older people with more experience. Younger idealists are often not welcome because they lack real-world experience. But for a world of wicked problems, we need to be much more creative. The old ways have not worked, so we need to try some new ones.
The Council for British Archaeology’s Youth Advisory Board is an excellent example of what can be done easily and immediately. And as archaeologists, we must continue to teach students how to find, research, interpret, and conserve the places and the materials from which we create an understanding of the past and its relevance in the present. These skills are fundamental to archaeology. But we need to go further.
To ensure that the relevance of archaeology is widely felt, students also need to learn how to communicate with non-specialists. To engage with wicked problems they must also learn about global challenges, and activism, and think more about the future. We need to produce what Paul Handstedt calls “wicked students.”
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University of the Witwatersrand—Human ancestors like Australopithecus – which lived around 3.5 million years ago in southern Africa – ate very little to no meat, according to new research* published in the scientific journal Science. This conclusion comes from an analysis of nitrogen isotope isotopes in the fossilized tooth enamel of seven Australopithecus individuals. The data revealed that these early hominins primarily relied on plant-based diets, with little to no evidence of meat consumption.
The consumption of animal resources, especially meat, is considered a crucial turning point in human evolution. This protein-rich food has been linked to the increase in brain volume and the ability to develop tools. However, direct evidence of when meat emerged among our early ancestors, and of how its consumption developed though time, has been elusive. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa (Wits University) now provide evidence that human ancestors of the genus Australopithecus that lived in southern Africa between 3.7 and 3.3 million years ago subsisted mostly on plants.
The research team analyzed stable isotope data from tooth enamel of Australopithecus individuals found in the Sterkfontein cave near Johannesburg, part of South Africa’s “Cradle of Humankind”, an area known for its rich collection of early hominin fossils. They compared the isotopic data of Australopithecus with that from tooth samples of coexisting animals, including monkeys, antelopes, and large predators such as hyenas, jackals, and big cats.
Tooth enamel preserved dietary signatures
“Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue of the mammalian body and can preserve the isotopic fingerprint of an animal’s diet for millions of years,” says geochemist Tina Lüdecke, lead author of the study. Lüdecke has led the “Emmy-Noether Junior Research Group for Hominin Meat Consumption” at the Mainz-based Max Planck Institute for Chemistry since 2021 and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She regularly travels to Africa to sample fossilized teeth for her analysis. Wits University owns the Sterkfontein Caves and is the custodian of the Australopithecus fossils.
When animals digest food, biochemical reactions favor the “light” isotope of nitrogen (14N). Consequently, the degradation products that are produced in their body contain high proportions of 14N. The excretion of these “light” nitrogen compounds in urine, feces, or sweat increases the ratio of “heavy” nitrogen (15N) to this “light” nitrogen the body in comparison to the food it eats. This means that herbivores have a higher nitrogen isotope ratio than the plants they consume, while carnivores in turn have a higher nitrogen isotope ratio than their prey. Therefore, the higher the 15N to 14N ratio in a tissue sample, the higher is the trophic position of the organism in the food web.
Nitrogen isotope ratios have long been used to study the diets of modern animals and humans in hair, claws, bones and many other organic materials. However, in fossil material, these measurements have previously been limited to samples that are only a few tens of thousands of years old due to the degradation of organic material over time. In this study, Tina Lüdecke used a novel technique developed in Alfredo Martínez-García’s laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, to measure nitrogen isotopes ratios in fossilized tooth enamel that is millions of years old.
Evidence of mostly plant-based food
The team of researchers found that the nitrogen isotope ratios in the tooth enamel of Australopithecus varied, but were consistently low, similar to those of herbivores, and much lower than those of contemporary carnivores. They conclude that the diet of these hominins was variable but consisted largely or exclusively of plant-based food. Therefore, Australopithecus did not regularly hunt large mammals like, for example, the Neanderthals did a few million years later. While the researchers cannot completely rule out the possibility of occasional consumption of animal protein sources like eggs or termites, the evidence indicates a diet that was predominantly vegetarian.
Further research on fossilized tooth enamel
Lüdecke’s team plans to expand their research, collecting more data from different hominin species and time periods. They aim to examine fossils from other key sites in eastern and southern Africa as well as southeast Asia to explore when meat consumption began, how it evolved, and whether it provided an evolutionary advantage for our ancestors.
“This method opens up exciting possibilities for understanding human evolution, and it has the potential to answer crucial questions, for example, when did our ancestors begin to incorporate meat in their diet? And was the onset of meat consumption linked to an increase in brain volume?” says Alfredo Martínez-García, from the Max Planck institute for Chemistry.
“This work represents a huge step in extending our ability to better understand diets and trophic level of all animals back into the scale of millions of years. The research provides clear evidence that its diet did not contain significant amounts of meat. We are honored that the pioneering application of this new method was spearheaded at Sterkfontein, a site that continues to make fundamental contributions to science even 89 years after the first hominin fossils were discovered there by Robert Broom,” says Professor Dominic Stratford, Director of Research at the Sterkfontein Caves and co-author of the paper.
The study was funded by the Max Planck Society. Tina Lüdecke’s research group is supported by the Emmy Noether program of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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Hand-drawn illustration of two of the seven sampled molars from Australopithecus. Dom Jack, MPIC
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The Sterkfontein excavation site, which exposes the ancient deposits that once formed underground and contain Australopithecus fossils. The fossil-bearing red sediments clearly contrast with the grey dolomite of the cave walls and remnant roof of the chamber. Dominic Stratford
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Tina Lüdecke stands beside “Little Foot,” a remarkably well-preserved skeleton of Australopithecus discovered in the Sterkfontein Cave, celebrated as the most complete pre-human skeleton ever found. In her research, however, Lüdecke and her team primarily work with isolated fossilized tooth fragments. Bernhard Zipfel/Wits University
*Australopithecus at Sterkfontein did not consume substantial mammalian meat, Science, 16-Jan-2025. 10.1126/science.adq7315
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University of Copenhagen – Faculty of Humanities—Throughout history, volcanic eruptions have had serious consequences for human societies such as cold weather, lack of sun, and low crop yields. In the year 43 BC when a volcano in Alaska spewed large quantities of sulphur into the stratosphere, harvests failed the following years in the countries around the Mediterranean, causing famine and disease. This is well-documented in written sources from ancient Greece and Rome.
We do not have written sources from the Neolithic. But climate scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have analyzed ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet and can now document that around 2,900 BC a similar volcanic eruption took place. An eruption that must have had equally devastating consequences for the Neolithic peoples who lived in Northern Europe at the time and who were deeply dependent on agriculture.
This new insight into a climate episode in the Neolithic period has led archaeologists from the University of Copenhagen, the National Museum of Denmark and the Museum of Bornholm to view their findings of so-called “sun stones” from the Neolithic Vasagård site on Bornholm in a new light, and they have just published a scientific article on the phenomenon in the journal Antiquity:
“We have known for a long time that the sun was the focal point for the early agricultural cultures we know of in Northern Europe. They farmed the land and depended on the sun to bring home the harvest. If the sun almost disappeared due to mist in the stratosphere for longer periods of time, it would have been extremely frightening for them,” says archaeologist Rune Iversen from the University of Copenhagen, who has participated in the excavations at the site led by the Museum of Bornholm and the National Museum. He adds:
“One type of find that is completely unique to Bornholm is the so-called sun stones, which are flat shale pieces with engraved patterns and sun motifs. They symbolized fertility and were probably sacrificed to ensure sun and growth. Sun stones were found in large quantities at the Vasagård West site, where residents deposited them in ditches forming part of a causewayed enclosure together with the remains of ritual feasts in the form of animal bones, broken clay vessels, and flint objects around 2,900 BC. The ditches were subsequently closed.”
Rune Iversen and his colleagues believe that there is a very high probability that there is a connection between the volcanic eruption, the subsequent climate changes and the discovery of the ritual sun stone sacrifices.
“It is reasonable to believe that the Neolithic people on Bornholm wanted to protect themselves from further deterioration of the climate by sacrificing sun stones – or perhaps they wanted to show their gratitude that the sun had returned again.”
Major cultural changes As if an acute climate deterioration around 2,900 BC was not enough, Northern European Neolithic cultures were also affected by other disasters; New DNA studies of human bones have shown that the plague was very widespread and fatal.
During the same period when the Neolithic people were affected by both climate change and disease, archaeologists can also document a shift in the traditions they had held on to for a long time. The so-called Funnel Beaker Culture, which had been dominant until about 5,000 years ago with its characteristic ceramics and passage graves, was gradually disappearing.
“At the causewayed enclosure we have excavated on Bornholm, we can also see that, after the sacrifice of the sun stones, the residents changed the structure of the site so that instead of sacrificial ditches it was provided with extensive rows of palisades and circular cult houses. We do not know why, but it is reasonable to believe that the dramatic climatic changes they had been exposed to would have played a role in some way, Rune Iversen concludes.
Sun stones to be exhibited in Copenhagen Four of the sun stones from Vasagård on Bornholm can be experienced from 28 January in the prehistoric exhibition at The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. They probably exemplify one of the earliest depositional practices connected to a Neolithic sun-cult in South Scandinavia, which are also known from the Nordic Bronze Age with objects like the sun chariot.
“The sunstones are completely unique, also in a European context. The closest we get to a similar sun-cult in the Neolithic is some passage graves in southern Scandinavia or henge structures like Stonehenge in England, which some researchers associate with the sun. With the sun stones, there is in my mind no doubt. It is quite simply an incredible discovery, which demonstrates that depositions honoring the sun is an ancient phenomenon, which we encounter again in South Scandinavia during the climate disaster caused by a volcanic eruption in the year 536 AD, where several large gold hoards were deposited as sacrifices,” says Lasse Vilien Sørensen, who is senior researcher at The National Museum of Denmark and co-author of the research paper.
Volcanic eruption 2,900 BC The researchers can document reduced radiation from the sun and consequent cooling, which can be traced in both the United States and Europe around 2,900 BC.
Dendrochronological analyses of fossil wood show signs of frost in the spring and summer months both before and after 2,900 BC.
And ice cores from the Greenland ice cap and the Antarctica contain sulphur, which is a sign of the occurrence of a strong volcanic eruption.
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Two so-called sun stones, which are small flat shale pieces with finely incised patterns and sun motifs. They are known only from the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. National Museum of Denmark
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The archaeological site Vasagård is located on Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. University of Copenhagen
*Sun stones and the darkened sun: Neolithic miniature art from the island of Bornholm, Denmark, Antiquity, 16-Jan-2025. 10.15184/aqy.2024.217
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Griffith University—An early human ancestor of our species successfully navigated harsher and more arid terrains for longer in Eastern Africa than previously thought, according to a new study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
Homo erectus, the first of our relatives to have human-like proportions and the first known early human to migrate out of Africa, was the focus of the new study led by the international research team.
The researchers analyzed evidence from Engaji Nanyori in Tanzania’s Oldupai Gorge, revealing Homo erectus thrived in hyper-arid landscapes one million years ago – well before our species, Homo sapiens, emerged.
“Now extinct, Homo erectus existed more than an estimated 1.5 million years, marking them as a species survival success in the human evolution story when compared with our own estimated existence of around 300,000 years to date,” Professor Michael Petraglia said, Director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University.
“That success came down to their ability to survive over a long period marked by many changes to the environment and climate,” noted the lead author, Professor Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary.
Using biogeochemical analyses, chronometric dating, palaeoclimate simulations, biome modelling, fire history reconstructions, palaeobotanical studies, faunal assemblages, and archaeological evidence, the research team reconstructed an environment dominated by semidesert shrubland.
Despite the challenges of these conditions, Homo erectus repeatedly occupied landscapes created by rivers and streams, leveraging water sources and ecological focal points to mitigate risk.
These findings suggest archaic humans possessed an ecological flexibility previously attributed only to later hominins.
“Debate has long centred on when the genus Homo acquired the adaptability to thrive in extreme environments such as deserts and rainforests,” said Dr Abel Shikoni of the University of Dodoma, Tanzania.
“Traditionally, only Homo sapiens was thought capable of sustained occupation in such ecosystems, with archaic hominins seen as restricted to narrower ranges”.
“However, the biogeochemical, palaeoenvironmental, and archaeological evidence we analysed suggests early Homo had the ability to adapt to diverse and unstable environments from the East African Rift floor and Afromontane areas as early as two million years ago,” Professor Petraglia said.
“This adaptive profile, marked by resilience in arid zones, challenges assumptions about early hominin dispersal limits and positions Homo erectus as a versatile generalist and the first hominin to transcend environmental boundaries on a global scale.”
“This adaptability likely facilitated the expansion of Homo erectus into the arid regions of Africa and Eurasia, redefining their role as ecological generalists thriving in some of the most challenging landscapes of the Middle Pleistocene,” said Professor Paul Durkin of the University of Manitoba.
Excavations in foreground and background at Engaji Nanyori, Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania, in 2022, conducted by Masai landowners and project members. Julio Mercader
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Selected stone tools from Engaji Nanyori. Julio Mercader
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A model of the face of an adult female Homo erectus, one of the first truly human ancestors of modern man, on display in the Hall of Human Origins in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Reconstruction by John Gurche; photographed by Tim Evanson. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
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Trinity College Dublin—An international team of geneticists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin, has joined forces with archaeologists from Bournemouth University to decipher the structure of British Iron Age society, finding evidence of female political and social empowerment.
The researchers seized upon a rare opportunity to sequence DNA from many members of a single community. They retrieved over 50 ancient genomes from a set of burial grounds in Dorset, southern England, in use before and after the Roman Conquest of AD 43. The results revealed that this community was centered around bonds of female-line descent.
Dr Lara Cassidy, Assistant Professor in Trinity’s Department of Genetics, led the study* that has been published in the leading international journal Naturetoday. She said: “This was the cemetery of a large kin group. We reconstructed a family tree with many different branches and found most members traced their maternal lineage back to a single woman, who would have lived centuries before. In contrast, relationships through the father’s line were almost absent.
“This tells us that husbands moved to join their wives’ communities upon marriage, with land potentially passed down through the female line. This is the first time this type of system has been documented in European prehistory and it predicts female social and political empowerment.
“It’s relatively rare in modern societies, but this might not always have been the case.”
Incredibly, the team found that this type of social organization, termed “matrilocality”, was not just restricted to Dorset. They sifted through data from prior genetic surveys of Iron Age Britain and, although sample numbers from other cemeteries were smaller, they saw the same pattern emerge again and again.
Dan Bradley, Professor of Population Genetics in Trinity’s Department of Genetics, and a co-author of the study, added: “Across Britain we saw cemeteries where most individuals were maternally descended from a small set of female ancestors. In Yorkshire, for example, one dominant matriline had been established before 400 BC. To our surprise, this was a widespread phenomenon with deep roots on the island.”
Iron Age cemeteries with well-preserved burials are rare in Britain. Dorset is an exception, due to the unique burial customs of the people who lived there, named as the “Durotriges” by the Romans. The researchers sampled DNA from a site near the village of Winterborne Kingston, nicknamed “Duropolis”, which archaeologists from Bournemouth University have been excavating since 2009. Previously, the team had observed the more richly furnished Durotrigan burials to be those of women.
Dr Miles Russell, the excavation’s director and co-author on the study, commented: “Beyond archaeology, knowledge of Iron Age Britain has come primarily from the Greek and Roman writers, but they are not always considered the most trustworthy. That said, their commentary on British women is remarkable in light of these findings. When the Romans arrived, they were astonished to find women occupying positions of power. Two of the earliest recorded rulers were queens – Boudica and Cartimandua – who commanded armies.
“It’s been suggested that the Romans exaggerated the liberties of British women to paint a picture of an untamed society. But archaeology, and now genetics, implies women were influential in many spheres of Iron Age life. Indeed, it is possible that maternal ancestry was the primary shaper of group identities.”
Anthropologist Dr Martin Smith, one of the project’s bone specialists, added: “These results give us a whole new way of looking at the burials we are uncovering with our students. Rather than simply seeing a set of skeletons, hidden aspects of these people’s lives and identities come into view as mothers, husbands, daughters and so on. We also see these folk had deep knowledge of their own ancestry – multiple marriages between distant branches of this family occurred and were possibly favoured, but close inbreeding was avoided.”
Echoing the writings of Julius Caesar, the researchers further uncovered a footprint of Iron Age migration into coastal southern England, which had gone undetected in prior genetic studies. This will add more fuel to debates surrounding the arrival of Celtic language in Britain.
Dr Cassidy explained: “Migration into Britain during the later Bronze Age has previously been detected, leading some to hypothesize that Celtic language arrived during this period. But our results point towards substantial cross-channel mobility during the Iron Age as well. Narrowing down the arrival time of Celtic will be difficult. Indeed, it is quite possible that Celtic languages were introduced to Britain on more than one occasion.”
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Durotrigian burial of a young woman from Langton Herring sampled for DNA (c) Bournemouth University. She was buried with a mirror (right panels) and jewellery, including a Roman coin amulet showing a female charioteer representing Victory. Bournemouth University
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Excavating a Late Iron Age Durotriges burial at Winterborne Kingston (c) Bournemouth University. Bournemouth University
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In the latest released episode of Dr. Ester Salgarella’s podcast series, Aegean Connections, Marie Louise Nosch, Professor of ancient history at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, relates the significance of textiles and their production and commerce in the Bronze Age palatial societies of the Mediterranean. She does this by discussing how the reading and analysis of Linear B, the ancient script of the Mycenaeancivilization, has revealed a surprising amount of information about the making, trade distribution, business and value of textiles as a prominent part of the economies of societies of the time.
“Textile production was the fuel of the Bronze Age economy”, says Nosch in the podcast interview.
Indeed, at least among the elite in the even earlier Minoan cities like Knossos in Crete and Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, the evidence for the sophistication and importance of textiles for clothing was clearly illustrated in the magnificent frescoes known today among the archaeological remains and collections of those sites.
Nosch also elaborates how Linear B texts have described in detail the stages of textile production, as well as the remarkable standardization and fixed cycles that defined broadly applied expectations in the world of textiles of the Mediterranean Bronze Age.
Cover Image, Top Left: Wall painting from the House of the Ladies in Akrotiri. An iconic example of the sophisticated and artful style of clothing made possible by the mastery and production of textiles during the Bronze Age.
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Far from the crunch of the madding crowd one typically encounters with the big Italian tourist sites in places like Rome, Florence, Venice, and Naples, a small group of travelers will have the opportunity to explore spectacular off-the-beaten-path sites scattered across the Italian provinces of Umbria and Tuscany. The sites, mostly situated at or near aesthetically scenic and historic Medieval and Etruscan hilltop towns and villages, will define a picture of the Etruscans, the ancient civilization that preceded the Romans. The Etruscans dominated most of the Italian peninsula for centuries, and heavily influenced the culture and character of the civilization that eventually became the Roman Empire.
What distinguishes this tour from most other tours revolves around one human activity — walking. Rather than shuttling large groups of tourists from one congested site after another in chartered buses or vans, this comparatively smaller group will spend the majority of its time hiking across the countryside, taking ancient paths, roads and trails in between up-close-and-personal historic, cultural and archaeological sites that tell the story of the ancient Etruscans as well as the later Medieval and Roman periods.
“Unlike the typical tourist-type experience, this group will be hiking through country that most people, other than the local population, do not see. It will be a more intimate encounter with the landscape and people of ancient and historic Italy,” says Dan McLerran, founder and editor of Popular Archaeology Magazine. “Along with this, the mere act of walking has a profound impact on personal health, both physically and mentally/emotionally. In our mad dash in life to tick off the tasks we have created for ourselves in this life, we forget to ‘smell the flowers’ and nurture closer relationships with others along the way — the very things that make life worth living.”
The trip plan, created and operated by Wayfaring Walks, will take participants to towns that feature ancient and Medieval architecture set high atop rocky, cliff-like formations, as well as anciently-carved and constructed tombs and underground habitations beneath.
“Along with developing new relationships with like-minded people participating in the walk, this will be a photographer’s paradise, so if you are into creating distinctive and artistic images with your camera, this will be an excellent opportunity to do so,” added McLerran.
The towns the group will encounter are among the most scenically picturesque in Italy, affording views not encountered by most vacationing visitors. Moreover, the experience promises to focus on education as well, expanding the participant’s understanding of the ancient and historic cultures encountered.
The walk is open to anyone interested, although individuals who are premium subscribers to Popular Archaeology Magazine will be offered a $500 discount on the trip price (for the first 4 who register). Participants should know that the walking/hiking element of this tour is NOT mandatory. If for any reason a person cannot or does not wish to do some or all of the walk aspect of the tour, arrangements can be made with the tour leader and manager to do limited independent explorations of the towns and sites on the travel itinerary.
A team of students led by archaeologist Luca Nejrotti recently unearthed two previously undiscovered features among ancient Etruscan tombs in Tuscany, Italy. During the summer of 2024, in collaboration with the Archaeological Park “Città del Tufo”, the team, consisting of archaeologists, students and local volunteers, revisited six Etruscan tombs nestled for more than 2500 years within the area known as the Via Cava di San Sebastiano, near the town of Solano.
The team revisited a number of 7th – 6th century BC tombs carved anciently into the area’s characteristic volcanic tufa rock, already explored and exposed by Roman looting and 19th and 20th century digging. At the end of their season, they uncovered two previously unknown features left untouched for more than 2500 years — a ritual pit and a funerary niche. The ritual pit contained a double-handled bowl and four dishes, and the funerary niche, sealed with terra-cotta tiles, revealed nine ceramic vessels, spindle whorls, and a bronze fragment.
According to lead archaeologist Nejrotti, the finds “represent an exceptional testimony to the religious practices associated with funerary offerings”.
Although the details of ancient Etruscan religious practices and culture are not as well known as those of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their tombs have revealed the significance of religious beliefs and practices in their society.
The Etruscans were an ancient people who preceded the Romans and inhabited current day central Italy from around 900 BC to roughly 100 BC. They possessed a common language and culture but governed themselves independently through federations of city-states (three confederacies in all: Etruria (today’s Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and the area known today as Campania. At its greatest extent, Etruria covered what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Lazio, the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
More about the team’s work and results can be found in the major feature articlerecently published in the winter 2025 issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.
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Excavating the ritual pit. Courtesy Luca Nejrotti
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The funerary niche after the removal of the tiles. Courtesy Luca Nejrotti
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EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON! Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!
Estonian Research Council—The North Pontic region, which encompasses present-day Ukraine, was for centuries a crossroads of migration from multiple directions, connecting the vast Eurasian Steppe with Central Europe.
A study recently published in Science Advances uses ancient human remains to reveal the remarkably high genetic heterogeneity in the region during the last 3,500 years up to around 500 years ago. The study is led by Lehti Saag, a researcher at the University of Tartu Institute of Genomics (UT IG) and a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at University College London (UCL), alongside professor Mark Thomas from UCL and Pontus Skoglund from the Francis Crick Institute. The study was made possible by the resilience of Ukrainian researchers – second author Olga Utevska who is currently a MSCA4Ukraine fellow at UT IG, and numerous archaeologists still actively conducting excavations in Ukraine despite the war.
The analyses show that at the end of the Bronze Age, broad-scale ancestry proportions are similar to contemporary populations in the rest of Europe – a mixture of European hunter-gatherer, Anatolian early farmer and Steppe pastoralist ancestries – and these ancestry components have been present in the Ukraine region since then until today. However, from the Early Iron Age until the Middle Ages, the appearance of eastern nomads in the Pontic region became a regular occurrence. Their genetic composition varied from Steppe-like superimposed on the locals to high degrees of East Asian ancestry with minimal local admixture.
At the same time, individuals from the rest of the Ukrainian region had ancestry mostly from different regions in Europe. The palimpsest created by migration and population mixing in the Ukraine region will have contributed to the high genetic heterogeneity in geographically, culturally and socially homogeneous groups, with different genetic profiles present at the same site, at the same time and among individuals with the same archaeological association.
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Scythian burial at the Skorobir necropolis in the fortified settlement of Bilski. Iryna Shramko
*North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period, Science Advances, 8-Jan-2025. 10.1126/sciadv.adr0695
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—Researchers used lasers to reveal highly detailed tattoos on 1,200-year-old mummies from Peru. Mummified human remains from pre-Hispanic South America provide evidence of a long history of tattooing in the region. The ink used in tattoos tends to bleed and fade with age, a process further exacerbated by mummification, rendering the original designs difficult to discern. Michael Pittman and colleagues used laser-stimulated fluorescence to study approximately 1,200-year-old tattoos on mummified individuals belonging to the pre-Columbian Chancay culture in present-day coastal Peru. The authors inspected more than 100 mummified individuals for tattoos. The preserved skin of the mummified individuals fluoresced brightly, in contrast with the black tattoo ink. The resulting high-contrast images virtually eliminated the effects of ink bleed, revealing previously hidden details of the tattoo designs. The complex geometric and zoomorphic patterns were inked with a finely pointed object, possibly a single cactus needle or sharpened animal bone. The authors note that the artistic details and precision of the tattoos exceed that of contemporary Chancay pottery, textiles, and rock art, suggesting that some tattoos were the product of special effort. According to the authors, the findings provide insight into the artistic development and complexity found in pre-Columbian South America.
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1,200-year-old mummified forearm under laser-stimulated fluorescence revealing details of tattoo designs. Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye
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1,200-year-old mummified hand featuring tattoos. Michael Pittman and Thomas G Kaye
*“Hidden artistic complexity of Peru’s Chancay culture discovered in tattoos by laser-stimulated fluorescence,” by Thomas G. Kaye, Judyta Bąk, Henry William Marcelo, and Michael Pittman, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 13-Jan-2025. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421517122
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Cranfield University—A Cranfield University, UK, academic has used drone mapping to investigate a 3000-year-old ‘mega fortress’ in the Caucasus mountains. Dr Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Science at Cranfield Forensic Institute, has been researching the site since 2018 with Dimitri Jachvliani, his co-director from the Georgian National Museum, revealing details that re-shape our understanding of the site and contribute to a global reassessment of ancient settlement growth and urbanism.
Fortress settlements in the South Caucasus appeared between 1500-500 BCE, and represent an unprecedented development in the prehistory of the regions. Situated at the boundary between Europe, the Eurasian Steppe, and the Middle East, the Caucasus region has a long history as a cultural crossroads with distinctive local identities.
Research on the fortress – named Dmanisis Gora – began with test excavations on a fortified promontory between two deep gorges. A subsequent visit in Autumn, when the knee-high high summer grasses had died back, revealed that the site was much larger than originally thought. Scattered across a huge area outside the inner fortress were the remains of additional fortification walls and other stone structures. Because of its size, it was impossible to get a sense of the site as a whole from the ground.
“That was what sparked the idea of using a drone to assess the site from the air,” commented Dr Erb-Satullo. “The drone took nearly 11,000 pictures which were knitted together using advanced software to produce high-resolution digital elevation models and orthophotos – composite pictures that show every point as if you were looking straight down.
“These datasets enabled us to identify subtle topographic features and create accurate maps of all the fortification walls, graves, field systems, and other stone structures within the outer settlement. The results of this survey showed that the site was more than 40 times larger than originally thought, including a large outer settlement defended by a 1km long fortification wall.”
The research team used a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone which can provide relative positional accuracy of under 2cm as well as extremely high-resolution aerial imagery. In order to obtain a highly accurate map of human-made features, the team carefully checked each feature in the aerial imagery to confirm its identification.
To understand how the landscape of the site had evolved, the orthophotos were compared with 50-year-old photos taken by a Cold War-era spy satellite declassified in 2013. That gave researchers much needed insight into which features were recent, which were older. It also enabled researchers to assess what areas of the ancient settlement were damaged by modern agriculture. All of those data sets were merged in Geographic Information System (GIS) software, helping to identify patterns and changes in the landscape.
“The use of drones has allowed us to understand the significance of the site and document it in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible on the ground” said Dr Erb-Satullo. ”Dmanisis Gora isn’t just a significant find for the Southern Caucasus region, but has a broader significance for the diversity in the structure of large scale settlements and their formation processes. We hypothesize that Dmanisis Gora expanded because of its interactions with mobile pastoral groups, and its large outer settlement may have expanded and contracted seasonally. With the site now extensively mapped, further study will start to provide insights into areas such as population density and intensity, livestock movements and agricultural practices, among others.”
This data will give researchers new insights into Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age societies, and how these communities functioned. Since the aerial survey was completed, Dr. Erb-Satullo has been carrying out further excavations at the site, uncovering tens of thousands of pottery shards, animal bones, and other artefacts that tell us more about the society that built this fortress.
This work* has been funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund and the British Institute at Ankara.
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Atmospheric photo of the site at dusk, showing the location at the convergence of two gorges. 2023 excavations of inner fortress are visible in foreground. Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
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Photo of structures in the outer settlement, 1km long fortification wall is visible in upper left. Nathaniel Erb-Satullo
PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 2025—In conflict zones like Syria and Ukraine, erasure is a part of systematic genocide and cultural cleansing, but a new exhibition shifts the focus to cultural heritage restoration through community-led excavation—Preserving Assyriashowcases archaeology’s role in safeguarding cultural heritage from targeted destruction.
With 16 objects on display from the Penn Museum’s collection, touchable 3D replicas of monumental relief carvings, and interactive multimedia components, this exhibition will be on view in the Merle-Smith Galleries on the Lower Level starting Saturday, February 8, 2025.
One of the world’s earliest empires, Assyria represents a crucial part of Iraq’s cultural identity, which the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attempted to erase by destroying many Mesopotamian monuments in 2016––one of which was Mashki Gate in the ancient city of Nineveh (near Mosul in Northern Iraq).
With a long history of collaborating with the Iraqi researchers and officials, exhibition curators Dr. Michael Danti, Program Director of the Iraq Heritage Stabilization Program, and Dr. Richard L. Zettler, Director Emeritus, intend to spotlight the groundbreaking archaeological discoveries at Mashki Gate, and underscore how collaborative excavations center the cultural heritage priorities of the local people.
“Working closely with our Iraqi colleagues and local communities, scientific field archaeology is playing a key role in recovery efforts in Iraq, shedding new light on ancient cultures and, at the same time, enabling us to reconstruct damaged sites in more authentic and sustainable ways,” Dr. Danti explains. “Our main goal is to re-establish and enhance access to cultural heritage as a fundamental human right.”
One of the biggest discoveries since the 19th century are superbly preserved marble reliefs unearthed at Mashki Gate. They date back to an Assyrian king, Sennacherib, who ruled Nineveh from 705 to 681 BCE. As the original skillfully carved panels, depicting finely chiseled war scenes, mountains, grape vines, and palm trees remain in Iraq, visitors will be able to view intricate replicas, made via 3D scanning,of segments from these extraordinary reliefs.
“…These panels can become a celebrated cultural and archaeological attraction for Iraqis and international tourists. Personally, I have longed to touch our ancestors’ artifacts on museum visits in the West. Now, with these panels restored by Iraqi hands, I can experience the joy of physically connecting with our heritage and marvel at the skill and dedication of ancient artists,” explains Iraqi Assyriologist Dr. Ali al-Jabouri, Professor Emeritus at University of Mosul.
To chart the story of the Neo-Assyrian empire and its deep significance to Iraq’s heritage, the exhibition will feature a timeline of Assyrian history; digital reconstructions of what the ancient city once looked like; illustrations of King Sennacherib’s palace; and images from current excavations that offer “day-in-the-life” glimpses of archaeologists-in-action.
Preserving Assyria will illuminate select artifacts from the Penn Museum’s Near East collections, such as a stamp-inscribed brick from Tell Yarah, Iraq (near Mosul) written in the Sumerian language (911-612 BCE); a Sumerian clay tablet that contains ancient spells to ward off witchcraft (1900-1600 BCE); a glazed terracotta wall tile from Hasanlu, Iran (1000–800 BCE), cylinder seals made of quartz and marble; and a protective amulet made of carnelian.
Public programs related to the new exhibition include a special Curator’s Lectureon February 8 at 2:00 pm in Rainey Auditorium, as well as an engaging four-week online class, The Deep Dig: The Rise and Fall of Assyria, led by Dr. Michael Danti beginning March 6.
Included with Museum admission,Preserving Assyria will be on view through February 2026.
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Opening at the Penn Museum on Feb. 8, 2025, the Preserving Assyria exhibition will showcase a rendering of a restored palace wall in Nineveh. Photo_ Penn Museum.jpg
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The remarkably preserved reliefs discovered at the Mashki Gate in Nineveh offer exquisite detail. Portions of this have been 3D scanned and replicas will be on display as a part of Preserving Assyria at the Penn Museum. Opening Feb. 8, 2025 Photo_ Penn Museum.jpg
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This Mashki Gate marble relief shows a high-ranking captive of the Assyrians during a military campaign. Portions of this have been 3D scanned and replicas will be on display as a part of Preserving Assyria at the Penn Museum. Opening Feb. 8, 2025. Photo_ Penn Museum.jpg
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The U.S.-Iraqi excavation team continue their work to protect and preserve cultural heritage. Opening Feb. 8, 2025, a new exhibition, Preserving Assyria, highlights the Penn Museum’s cultural preservation work in Iraq. Photo-Penn Museum.jpeg
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Penn’s Dr. Michael Danti cleans one of the seven ancient reliefs found at Nineveh. Photo-Penn Museum.jpeg
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An international team of Iraqi archaelogists, alongside researchers from the Penn Museum, uncover the 6.5-foot-high monumental doors ot an Assyrian king’s palace. Photo_ Michael Danti, Penn Museum.JPG
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ABOUT THE PENN MUSEUM
The Penn Museum’s mission is to be a center for inquiry and the ongoing exploration of humanity for our University of Pennsylvania, regional, national, and global communities, following ethical standards and practices.
Through conducting research, stewarding collections, creating learning opportunities, sharing stories, and creating experiences that expand access to archaeology and anthropology, the Museum builds empathy and connections across diverse cultures.
The Penn Museum is open Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm. On first Wednesdays of the month, it is open until 8:00 pm. The Café is open Tuesday–Thursday, 9:00 am–3:00 pm and Friday and Saturday, 10:00 am–2:00 pm. On Sundays, the Café is open 10:30 am–2:30 pm. For information, visit www.penn.museum, call 215.898.4000, or follow @PennMuseum on social media.
EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON! Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!
University of Liverpool—The University of Liverpool has led an international team of scientists to take a fresh look at the running capabilities of Australopithecus afarensis, the early human ancestor famously represented by the fossil ‘Lucy’.
Karl Bates, Professor of Musculoskeletal Biology, convened experts from institutions across the UK and the Netherlands. Together they used cutting-edge computer simulations to uncover how this ancient species ran, using a digital model of ‘Lucy’s’ skeleton.
Previous work on the fossilized footprints of Australopithecus by multiple research teams has suggested that Lucy probably walked relatively upright and much more like a human than a chimpanzee. These new findings demonstrate that Lucy’s overall body shape limited running speed relative to modern humans and therefore support the hypothesis that the human body evolved to improve running performance, with top speed being a more critical driver than previously thought.
Professor Bates said: “When Lucy was discovered 50 years ago, it was by far the most complete skeleton of an early human ancestor. Lucy is a fascinating fossil because it captures what you might call an intermediate stage in Homo sapiens’ evolution. Lucy bridges the gap between our more tree-dwelling ancestors and modern humans, who walk and run efficiently on two legs.
“By simulating running performance in Australopithecus and modern humans with computer models, we’ve been able to address questions about the evolution of running in our ancestors.
“For decades scientists have debated whether more economical walking ability or improved running performance was the primary factor that drove the evolution of many distinctly human characteristics, such as longer legs and shorter arms, stronger leg bones and our arched feet. By illustrating how Australopithecus walked and ran, we have started to answer these questions.”
The team used computer-based movement simulations to model the biomechanics and energetics of running in Australopithecus afarensis, alongside a model of a human. In both the Australopithecus and human models, the team ran multiple simulations where various features thought to be important to modern human running, like larger leg muscles and a long Achilles Tendon, were added and removed, thereby digitally replaying evolutionary events to see how they impact running speed and energy use.
Muscles and other soft tissues are not preserved in fossils, so palaeontologists don’t know how large ‘Lucy’s’ leg muscles and other important parameters were. However, these new digital models varied the muscle properties from chimpanzee-like to human-like, producing a range of estimates for running speed and economy.
The simulations reveal that while Lucy was capable of running upright on both legs, her maximum speeds were significantly slower than those of modern humans. In fact, even the fastest speed the team predicted for Lucy (in a model with very human-like muscles) remained relatively modest at just 11mph (18kph). This is much slower than elite human sprinters, which reach peak speeds of more than 20mph (38kph). The models show the range of intermediate (‘jogging’) speeds that animals use to run longer distances (‘endurance running’) was also very restricted, perhaps suggesting that Australopithecus didn’t engage in the kind of long-distance hunting activities thought to be important to the earliest humans.
Professor Bates continued: “Our results highlight the importance of muscle anatomy and body proportions in the development of running ability. Skeletal strength doesn’t seem to have been a limiting factor, but evolutionary changes to muscles and tendons played a major role in enhancing running speed and economy.
“As the 50th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery is celebrated, this study* not only sheds new light on her capabilities but also underscores how far modern science has come in unravelling the story of human evolution.”
The study, ‘Running performance in Australopithecus afarensis’ was published in Current Biology (DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.025).
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Reconstruction of “Lucy”, Warsaw Museum of Evolution. Shalom, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
*Running performance in Australopithecus afarensis, Current Biology, 6-Jan-2025. 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.025
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Bolsena, Italy — As I walked near the shores of this glistening, crystal blue lake, I could easily see why it draws thousands of visitors every year. Boats large and small lined its docks. On this day they were quiet and still. Tourist season was already behind me. Though comfortably warm, hints of the crispness of new fall air were present, yet the verdant landscape that surrounded the lake still displayed its deciduous green — the peek of fall colors were still at least two weeks away.
It is known to most as Lake Bolsena. But though this body of water is much like others that grace the Italian landscape, unlike the others, it boasts a distinctive and dramatic natural history — one that, unbeknownst to most of Europe’s visiting tourists, makes it the largest volcanic lake on the subcontinent. Created as a depression when the area collapsed after a massive subterranean magmatic chamber drained through volcanic eruptions hundreds of thousands of years ago, it then became a central feature of the geography. Even more significant, however, were the multiple associated eruptions that blanketed the surrounding region with volcanic material, creating a new geologic canvas that was shaped by erosion over the ensuing millennia into a dramatic landscape of steep, cavernous valleys and isolated vertical spurs or buttes of tuffaceous (tufa) rock.
The ancients built their high, defensible settlements atop these spurs, and today a remarkable natural and constructive composition of scenic historic hilltop cities and villages span the confluence of Italy’s regions of Umbria, Tuscany and Lazzio.
It was on one of these hilltop locations that I arrived on September 29, 2024 with a small group of travelers participating with a unique specialty tour company known as Wayfaring Walks. Typically taking small groups to places beyond the usual madding crowd destinations most tourists experience, Wayfaring Walks provides its clients with off-the-beaten-path hiking and walking opportunities through some of the world’s most breathtaking scenery and culturally stimulating sites.
The scenic town of Orvieto was one of those sites. Originally an Etruscan settlement and stronghold, it is thought that this was the location of the Etruscan city of Velzna, and there are still traces of the Etruscan occupation of the site. This was our first stop on what became a once-in-a-lifetime journey….
Day 1:Orvieto
Standing at the edge of a beautiful public park, I peered out and down at the panoramic landscape below me. This was a first for me. The old site of Orvieto sits atop a massive spur of tufa stone, much in form like the isolated buttes one sees in the American Southwest. Every point along the perimeter of Orvieto affords a breathtaking vista of the world around it, with what appears to be a nearly 90% verticality of stone from where one stands at the edge of the city to the adjacent verdant valley surface far below.
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A dramatic cliffside view from Orvieto.
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A view of a portion of the historic defensive wall/fortification at the edge of Orvieto.
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View of the landscape below from Orvieto.
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But what makes Orvieto unique are the incredible subterranean features dug and carved into and through the soft tufa stone beneath the urbanized surface. Our guide takes us first to the city’s iconic Pozzo di San Patrizio, or”Well of St. Patrick”. Dug and constructed between 1527 and 1537 at the request of Pope Clement VII, it was commissioned at least in part to serve as a secure water supply for the people of Orvieto during times of wartime siege, the name inspired by a medieval Irish legend of a pathway down to Purgatory. We entered the shaft of the well and proceeded slowly down the winding, interior stone steps. They were part of a unique double helix of stairs that wound down and back up the shaft. During medieval times, these stairs afforded teams of donkeys to carry water vessels down to the fresh pool of water at the bottom, and after having them filled, would then ascend back up the same set of stairs without ever crossing paths with the descending teams. It is a remarkable work of engineering and we had the exciting opportunity to experience the same movement as we stepped within its deep recesses centuries later. I counted 248 steps, pacing myself with some stops to rest along the way but marveling at the almost otherworldly atmosphere presented by the surrounding centuries-old stonework and 70 window openings that provided illumination from the outside.
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Above and below: inside the Pozzo di San Patrizio
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Later, beyond the well, we entered the complex labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, wells, and some of the more precisely carved-out rooms of the subterranean city that lay unseen beneath the streets and structures of Orvieto’s historic center. Only a small fraction of what has been documented to exist beneath the surface has been excavated and prepared for modern visitors. Our guide stepped us through that representative and publicly available space that hard digging and carving work performed by an untold number of laborers created through the distinctively characteristic soft and pliable tufa stone of the region. It made for ideal quarrying, in order to obtain material needed for construction above during medieval times.The walls and ceilings still showed the last gestures or movements of the workers in this place as they shaped the interior spaces with their pick axes centuries ago. Our guide shows us a place where the quarrying laborers came across an ancient Etruscan well. I peer down into its deep vertical recesses below, wondering what those medieval laborers must have thought about their discovery. Throughout previous excavations and exploratory investigations of this subterranean world, archaeologists have found the trace evidence of the original ancient Etruscan occupation of what must have been, and clearly was for its medieval occupants, a securely fortified and easily defensible bastion from potential enemies.
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In another cavernous space, the guide walks us through the remains of a medieval olive press. And in yet another, an amazingly large columbarium, where centuries before the town’s inhabitants raised and sustained birds to produce eggs for sustenance. This was an underground city that featured many of the elements of industry necessary for the economy of a thriving small population.
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The “Etruscan Well”.
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Olive Press
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Olive Press Millstone
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Above and below: subterranean columbarium
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At the surface, we walked through the scenic and medieval ambience of the city’s streets to what is one of Italy’s most iconic cathedrals, the remarkable duomo that has made Orvieto one of Italy’s must-see small towns. The duomo dominates the townscape and has been, since its first cornerstone was laid in 1290 AD, the heart and soul of Orvieto. The exterior of the structure is striped in white travertine and greenish-black basalt, much like the similar and equally iconic cathedral of Siena and other cathedrals in Italy of the time. Most visually stunning to me, however, was the duomo’s facade, graced with the work of master sculptor Lorenzo Maitani of the 14th century.
Inside the duomo, of special note is the Corporal of Bolsena, its story revolving around a eucharistic miracle in Bolsena in 1263, when a consecrated host began to bleed (yes, blood) onto a corporal (a small cloth upon which the host and chalice would rest during performance of the Mass). The miracle of the blood was believed to affirm the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation — the bread and wine literally becoming the Body and Blood of Christ during consecration in the Mass. The story is that the miraculous bleeding of the host occurred in the hands of an officiating priest who harbored doubts about the transubstantiation. The Corporal of Bolsena is preserved in a reliquary inside the duomo to this day.
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Above and below: the facade of the iconic Orvieto Duomo.
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Above and below: the Orvieto duomo, detail view.
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Inside the duomo, a testimony of faith and the story of the biblical account was represented through incredibly rendered wall paintings that decorated its interior spaces.
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Day 2: Following the Aqueduct, and the Dying City
Wayfaring Walks tours are best known for their almost daily walking and hiking elements, and this adventure was no exception. The highlight of our first full day after our Orvieto town experience centered on what our guide leader described as what would be the most rigorous test of our walking/hiking skills and stamina — the woodland trail adjacent to the 13th century aqueduct that overlooked Orvieto. Two of our group, for a variety of reasons, chose not to participate in this particular walk, which is the option for any person who walks with Wayfaring Walks. We began this trek on relatively level ground, but soon came to a point where we branched away and up a broad trail along the old aqueduct. The hike was almost totally uphill, a modest cardiovascular experience challenging our strength and endurance. But the natural woodland scenery along the way was well worth the effort, and with our very able and knowledgeable guide, Alessandro Tombelli, with us, it became a journey into the lush diversity of flora that graced our path on either side. Alessandro is an expert gardener and human storehouse of information about the plant life of Italy. We learned and marveled as much about the plants and trees around us as the occasional villas and historic structures we observed along the path. At one point, we stopped near a level clearing near a large agricultural field and enjoyed a panoramic view of old Orvieto in the distance.
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View of Orvieto in the distance from our trail.
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The end of our hike brought us to another parklike clearance with picnic tables among the shade of trees to enjoy a thoughtfully prepared snack of fresh fruit, bread, drinks, and other food items. It was a welcome and, for us, well-earned break. Conversational camaraderie here began to build the bonds of our group that would last for the rest of our tour.
Following lunch, a very short walk to the nearby site of the well-preserved, hidden, 5th century BC underground tomb of an ancient Etruscan noble family, today known as the Hescanas Tomb, greeted the curiosity of our minds. The Hescanas Tomb is famed for the rich traces of fresco illustrations on its interior walls. Little is known about this, obviously wealthy noble family, other than the evidence indicating that it must have been an influential or well-regarded force in the area’s society in their time. The tomb was closed to us on this day, unfortunately, as it was temporarily closed off as necessary work was being performed in and around the tomb structure.
From here, our group was transported to the modern town of Civita di Bagnoregio, where we enjoyed a large lunch in one of the town’s many choice restaurants, before proceeding on for a group walk through town to the entrance to the iconic old medieval town of the same name. Few towns in Italy can compare to the scenic eye-candy of this imposing hilltop settlement. From a distance, it is a breathtaking example of the quintessential hilltop settlement with roots reaching back to Etruscan times. Photographic images are immediately eye-catching, but this is a place that must be visited physically in person to capture the full magic of this ingenuous and imaginative architectural creation at the pinnacle of an almost skyscraper-like geologic formation.
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First view of Civita di Bagnoregio.
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Civita di Bagnoregio has to be earned: a long ascending walk to the breathtaking (literally) hilltop town.
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The church in the center of Civita di Bagnoregio was built during medeival times but the facade was remodeled during the Renaissance.
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To approach it and enter the gate of this citadel, one must traverse a long incline, a ramp-like suspended road construction that ends just before one winds around to the stone entrance gate. It is hard to get lost inside, for it is a small, simple settlement with a central church and medieval period houses that fill every square inch of its characteristically storybook visualpresence. This is a place, both outside and in, that any imaginative filmmaker would say was made for a jaw-dropping backdrop.
A refreshing gelato punctuated my rest after the walk up to and through the gate to the town’s central square, or piazza. Afterwards, it took me only 30 minutes to walk every square foot within its walled space, and at every interior edge of the site open to view was a magnificent view of the steep, cavernous, and verdant terrain surrounding it.
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Above and below: walking through Civita di Bagnoregio, one can see it is almost entirely medieval in its appearance.
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The view outward from the edge of the town.
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Interestingly, it has been called “the dying city”, as the underlying clay foundation of the rocky spur that supports the town is eroding much faster than the volcanic tufa stone above the clay, seriously undermining its continuing stability. Many years from now, unless measures are taken to rescue the town, its collapsed wonder will lie in ruins far below its present level. A sad future for a magnificent site.
Day 3: The Pilgrim’s Trail and Lake Bolsena
The Camino de Santiago pilgrims trail, also known as the Way of St. James, is Europe’s best known network of pilgrimage routes, leading to the shrine of the apostle James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, where many believe the apostle James was ultimately buried. Somewhat less known but equally historic in its significance is theVia Francigena (“the road that comes from France”), an ancient pilgrimage route beginning at the Canterbury Cathedral in England and winding through France and Switzerland to Rome and then to Apulia, Italy, where the pilgrims would embark by sea for the Holy Land. In medieval times, this was the route used by those wishing to visit the Holy See and the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul.
It was on a portion of this route, beginning at San Lorenzo Nuovo, that we began our walk on the third day. Gloriously picturesque, the trail took us through lush woodland as well as past rich farmland bristling with crops. Many points afforded us a scenic overlook of Lake Bolsena in the distance. All the while, Alessandro pointed out the variety of flora along the way, educating us with fascinating botanical information we never would have absorbed or enjoyed on any other conventional tour. Near the end of our hike, we passed several of the many agriturismo villas (agriculturally based operations or activities that bring visitors to a farm or ranch), ending with our arrival to meet our van and its open doors revealing a new assortment of drinks and snacks to re-energize and refresh us for the coming hours. As it was, it served as a welcome appetizer to the following delectable lunch we enjoyed in a local restaurant in the waterside resort town of Bolsena. Here we ordered food we likely never would have thought to eat back in the U.S. And somehow, the view of the glistening blue water of the lake only a few feet from our table made my meal taste better, a kind of visual seasoning.
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Above and below: on the trail of the Via Francigena.
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On the Lake
Anyone visiting Bolsena should not leave before taking a boat ride on the lake, which is exactly what we did following our lunch. On this day in early autumn, few tourists could be seen near the lake and around the docks where we boarded our vessel — small but easily spacious enough to accommodate our small group, and a launching point completely free of the madding crowd one would typically contend with during the high season.
The pilot navigated us across the breadth of the entire lake, motoring us almost within a stone’s throw of two major islets, each featuring a portrait of rocky geologic formations and historic or ancient structures perched atop the edges of dramatic cliff faces soaring above the lapping lake water below. Archaeologists have discovered human settlements on these islets extending back to Etruscan times.
After the boat ride, we made our way back to our accommodations for the evening.
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Above and below: Islets in the lake.
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Day 4: An avenue of cave dwellings, a hike along a woodland trail, and a sojourn in scenic Sorano
Traveling toward Sovana, among Italy’s “most beautiful villages,” we entered and traversed a verdant landscape of deep volcanic gorges with narrow plateaus, stopping first to begin our hike along a trail that took us by the numerous cave dwellings of Vitozza. Many of them were inhabited during medieval times, and even before, as domestic dwellings by families. I tried to imagine families of men, women and children living in these cavernous places, warming themselves by their fires during the cold season and using them as shelter from the elements, including the radiant heat of the sun during the warm seasons. Today, of course, they are vacant and silent, but there was still a haunting spirit that seemed to hover invisibly over these spaces.
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Above and below: caves along the trail to Vitozza, the medieval town.
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Alessandro discussing one of the caves with the group.
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Our hike along the cave trail led us eventually to branch off steeply upward to reach an area where once stood a medieval village, featuring the remains of two castles and a church. Traces of domestic structures and other small structures that once stood around on either side of them were long gone with the ravages of time. Though I knew, as we walked through the long grass and across the rich soil of a surface still damp with the previous day’s rain, archaeological remains of their foundations and other associated artifacts likely still lay scattered beneath my feet — waiting to be discovered by some future excavation project. The mystery of it captured my imagination.
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Above and below: remains of the first castle encountered on the walk.
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Remains of the second castle.
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Above and below: the Chiesaccia, or Church of S. Bartolomeo, one of the churches built in Vitozza in the second half of the 13th century,
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We hiked carefully down from here over rocky surfaces still moist from yesterday’s rain to make our way to the Lente River far below us. On the way, we came across a fascinating medieval period columbarium. It is today silent and devoid of birds. But, given its considerable structure, it must have been a very lively and productive facility for the people who lived in the nearby community centuries ago.
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The columbarium of Vitozza, just below and near the second castle remains.
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The Lente River is small. One could hardly think of it as a river. A good-sized creek would be more apt. But the lush, scenic woodland through which it wound and through which we traversed was a remarkable example of an almost fairytale-like forest environment that surrounded us. Stopping for a snack break of drinks and other hand-held tastes at a picnic table above the river was a welcome few moments for good conversation and a chance to put questions to Alessandro about the flora that enveloped us.
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Alessandro leads us down a tufa-cut passage.
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A view: hiking along the Lente.
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Sorano
Perhaps the biggest surprise of this journey for me was seeing the old village of Sorano. The motor coach approach from the end of our woodland river walk afforded a breathtaking view of a dramatic ancient-looking random assemblage of light-brown stone structures that straddled the steep slopes of a massive, craggy tufa spur. It was the kind of view one usually expects from a post card image that you know had to be doctored or photo shopped. But this was real. After enjoying a delicious three-course lunch in a local restaurant, we met with our local expert guide for the town walk. Carlo Rosati was a veritable storehouse of knowledge about Sorano, and he minced no words to convince me that this village was clearly one of Tuscany’s best kept secrets. It is not a well-known, high-demand tourist destination, but after seeing this place, I knew it should be — although to enjoy it, one needs to see it free of the press of any crowds. Words don’t do it justice, so included here are photographic images that illustrate what the written word cannot convey — though one has to see it in person to realize the full effect of the visual experience.
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Above and below: views of old Sorano. Difficult to get enough of the visual historic splendor.
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Peering up at the massive Orsini Fortress of Sorano.
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Interior view of the Orsini Fortress.
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“Sorano is one of the most interesting villages for ‘touching’ the Middle Ages,” says Carlo.
Indeed, the face of this village oozes the Middle Ages at every step, and it is this time period that is best preserved and evident in Sorano. However, more than 2500 years ago Sorano was likely a Villanovan settlement, a culture and people thought to be the first phase of the Etruscan culture, which left its historical traces in Sorano around the 3rd century BC, when the village was under the influence of the larger nearby Etruscan period city of Sovana.
Little is known about Sorano during the Roman period, but it emerges into the written record in 862 under Emperor Louis II, under the Aldobrandeschisuzerainty. Later, under Romano di Gentile Orsini, it became part of the Orsini fiefdom. After which its prominent hilltop fortress, the remains of which can be seen and visited today, was named. The fortress was frequently attacked by competing powers in the region because of its strategic position. Walking through the fortress overwhelmed me with its massive presence, and it was easy to see how the community could withdraw into the interior space of the structure during times of conflict and siege.
The village eventually became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Sorano had a significant jewish community during the Medieval period, and the remains of the structures that constituted its quarter within the village were well preserved, making our walk feel almost like a flashback into a time and space that never really vanished.
We ended the day with a retreat to our luxury accommodations at the resort in Sovana, with evening dining at a distinctive local restaurant, where special dishes gave us a taste of the unique fare it had to offer its guests.
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Day 5: Sovana: The Vie Cava and Cities of the Dead
Embarking early, we joined Carlo on a hike into the world of the Etruscans. This was a journey that relatively few people take, because it was an exploration of a largely unwritten and lesser-known story of ancient engineering. The area in which the towns of Sorano, Sovana,and Pitigliano, all neighboring settlements, is defined to a great extent by curious winding paths or passages known widely as Vie Cave (road and quarry), which were literally cut through the soft tufa stone, creating deep gorge-like trails framed on either side by high walls of the tufa stone. They were originally cut by the Etruscans, or even earlier peoples, and then continued to be cut or defined by later groups of people. Coined as the Hollow Paths by Carlo in his book, The Etruscans and the Hollow Paths*, these paths often mark passageways between and among the ancient rock-hewn burial chambers and tombs of the Etruscans, ancient features that equally define the area in abundance.
Carlo led us through some of these hollow paths, and along-side numerous shallow caves, clearly man-made to function as burial chambers or tombs for their dead, some larger and more elaborate than others, but all empty and silent. And if one listened very closely, one could almost hear the faint whispers of the dead calling us beckoningly from their earthly domiciles as we passed.
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Above and below: rock-cut cave tombs of the Etruscans.
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Our hike on this terrain, in the cool of the morning with the ground still wet and in places slippery from the overnight rain, eventually took us through the dramatic ancient (originally Etruscan) rock-cut tufa paths of the Via Cava de San Sebastiano to one of Sovana’s best-known Etruscan rock-hewn tombs, the Ildebranda Tomb.
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Above and below: the Vie Cava de San Sebastiano.
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Our group leader Alessandro leads the way through. He is pictured here for scale.
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Carlo, our guest historian, leads us down a Vie Cava path.
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Set and carved deeply and ornately into the tufa, it sat high on the face of one of the many rocky spurs that surround Sovana, Sorano and Pitigliano, overlooking the verdant craggy landscape beneath it. From our elevated perspective we could see the living town of Sovana in the near distance, despite the misty cloud cover in-between. Heavily eroded over more than 2200 years, the vestiges of this tomb’s original architectural appearance gave visual clues to how elaborate and decorative its facade was in its heyday.
“During this time period, the Etruscans built their tombs with the decorative element on the exterior, while the tomb interiors were plain and simple,” said Carlo. This was in contrast to many other Etruscan tombs of note, such as the famous painted tombs at Tarquinia, which featured elaborate decorative elements and wall paintings/frescoes in their interiors, with much plainer exteriors.
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Above and below: the Ildebranda Tomb.
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We proceeded down ancient steps and entered the tomb interior. Although spacious, it was dark and simple, and one could easily see where the body of the dead once laid within the sarcophagus, now absent, upon a raised section of the tomb interior. The last marks of the pick-axes used by the ancients to carve out the chamber from the tufa could still be seen on the walls and ceiling.
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Article Supplement
Who were the Etruscans?
The Etruscans were an ancient people who inhabited current day central Italy from around 900 BC to roughly 100 BC. They possessed a common language and culture but governed themselves independently through federations of city-states (three confederacies in all: Etruria (today’s Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and the area known today as Campania. At its greatest extent, Etruria covered what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Lazio, the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
The Etruscans were an indigenous population stemming from the Iron AgeVillanovan culture, which developed out of the late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture, part of the central European Urnfield culture system. The Etruscans dominated the Italian peninsula until the rise of Rome in the late 4th century BC. By 27 BC, the Etruscan territory was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
In the Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual city-states, ruled by prominent families. In the hey-day of their power, the elite Etruscan families became very wealthy through trade with the Celts to the north and the Greeks to the south. Evidence for this was uncovered through archaeological excavations that uncovered large family tombs with luxury objects imported from Greece and other contemporaneous civilizations.
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Etruscan bronze chariot, circa 6th century BC. As exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund, 1903.CCO 1.0 Universal, Wikimedia Commons
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Etruscan helmet. As exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia.
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Etruscan painted tomb, excavated and preserved in Tarquinia, Italy.
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Because the Etruscan script and language remains largely undeciphered and elusive, any accurate written history of the Etruscans is sketchy, and most of what we know about them is derived from archaeological investigations, especially of the many tombs and the artifacts found within them.
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We ascended the steps out of the tomb into the pouring rain. This did not stop us from ascending more to another nearby tomb site, yet another iconic space carved from the tufa stone about 2300 years ago. Known as the Tomb of the Winged Demons, much of its facade has been lost or eroded away with time, but its elaborate decorative character still stands out, with its visual elements at least partially protected under a roof-shroud construction overhead. More evident as compared to the Ildebrand Tomb, this tomb afforded us a fascinating yet mystery-shrouded glimpse into the Etruscan concept of death, the afterlife and their vision of the Underworld. These winged figures, often referred to as ‘demons’ (though not in the conventional sense of demons as defined today) are usually a part of Etruscan funerary art and often associated with the goddess Vanth, a being connected to death and the underworld. Carlo gave us a rich and detailed interpretation of the iconography as it related to the mythology and religion of this ancient people. Unlike what we know about Greek and Roman religion and mythology, however, the Etruscan equivalent still remains comparatively vague.
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Above and below: facade and its associated elements of the Tomb of the Winged Demons.
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The Excavation
The region surrounding Sorano, Sovana and Pitigliano is a land rich in archaeological treasure, excavated and still-to-be excavated. The buried history spans more than 3,000 years, extending as far back as the Neolithic and even before civilization as we conventionally define it — Paleolithic times. But research has focused mostly on the human story here ranging between about 900 BC up to and through Renaissance times. We had the privilege of meeting with Dr. Luca Nejrotti, an archaeologist who has been conducting a field school excavation at the local site of “la Biagiola,” a multi-layered site that recently has yielded evidence of occupation by the Lombards, a germanic people who conquered and controlled most of the Italian peninsula between 568 and 774 AD, as well as evidence of occupation in other time periods. Our plans included visiting the actual excavation site, though rainy weather conditions precluded us from seeing the site. Nonetheless, a very fine little museum in Sovana showcased some of the artifacts recovered from the site, and it was in this location where Nejrotti addressed our group with an extremely informative review of the excavations and the major findings to date.
Day 6: Along the ancient trail, and Pitigliano
By the time we began to hike the trail from Sovana to Pitigliano, we had become accustomed to the surface irregularities and the ascending and descending nature of the paths. As before, the rock-cut passage in places was a reminder of the labor and care the ancients had taken to blaze their travel and connections through the terrain from each point or tomb to another, and from one significant location to another. In places it was like walking through a cavern with no ceiling, the space high above us open to the sky and the ground and walls around us like a work of nature’s sculptor. We met others along the way — a couple from Germany and an Italian family, the children at nearly a jog along a surface that required good walking sticks for older explorers.
After a delectable three-course lunch with fine Tuscan wines in Pitigliano, Carlo led us on a highly informative walk of this breathtakingly picturesque medieval hilltop town. Originally an Etruscan settlement, it is the largest of the trio of towns in this historic and ancient region. While every inch of street and historic construction captured my imagination, three sites stood prominently out for me. The first was the Duomo di Pitigliano; Cattedrale dei Santi Pietro e Paolo), a Roman Catholiccathedral dedicated to the Saints Peter and Paul. The cathedral exterior facade was impressive enough, until one steps inside, and then it is easy to see why the structure is a must-see when visiting this town. Restored in 1692–1702, its majestic interior space features a 1717 Baroque altar, an altarpiece in the choir depicting the Enthroned Madonna with Saints Peter and Francis (dated to 1494) by Guidoccio Cozzarelli and, painted in 1885, two large paintings by Pietro Aldi — Henry IV at Canossa and the Life of Ildeprando in Sovana. Pitigliano was also home to a flourishing Jewish community, consisting mostly of people fleeing from Rome during the Counterreformation persecutions. It was fascinating to see the rendered caves in which they worked and lived, which includes a ritual Passovermatzoh bakery. But the big story about this community was how, because of the newly promulgated racial laws under Nazi influence, the community is said to have escaped capture with the help ofChristian neighbors. We had the opportunity to step into the ornately designed 1995-restored synagogue of 1598 (although containing furnishings of the 17th and 18th centuries). I felt a reverence their unlike any other structure I entered during the walk.
Perhaps less known but equally fascinating was a small section of the town that had been preserved to showcase the archaeological excavations and research that had taken place here over the years. Although what we saw in this section represented only a small slice of what likely remained hidden and buried beneath throughout the town, it served as a reminder of the long history of occupation here, going back to at least early Etruscan times.
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Panoramic view of Pitigliano. Shadow Fixing, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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The Duomo di Pitigliano (Pitigliano Cathedral).
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Typical street view in Pitigliano.
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A Unique Journey
When contemplating a getaway to Italy, I admit that my first thoughts revolved around seeing the iconic sites best known in the popular travel literature — places like the Colosseum, Pantheon and the Vatican in Rome, the great Duomo and Renaissance sites and art in Florence, the canals of Venice, the ancient remains of Pompeii, and the majestic lines and ocean views of the Amalfi coast. Without detracting from those incomparable sites, however, I found a more intimate and enriching and deeply satisfying magic in walking the countryside and getting ‘up close and personal’ with the ‘lesser known’ historic dream-like presence of the smaller settlements that define the heart of Italy. Not its magnificence, but its indescribable charm and warm allure that made, at least for me, an experience unlike any other traveling I had ever endeavored. The smaller group of traveling companions created a sense of camaraderie and ‘family’, if you will, that I could never obtain with the larger groups in which I previously traveled. Indeed, exploring this little group of people constantly around me on a daily basis was as much of an adventure as the sites and landscapes we traversed. And the act of bringing a mind-and-body healthy hike or walk to its completion each day along a verdant and historic path afforded a unique sense of endorphin-rich achievement.
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For readers who may be interested in joining a walking tour like this, see the Wayfaring Walks website for more information about the many other walks they offer around the world. Readers who are interested in the subject tour of this article (Etruscan Hilltop Towns) may find more information and a special discount offer for this tour at this page. Whatever walk you may choose, it is no exaggeration to say that I think you will find it to be a trip of a lifetime.
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The Guides
Indispensable to the experience is the educational and daily support elements the guides and special guest-lecturers bring to Wayfaring Walks journeys. On a daily basis, Alessandro Tombelli, our tour leader, and Andrea Formaleoni, our tour manager, brought their expertise to bear on making the Etruscan Hilltop Towns walk a stimulating, smooth, and stress-free experience. Along the way special guest lecturer/leaders like Carlo Rosati (Sorano, Sovana and Pitigliano) and Luca Nejrotti (Sovana) provided detailed, mind-enriching reviews of topics and places that only they could convey.
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Comments from tour participants
“I love the pace of the travel and the size of the group. The walk leader and walk manager are also a key part of Wayfaring travel. They are always adults with life experiences of their own and have a lot to offer. It is a different experience entirely than being led by college kids, which other walking groups often use.”
— Wendy Kersman
“I loved the walks in the beautiful countryside. That’s an absolute requirement for any of the walks I take. But I think the historian and archaeologist who joined us gave a depth and context to the experience that was special and wonderful…..and the staff that accompanies the walks, the care and thoughtfulness taken in designing the walks, and the quality of the accommodations and food.”
— Laura Godown
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*Rosati, Carlo, The Etruscans and the Hollow Paths, Moroni Editor, April 2013.
Cover Image, Top Left: Panoramic view of Pitigliano. Shadow Fixing, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Luca Mario Nejrotti, PhD, graduated in Medieval Archaeology at the University of Turin, with a thesis on the archaeology of architecture in fortified structures. He then pursued a PhD at Aix-en-Provence, focusing on medieval hydraulic installations. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with universities and heritage agencies, but he has always preferred independent practice, which has allowed him to explore and deepen his knowledge of different historical periods and contexts.
His interest in archaeological methods led him naturally to studying and teaching in the area between southern Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where the historical landscape features complex connections and relationships, and where one can “breathe” archaeology.
He has been an archaeologist (in pectore) since childhood, and what he has always loved about the profession is the investigative and exploratory aspect, but also the role archaeologists can play as mediators between the historical landscape, past communities, and present ones.
Since 2012, with the Association “Cultura e Territorio,” over which he presides and for which he serves as scientific director, he has run the B.I.S.A., “la Biagiola” International School of Archaeology in Sorano (GR). The school focuses on Landscape Archaeology and the excavation of the multi-layered site of “la Biagiola,” in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. The school operates year-round, with sessions in February, May, July-August, and October.
“La Biagiola” International School of Archaeology (B.I.S.A.), managed by the Associazione “Cultura e Territorio” (ACT), has once again showcased its unique approach to archaeological exploration, merging research, education, and preservation. After years of striving to become a leading reference in archaeology in the Maremma del Tufo, B.I.S.A. has now established itself as a true beacon for local institutions and communities, playing a pivotal role in safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage.
In 2015, B.I.S.A. students climbed the steep walls of the “Cavone” via cava (see below*) to recover and document the remnants of archaic Etruscan tombs and to safeguard these structures from the degradation caused by vegetation and soil accumulation. In 2016, they undertook the excavation and documentation of the lost dromos of the “Tomba dei Demoni Alati” (Tomb of the Winged Demons) in Sovana.
These initiatives complemented the ongoing investigations at “la Biagiola” and contributed to a broader landscape archaeology project in the Fiora River Valley:
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The 2024 Summer Campaign
During the summer of 2024, the school embarked on an ambitious program in collaboration with the Archaeological Park “Città del Tufo”, revisiting six Etruscan (see below**) tombs along the Via Cava di San Sebastiano. From August 1 to August 22, 2024, participants, including professional archaeologists, students, and local collaborators, worked tirelessly on-site. Their efforts were supported by personnel from the Municipality of Sorano and the ZOE Social Cooperative, concessionaires for the Archaeological Park, whom we would like to thank here warmly for their initiative and support.
These tombs, previously looted during Roman times and later subjected to sub-standard (by today’s professional assessment) excavations in the 19th and 20th centuries, offered unique challenges and opportunities for modern archaeology. This double history of disturbance left behind a trail of clues for modern archaeologists to uncover. Roman looters mainly targeted precious metals and jewelry, while 19th- and 20th-century excavators sought intact and elaborately decorated pottery. The earlier interventions often bypassed architectural features such as dromoi (entrance corridors) as excavators worked hastily, leaving behind crucial evidence for modern, meticulous archaeologists.
This summer’s work yielded significant results, including:
Chronological Confirmation: ceramic fragments from the tombs confirmed their dating to the 7th–6th centuries BCE.
Architectural Documentation: using advanced SLAM laser scanning, the team created detailed 3D maps of the tombs, highlighting variations in niche arrangements, funerary beds, and moisture control features.
New Discoveries: a previously undocumented via cava near the tombs was identified, adding to the rich tapestry of the region’s landscape archaeology.
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The survey using SLAM technology.
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Workshop on 3D modeling.
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The Tombs
The tombs, located on a modest terrace northwest of the Via Cava di San Sebastiano, are arranged in two tiers (however, we also identified a row of four tombs at a lower level, which we have currently decided to leave buried for safety reasons):
Upper Level: Tombs 1, 2, and 4.
Lower Level: Tombs 3, 5, and 6.
Despite the absence of intact archaeological deposits in most structures, the team successfully identified secondary ceramic fragments meticulously recovered from the basal levels, providing invaluable data on the material culture of the Fiora and Albegnavalleys.
The students also enjoyed distinguishing the layers of the first looting from the Roman era from those of the more recent one, caused by amateur archaeologists.
Highlights included:
Tomb 2: distinguished by its architectural refinement, including a large rectangular niche opposite the entrance and stepped access.
Tomb 3: unique evidence of reuse was observed, including an enlarged entrance and an extended dromos, with a drainage channel added at a later stage.
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The Via Cava di San Sebastiano, one of the most evocative in the area.
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The entrance to the first two tombs after excavation: note the two intersecting dromoi and the two sealing stones broken at the top by Roman looters.
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Last but not least, anyone involved in archaeology knows it — the most important discoveries happen on the last day of excavation, preferably in the final hour, and even better under a looming thunderstorm:
Tomb 5: this tomb revealed two primary-context features:
A ritual pit containing a double-handled bowl and four varied dishes.
A funerary niche sealed with terracotta tiles, containing nine ceramic vessels, spindle whorls, and a bronze fragment.
And here is the proof, beyond the wealth of scientific data recovered from the other tombs: the necropolises of Sovana always hold a surprise! What makes this discovery truly extraordinary is the presence of a votive pit, unexpectedly and exceptionally well-preserved through the centuries, lying just a few centimeters beneath the surface. This represents an exceptional testimony to the religious practices associated with funerary offerings.
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Excavating the ritual pit.
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The funerary niche after the removal of the tiles.
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Bridging the Past and Future
The summer’s work at B.I.S.A. underscores its dual mission of education and research. Participants gained hands-on experience in advanced archaeological techniques, including 3D scanning and stratigraphic analysis, while contributing to a growing body of knowledge about the region’s history. The findings, including architectural surveys and ceramic typologies, will inform future studies and support the creation of a comprehensive catalog of archaic tombs in the Sovana area.
By aligning academic rigor with community engagement, B.I.S.A. continues to demonstrate that archaeology is not just about uncovering artifacts but about connecting people to their shared heritage: a bridge between the past and the future.
Readers may learn more about the programs and the archaeological field school here.
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The student team: thank you all!
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*The vie cave (hewn roads)
The hewn roads, carved into the volcanic tuff, were sophisticated pathways designed to connect the plateaus to nearby stream courses. These trenches often followed natural gullies, creating a more gradual and convenient approach to the steep elevation changes characteristic of the region. This intricate network not only linked major centers but also facilitated communication between smaller, scattered settlements. Along many of these routes, necropolises were established, taking advantage of the accessibility provided by the vie cave. However, not all such structures are directly associated with funerary sites, indicating a multifaceted use of these pathways.
Today, the vie cave are an evocative feature of the Maremma del Tufo landscape. Their continuous use over the centuries, for maintenance and because of natural erosion, has significantly deepened these trenches, with some reaching depths of dozens of meters. This contrasts sharply with their original appearance, which, as seen in abandoned vie cave, was far shallower.
The interplay between natural and human influences has transformed these ancient pathways into dramatic and captivating landmarks of the countryside.
**The Etruscans
The Etruscans were an ancient people who inhabited current day central Italy from around 900 BC to roughly 100 BC. They possessed a common language and culture but governed themselves independently through federations of city-states (three confederacies in all: Etruria (today’s Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and the area known today as Campania. At its greatest extent, Etruria covered what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Lazio, the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
As an indigenous population, they stemmed from the Iron AgeVillanovan culture, which developed out of the late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture, part of the central European Urnfield culture system. The Etruscans dominated the Italian peninsula until the rise of Rome in the late 4th century BC. By 27 BC, the Etruscan territory was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
In the Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual city-states, ruled by prominent families. In the hey-day of their power, the elite Etruscan families became very wealthy through trade with the Celts to the north and the Greeks to the south. Evidence for this was uncovered through archaeological excavations that uncovered large family tombs with luxury objects imported from Greece and other contemporaneous civilizations.
The history of the Etruscan civilization is divided into distinct periods based on archaeological evidence and cultural developments:
Villanovan Period (ca. 900-700 BCE): this proto-Etruscan phase marks the emergence of a stratified society in central Italy. Evidence includes cremation burials in biconical urns and settlements characterized by small, hut-like structures.
Metallurgical advancements and the introduction of ironworking are key features of this era.
Orientalizing Period (ca. 700-580 BCE): marked by increased contact with the Greek, Phoenician, and Near Eastern cultures. This period saw the rise of urban centers such as Targuinia, Veii, and Cerveteri. Luxury goods, monumental tombs, and the widespread adoption of imported artistic motifs define this era, reflecting the growing wealth and complexity of Etruscan society.
Archaic and Classical Periods (ca. 580-300 BCE): the height of Etruscan power, with large-scale urbanization and the construction of monumental public works, including temples and city walls. Etruscan art and architecture show significant Greek influence, while their political institutions adapted to manage expanding trade networks.
Hellenistic Period (ca. 300-50 BCE): a phase that sees Roman expansion absorbing Etruscan cities. This period is characterized by a blend of Etruscan and Roman cultural elements, the adaptation of Etruscan religious practices, and the eventual assimilation into Roman hegemony.
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Freelance writer, researcher and photographer, Georges Fery (georgefery.com) addresses topics from history, culture, and beliefs to daily living of ancient and today’s indigenous societies of Mesoamerica and South America. His articles are published online at travelthruhistory.com, ancient-origins.net and popular-archaeology.com, and in the quarterly magazine Ancient American (ancientamerican.com). In the U.K. his articles are found in mexicolore.co.uk.
The author is a fellow of the Institute of Maya Studies instituteofmayastudies.org, Miami, FL and The Royal Geographical Society, London, U.K. (rgs.org). He is a member in good standing with the Maya Exploration Center, Austin, TX (mayaexploration.org) the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, MA (archaeological.org),NFAA-Non Fiction Authors Association (nonfictionauthrosassociation.com) and the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC. (americanindian.si.edu).
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Professor Frank J. Korn has retired from his teaching position on the Classical Studies faculty at Seton Hall University.He is a Fulbright Scholar at the American Academy in Rome and the author of nine books on various aspects of the Eternal City.He is listed in Marquis Who’s Who as “a notable classical educator and writer.”Recipient of the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Teaching, he resides with his wife Camille in Scotch Plains, N.J.The couple’s three sons –Frank, Ronald, and John and their families live nearby.His latest book–Below Rome, the Story of the Catacombs–which he co-authored with his wife, is available on Amazon or from the publisher, St. Johann Press, Haworth, N.J.
In Rome one finds the world’s most exquisite exclamation point:the towering obelisk which punctuates the symmetrical splendor and baroque beauty of St. Peter’s Square.
Climbing nearly a hundred feet into the Vatican sky, the reddish granite needle is surmounted by an iron cross which is said to contain a fragment of the True Cross.Thus Pope Sixtus V had these words engraved on the pedestal:
ECCE CRUCEM DOMINI
CHRISTUS VINCIT CHRISTUS REGNAT
CHRISTUS IMPERAT
(Behold the Cross of the Lord.Christ Conquers,
Christ reigns, Christ rules.)
This is but one of twenty-two obelisks that were brought back from Egypt to Rome in Imperial times, thirteen of which have survived to our day.St. Peter’s Square’s great centerpiece, whose hieroglyphics sang the praises of King Menephta (1420-1400 B.C.), was transported from the banks of the Nile to the banks of the Tiber by order of Caligula.He used it to adorn the spina of the hippodrome in Ager Vaticanus – the Vatican meadows–where it became the mute witness to much spectacle and much savagery, including, perhaps, the crucifixion of the Apostle Peter.
Obelisks are tall, slender, monolithic quadrangular monuments that constitute a typical expression of Egyptian art:solar symbols.These stone shafts of Aswan granite gradually tapered to a pyramid-shaped apex and were often engraved on their flat sides with picture-writings exalting the deeds of this or that god or pharaoh.In Egypt, obelisks of varying dimensions stood–often in pairs–before the entrances to temples and palaces, and were considered sacred to the Sun.
Not content with the art treasures and other valuable booty which they had conveyed from all parts of the classical world to Rome, the emperors went so far as to have their thunderous conquering legions remove the multi-ton obelisks from the elegant pedestals, whereon they had majestically rested for centuries, and, no matter the enormouslychallenging difficulty, haul them over land and sea, to the city of the seven hills.All this was done to testify to the conquests of vaunted Roman arms, and, more importantly, to the emperors’ self-proclaimed greatness.
Augustus was the first to be charmed by these already ancient monuments and in 10 B.C. he confiscated two of them–one from the tomb of Ramses II (also known as Ramses the Great) who ruled as pharaoh from 1279 to 1213 B.C. in Heliopolis.The overseas transport of the first–78 feet and 400 tons–proved to be a matter of such unprecedented difficulty that an immense ship with an extremely long, wide deck had to be designed and built expressly for that purpose. The herculean efforts of as many as three hundred oarsmen were required to propel this unique vessel with its recumbent cargo, ballasted by sandbags beyond count to prevent it from shifting and/or rolling over and sending itself and the ship to the depths of the Mediterranean.The last leg of the voyage had to be completed on land, thus halfway up the Tiber the hefty cargo had to be transferred to a trahea, a land vehicle called, in English, a sledge, mounted on two, maybe four, well-shaved smooth runners designed for transporting heavy loads over sand and soil andstreets, and which was pulled via thick hemp-fiber ropes by many thousands of able-bodied men.There were massive crowds of on-lookers as the sledge was hauled into the city through the Ostian Gate of the Servian Walls.The proud and pleased Augustus ordered this war-prize to be installed on the spina of the Circus Maximus.He had coins and medals struck in commemoration of the various stages of the whole enterprise.
The second obelisk, 72 feet tall, was a millennium younger and paid tribute to Pammeticus II.Augustus had this one placed down in the heart of the Campus Martius to serve as a gigantic sun-dial.Pliny (XXXVI.15) informs us:
“Ei, qui est in Campo, divus Augustus
addidit mirabilem usum ad deprendendas solis
umbras dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudinis
strato lapide ad longitudinem obelisci,
cui par fieret umbra brumae confectae
die sexta hora … “
(That obelisk standing in the Campus was employed in
a remarkable way for the sake of gauging the shadows
of the sun and indicating the length of days and nights….)
By the way, both Augustan trophies took up new residences in Rome in the late 1700’s–the older in Piazza del Popolo, the younger on Monte Citorio in front of the Parliament building.The one in the piazza rises much higher these days; standing on a new base it stretches well over a hundred feet into the air and is surrounded by four lions–also brought back from Egypt– spouting water into travertine basins.
In A.D. 40, Claudius had two more of these granite shafts shipped to Rome.This pair of two-thousand-year-old obelisks were set up to serve as ornaments for the Tomb of Augustus.There they stood as sentries flanking the mausoleum’s entrance and reaching forty–five feet in height.
In 1589, Pope Sixtus V put the renowned architect Domenico Fontana in charge of moving one of these to the summit of the Quirinal Hill, which was then cherished for its breathtaking panorama of the city, its soft air and cool breezes, prompting Sixtus to build a palace there to be used as a papal summer residence.In 1870 this property was seized by the King of the “New Italy” and declared the Royal Palace. Today’s post World War II Italy uses the splendid palazzo as the home of the nation’s (largely figurehead) president.On its new tall pedestal, and positioned above the huge Fountain of the Dioscuri (Horse Tamers) and capped with a cross, the obelisk stretches 95 feet into the Roman firmament.The fountain’s colossal statues representing the Gemini, Castor and Pollux, once graced the then nearby Baths of Constantine, says the inscription:
…E PROXIMIS CONSTANTINIANIS THERMIS…
The other monolith of the Augusteum was moved to its current location, on the Esquiline Hill, facing the rear of the apse of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.On its new base and crowned with a cross, it now climbs to a height of 82 feet.
As the first century A.D. drew to a close, the Emperor Domitian of the Flavian Dynasty increased the city’s obelisk inventory by three, two of which were rather small as these things go (19 feet high).These adorned the Eternal City’s Temple of Isis and Serapis.(Yes, even the Egyptian religion found its way to Rome.)The third and largest one (51 feet high) Domitian had hauled up to his country villa in the Alban Hills. The villa still survives, but in ruins.(This area is now the delightful village of Castel Gandolfo.)In 1657 the architect Bernini had the obelisk carted down into the city where he re-erected it in Piazza Navona as the crowning glory of his spectacular Fountain of the Four Rivers.
A decade later, Bernini placed one of the two smaller Domitian trophies on the back of his beautifully carved elephant in the center of Piazza Minerva, where there had stood, in antiquity, a stately temple to that Roman goddess of wisdom and war.This site was an altogether fitting choice inasmuch as this little obelisk, and its twin, had stood in homage back home before the shrine of Neith, the Egyptian goddess of…wisdom and war.A fervent admirer of the ancient civilization and culture of the Pharaohs, Bernini was saying with his symbolism that “It would take the strength of an elephant to sustain the brilliance of the Egyptians.”
Just a block away we find the twin of this elephant-riding stele, in Piazza della Rotonda, so-called because of the round temple that anchors one end of the charming square, the ancient, virtually perfectly preserved, Pantheon which, as its Greek name suggests, honors all the gods of pagan Rome.The inscription on the base has this to say about the obelisk, which is wed to an endlessly splashing fountain:
CLEMENS XI PONT MAX
FONTIS ET FORI
ORNAMENTO
ANNO SAL MDCCXI
PONTIF XI
(Clement the Eleventh SUPREME PONTIFF gave
this as an ornament for the fountain
and the square in the year of Salvation 1711,
the eleventh year of his Pontificate)
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The Pantheon and the Fontana del Pantheon in Rome, with obelisk topping the famous fountain. Ank Kumar, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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Continuing the tradition of obelisk-collecting, Hadrian (117-138) brought home from his sojourn in Egypt four more, scattering them about his capital.The grandest and most graceful of these, 84 feet tall, he placed in the bucolic gardens of Sallust and dedicated it mournfully to his teenaged catamite, his stunningly attractive Greek lover, Antinous.This memorial, with a cross on top increasing its height, now looks out over Piazza del Popolo, from its lofty perch on the Pincio Terrace.For centuries, the Romans have favored this site for their evening promenade.(The locals maintain that if you have not seen the sunset from the Pincio, then you have not really been to Rome.)
Another Hadrianic trophy rises, since 1789, out in front of the twin towered church of Trinita dei Monti, at the top of the elegant, cascading Spanish Steps.
The last Egyptian obelisk to find its way to Urbs Aeterna did so under the direction of the Emperor Constantius, in A.D. 357.The inscriptions carved upon this massive monolith (108 feet tall and weighing over 400 tons) refer to the time of Pharaoh Thotmes IV, whose reign began in 1565 B.C.Thus it is quite possible that Moses beheld and admired it standing in front of the Temple of the Sun in Thebes.In A.D. 1588 it was hauled from its original Roman site, the Circus Maximus, down the narrow streets past the Church of St. Gregory the Great and around the gutted shell of the Flavian Amphitheater–more commonly known as the Colosseum–to the Piazza Laterano, near the side entrance to the Basilica of St. John.3,500 years ago it had slumbered on in the sultry quiet languor of Theban afternoons.In our madcap early Twenty First Century, it now looks down daily at uncountable numbers of honking Fiats that scurry in kamikaze-like fashion around its base.
Over on the Coelian Hill, a public park called the Villa Coelimontana houses an obelisk, but only a small part of it hails from Egypt.Yet the park merits a visit for its stupendous terrace with a superb vista and two long avenues lined with helm oaks and boxwood that provide lovely outdoor shady galleries.A perfect oasis in the summer for a picnic lunch in the cool air amid multi-colored flower displays.
Not to be overlooked is yet another monument from Cleopatra’s land.Right outside Stazione Termini, the city’s modern railroad station, is yet one more authentic obelisk of Ramses the Great, centering the vast Piazza dei Cinquecento named for the five hundred Italian soldiers killed at Dogali in 1887, as mentioned on the inscription of the tastefully executed pedestal.On the four sides of the 19 foot high obelisk are hieroglyphics in a fine state of preservation.An early twentieth century classicist translates one side for us:“Ramses, loved by Ammon from Heliopolis, the Seat of Splendor; Lord of the Diadems, loved by the god Tum, Lord of Heliopolis.”
……….
Though all of this was part of the legacy of Imperial Rome, the modern capital had something to say about the subject of obelisks. There are many imitations, not of Aswan granite but of various types of “homegrown” stone from myriad quarries across Italy:Travertine from the Rome outskirts, Carrara marble from the hills of Tuscany, and a pinkish granite from the Alpine heights of Baveno that overlook the dreamy Lago Maggiore way up north in the region of Piemonte.From the last locale, in 1842, Alessandro, scion of the patrician Torlonia family, ordered two, thirty-meters tall, obelisks to be hewn and transported, at great expense, via roads, rivers, and the Adriatic Sea, to the Abruzzo region, thence to Roma Aeterna.These stone wonders the loyal son had installed in the lush gardens of the Villa Torlonia, dedicating them to the memory of his pater and mater.
In 1959 the city government paid high, very high, i.e., tribute to the late, great Guglielmo Marconi with a concrete obelisk 147 feet tall, which was veneeredwith 92 marble panels of basreliefs, showing the life and times of the genius.It reposes on the island of a roundabout in EUR, just a few miles west of the ancient center of Rome.
In anticipation of the 1960 Olympic Games to be hosted by Rome, Il Duce had built, at the upper bank of the Tiber, a sprawling sports complex, at the front entrance of which stood, and still stands, an impressive 57 feet tall obelisk of Carrara Marble, which on its monumental base soars to twice that height, with finely engraved letters in vertical order that spell out;MUSSOLINI DUX.
Then there is the elegant boulevard that leads straight from the river to St. Peter’s Basilica, the Via della Conciliazione, built from 1929 to 1939 as a gift from the Italian state to the Vatican to commemorate the Reconciliation between the two with the signing of the Lateran Concordat, which resulted in the new autonomy and authority of the Pope over his new very miniature country.Just in time for the Jubilee Year of A.D. 1950, the broad thoroughfare, just short of a half mile long, was spruced up with new lamp posts lining each side.These were hewn in obelisk form, each with an old fashioned lantern topping it off.Again a touch of Egypt in Rome, the Nile once more flowing into the Tiber.
Whatever else can be said about the Romans, they were great adapters of the lands they conquered.They obtained the idea of domes from the Etruscans, of columns from the Greeks, of obelisks from the Egyptians.(There is even a pyramid in Rome!)
……….
Now back to the world’s most exquisite exclamation point:the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square.As mentioned at the start, this imported monument’s first site in Rome was the dividing island of the horse- racing stadium in the Vatican fields.Though the arena eventually disappeared over the centuries, the obelisk somehow survived the barbarian invasions and remained standing in the original spot.In 313 this public land was given to Pope Miltiades by Constantine.On these 108 acres the Vatican we know today, as the seat of the Catholic Church, evolved.In 1586 Pope Sixtus V ordered the “trophy” moved about 300 meters to the center of St. Peter’s Square.
By this time, however, the technique and know-how of such a task was still shaky and uncertain at best.Sixtus turned to the architect Fontana to supervise this daunting, dangerous, and risky engineering feat.With beams, ropes, and scaffolding, along with windlasses, hundreds of horses, and a thousand or so laborers, the unwieldy 380-ton stele was, over the course of weeks, successfully removed from its base and towed ever so slowly on a flatbed ‘truck’ to its new position.
All that was left was the need to figure out a safe way to raise it back upright.After days of planning, the date was set for the installation.This project drew vast crowds of curious Romans and tourists to the site.Anticipating this, the Pope had forewarned would-be spectators, via signs all around town, that strict silence was to be observed so that the workers would not be distracted and could clearly hear Fontana’s directions.And …anyone uttering a single word would be put to death.
Back to work went the ropes, the horses, the windlasses, and the workmen to ease the obelisk into an upright stance on a new pedestal.When the granite giant reached upward to about a 45 degree angle, however, those in attendance froze in horror as the ropes began to give off smoke from all the stress and friction, and stretch out near to the point of snapping.Everything came to a standstill for hours as the obelisk teetered on the brink of thundering down and shattering into a million pieces.A sailor in the crowd, who knew how to deal with ropes from his years on sailing vessels shouted:“Acqua alle funi!”–pour water on the ropes.He was at once arrested but Fontana thought the suggestion worth the risk and ordered buckets of cold water from a nearby aqueduct to be splashed up and down the smoking straining cables.
It worked!Pope Sixtus was delighted and, of course, immediately pardoned the sailor, named Bresca, promising him whatever reward he desired, The hero of the day said that his family had property in Bordighera, a town on the Italian riviera, a region that abounded in palm trees, and that his relatives would all love the honor of supplying the palm leaves for Palm Sunday services at St. Peter’s.This request was granted.To this day the Bresca family’s descendants still have that privilege.
……….
Across the ages these amazingly durable and resilient granite shafts have changed their religious affiliation three times.They came into existence honoring the deities of Egypt, especially the Sun god.In time they switched their homage to deified Roman rulers.Today, each crowned with a cross, proclaims, in eloquent silence, the triumph of Christianity over its persecutors.In a city chock full of antiquities, it can rightly be said that in all of Eternal Rome, the most eternal things are the monuments from Egypt.The Roman Colosseum is approaching its 2000th birthday but is merely a decrepit shell of its former self, while the Egyptian obelisk in Piazza Laterano, reaching 108 feet into the blue, is nearly twice that age but looks to be still in the prime of life, as do its granite siblings throughout town.
Cover Image, Top Left: The obelisk of St. Peter’s Square. Walkerssk, Pixabay
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What follows is the latest in a series of interviews of Professor Paul Cartledge on some of the most iconic wonders of ancient Greece, published exclusively for Popular Archaeology Magazine.
RM (Richard Marranca): Adjacent to the Acropolis is the ancient Greek Agora: could you tell us something of what went on there, and why it is worth visiting today?
PC (Paul Cartledge): Agora means ‘place of gathering’. What the Athenians gathered to do here were politics and commerce. The space was filled with, on one hand, market stalls selling almost anything under the sun – fresh and dried produce, manufactured goods, sex, human slaves; and on the other hand, there were political buildings, such as the Council Chamber, lawcourts, and mint. Looming over it is a remarkably well-preserved temple, contemporary with the Parthenon, built in honor of the Olympian craftsman god Hephaestus. Originally, the Agora ground had also been used for graves, and over time many wells were built to tap and store water. Excavations by the American School of Classical Studies/Athens, ongoing since 1931, have unearthed both remarkable graves and grave goods, and a host of political objects (juror’s tokens, weights and measures, terracotta water-jars for measuring the time allowed to speakers in the courts, ostraca potsherds). All are brilliantly displayed in the Rockefeller-funded Agora Museum, which mimics a genuine ancient Stoa (Portico, rectangular colonnaded building) donated to the Athenians by King Attalus II of Pergamum (220-138 BCE) in northwest Anatolia.
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Current excavations of the north side of the ancient Athenian Agora. George E. Koronaios, CCO 1.0, Wikimedia Commons
RM:The Kerameikos Cemetery – such a storied history. Wasn’t that where Pericles delivered the very famous Funeral Oration and where the Sacred Way (road to Eleusis) began? Can you unpack that a little?
PC:Kerameikos means Potters’ Quarter – whence our English word ‘ceramic’. Athens was blessed with exceptional claybeds nearby at Maroussi (ancient Amarousion) and an abundance of spring water to turn it in to potters’ clay. But the Quarter became even more famous as the location of Athens’s principal civic cemetery. This was indeed where Pericles in 431 BCE delivered one of his Funeral Orations (the one that’s given an approximate rendering by the contemporary Athenian historian Thucydides, who couldn’t of course reproduce it word for word). Like the Agora, the Kerameikos boasts an unbroken grave series going back into the prehistoric Late Bronze Age well before 1000 BCE. Like the Agora Museum, the Kerameikos Museum is a faithful record of what first German and then Greek archaeologists have uncovered there.
RM:Can you give us some of the highlights of the cemetery and who is buried there?
PC:The Kerameikos grave goods enable archaeologists and archaeohistorians such as myself to trace an unbroken evolution of style in painted pottery from prehistoric to early historic. Special mention must go to a quite recently discovered 6th-century BCE marble Sphinx. Originally a composite male figure (lion’s body, eagle’s wings, human head), the Sphinx was transgendered by the Greeks into a female monster no one wanted to have to tussle with (as Oedipus did – successfully). A bonus are the often elaborate grave monuments that can still be viewed in situ, for example that of the young Athenian cavalryman Dexileōs, who died fighting against Sparta near Corinth in 394; or the collective grave of the Spartans who died at Athens in 403, attempting unsuccessfully to keep Athens under the brutal control of a narrow anti-democrat regime later nicknamed ‘the 30 Tyrants’.
RM:Can you dig a little into the funerary practices of the Greeks?
PC: Greeks both inhumed (buried) and cremated their kindred dead. And as in the case of Pericles’s Funeral Oration, they also held collective, civic funeral ceremonies honoring the dead in war (their ashes placed in cedar coffins). The purpose of the funerary rites was twofold: both to ensure a safe passage for the dead persons down below the earth into Hades (Underworld) and to provide a site of memory at which relatives and later descendants could gather to pay their respects. Some exceptionally wealthy graves were powerful physical monuments, still visible today (above). Most were simple cists but usually containing grave goods to accompany the dead on their passage below. Commemorative ceremonies were performed at the grave – the pouring of a libation of oil or wine, the eating of a funeral feast – at fixed intervals after the burial. The ancient pagan Greeks had a sobering adage: call no one happy until you have seen how they died. A ‘good’ death was one that capped off a good life.
RM:Recently, you mentioned the newly opened museum in Thessaloniki. I haven’t been to Thessaloniki at all and would love to hear about it.
PC:The city of Thessaloniki, modern Greece’s second after Athens (though it took a century more for Thessaloniki to escape the Ottoman empire and join the modern Greek state), was founded originally in 315 BCE by the Macedonian warlord Cassander. He named it after his wife, a daughter of Philip II and so half-sister to Alexander the Great, whose own name celebrated Philip’s victory (nike) over the territory of Thessaly adjoining Macedonia on the south.
Thessaloniki boasts an excellent Archaeological Museum, which in 2026 is due to be joined at last by a huge Holocaust Museum commemorating the fact that until the 1940s, when they were systematically murdered by the occupying Nazis, the well over 50,000 Sephardic Jewish inhabitants amounted to almost half the city’s total population. The new, 2024 Museum is a museum of Thessaloniki’s 23 centuries but it is built down, not up – three of its levels are subterranean. Since Thessaloniki became Thessalonica after the Roman conquest, the Museum will also house part of that city’s main drag, the Decumanus Maximus, discovered when digging the city’s new metro train system. That dig yielded some 300,000 objects, and building the Museum cost 3 billion euros. Here begins the archaeological controversy: treasures were sliced horizontally and vertically before being stitched together again for display. That didn’t go down well with many professional Greek archaeologists.
RM:I recall the French archaeologist Théeophile Homolle who excavated in the late 1800s at Delphi. Can you give us some of the highlights about this breathtaking place and its oracle? From where did the Pythia (snake priestess) derive her power?
PC: Homolle (1848-1925) had first excavated on Delos in the 1870s before he as Director of the French School 1891-3 initiated the – continuing – French excavations on the site of Delphi. Looked at one way, Delphi was one ginormous war-memorial. Greeks alas didn’t fight only against non-Greeks — very much not, and several of the largest or most important monuments were dedicated at Delphi by one state as an in-your-face reply to another! I prefer not to think about that too much but to visit the superb newish Museum, in which one can find on show the most delicately painted wine-goblets and small bronze figurines alongside the armor and weapons stripped from enemies and dedicated permanently to Apollo. The oracular priestess of Apollo at Delphi wasn’t called the Pythia because she was in any way serpentine, but because the site as a whole was sometimes also known as ‘Pytho’; that title commemorating the huge python that in myth Apollo had slain in order to gain control of the numinous place.
RM:Can we journey to Delos, which holds vast importance for myth and history? Can you mention a few highpoints — including the Delian League?
PC: Delos, like Delphi, is a ‘French site’, that is open exclusively to archaeologists sponsored by the French School. They have been doing astonishing work on this small (3.43 sq. kilometers) island at the heart of the Cyclades chain for over 150 years. Like Delphi, Delos was sacred to Apollo – but not only to him. His twin sister Artemis, born with him to Leto actually on the island, shared the veneration. Unlike Delphi, though, Delos was relatively inaccessible, and from time to time external powers took measures to make it even more so.
Of all those foreign powers the most successful was Athens, which established an annual Delia festival involving sending a sacred mission from Athens to perform religious rituals on the island. In the 5th century indeed the Athenians made Delos the spiritual as well as mundane heart of a new multistate, anti-Persian alliance, the so-called ‘Delian League’. Much of the island’s agricultural land was then directly administered by special Athenian officials called amphictyons. Visitors to the island will be immediately struck by a terrace of 9-12 7th-century BCE marble lions (the best Greek marble came from two other Cycladic islands, Naxos and Paros) arranged beside a Sacred Way, echoing that of Delphi. An early Hymn to Apollo manages to combine his links to both Delos and Delphi in one poem.
RM:Can you highlight some of what’s in the museum?
PC: The Delos Museum, first opened in 1904, has just reopened after a period of closure for renovation. The sculpture hall is a sight to see. As is the marble statue-group of North Wind god Boreas abducting (probably a euphemism) Oreithyia, a daughter of Athens’s mythical founding king Erechtheus, in order to make her his wife. (Marriage by rape was a regular feature of ancient Greek mythology.) An Athenian work of the end of the 5th century BCE, the group originally formed an acroterion of the Temple of the Athenians: a combined figure perched atop one of the Temple’s two pediments for all to see from afar.
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The left front part of the first hall of archaic statues, view from the entrance. Museum of Delos. Zde, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
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RM:Last year, we had our Olympics interview in Popular Archaeology. Can we revisit this place, including what’s left of the physical location?
PC: Olympia, sacred to Zeus of Mount Olympus (rising over 10,000 feet high in Macedonia, north Greece), was, unlike Delphi, an exclusively religious site and space. It lay out of the way in northwest Peloponnese, and not very near to a convenient port (Kyllene). So exactly how it came to be as famous and indispensable as it had become by the 8th century BCE and remained so for the next 14 centuries remains a bit of a puzzle… As already mentioned, the Olympic Games were locked into a Circuit of games festivals, but the Olympics were the first and always the most important of the four. Zeus had a consort, possibly a rival, in his sister-wife Hera, whose temple is actually earlier than Zeus’s, which was not built until the 450s.
By then the Games had been held every four years for at least 250 years. (The official date of the first Olympics is what we call 776 BCE, but only one event was then staged, the 200 meter dash, and that remained the sole event until 720.) Absolutely everything that the Greeks did in the sphere of either religion or athletics anywhere at any time is represented, in spades, at Olympia. Sadly the site was vulnerable to earthquakes and floods, which eventually obliterated it, but from the 1870s – same time as and in rivalry with the French School – the German Archaeological Institute began the campaigns of excavation, reconstruction, and interpretation that they continue to this day.
Not to be missed within the most sacred part of the site, the Altis grove, is of course the Stadium. The horse-race course lay elsewhere and hasn’t yet been properly rediscovered. The Games consisted of just 9 events, men only, though women might own the horses or chariots that competed in the Hippodrome. For all events the prize (there was only one – no silver or bronze medals) was just an olive wreath – there were no value-prizes awarded at any of the Circuit Games.
Like Delphi, Olympia too was a gigantic war-memorial site; and as at Delphi the Olympia Archaeological Museum (there’s a separate museum of the modern, revived post-1896 Games) is stuffed with arms and armor, made of bronze and iron. But especially stunning are the remains of the large and imposing Zeus Temple made of local limestone – sadly, the gold-and-ivory cult-statue made in the 430s by Athenian craftsman Pheidias, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient world, has long since disappeared.
Dr. Paul Cartlege is the author of Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities; Alexander the Great; Democracy: A Life; The Spartans, and many other books. He is a familiar presence on BBC programs, including In Our Time and many others. He was chief historical consultant for the BBC TV series The Greeks and the Channel 4 series The Spartans presented by Bettany Hughes. Receiving his DPhil from the University of Oxford, he is now emeritus Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge and Leventis SRF at Clare College.
He is Commander of the Order of Honour of Greece, an Honorary Citizen of Sparta, and Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.
EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON! Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—Lead mining in the Roman era resulted in widespread lead pollution and cognitive decline, according to a study. The negative impact of lead exposure in the modern era on human health and development has been widely recognized. Historical and archaeological records indicate that European populations in the Roman era also had high levels of lead exposure, including from air pollution associated with the large-scale mining and smelting of silver and lead ores. Joseph McConnell and colleagues used Artic ice core records and atmospheric aerosol modeling to estimate the concentrations and potential health impact of lead in European air during the height of the Roman Empire, called the Pax Romana. Analysis of three ice cores spanning 500 BCE to 600 CE indicated that European lead emissions sharply increased around 15 BCE, following the rise of the Roman Empire, remained high until the decline of the Pax Romana, beginning around 165 CE, and were not exceeded until the early 2nd millennium CE. Based on modern epidemiological studies, the authors estimated that atmospheric lead pollution during the Pax Romana would have resulted in an average increase in childhood blood lead levels of around 2.4 micrograms per deciliter. According to the authors, childhood lead exposure would have led to widespread cognitive declines of 2.5–3 IQ points throughout the Roman Empire.
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High-resolution measurement of Roman era lead pollution in Arctic ice cores at the Desert Research Institute. Jessi LeMay
*“Pan-European atmospheric lead pollution, enhanced blood lead levels, and cognitive decline from Roman-era mining and smelting,” by Joseph R. McConnell et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 6-Jan-2025. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2419630121
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EXPLORE THE ANCIENT ETRUSCANS IN PERSON! Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views! Join us in this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!
Experience a unique, up-close-and-personal hike among ancient hilltop towns in central Italy. You will walk the sensational countryside of the regions of Umbria and Tuscany, soaking in important sites attesting to the advanced Etruscan civilization, forerunners of the ancient Romans; imposing architectural and cultural remains of Medieval Italy; local food and drink; and perhaps best of all — spectacular scenic views!Join usin this collaborative event for the trip of a lifetime!
WHO WERE THE AEGEANS? The exciting new podcast series exploring the mysteries of the ancient Aegeans, the Bronze Age people who inspired Homer's epic stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
