News

Summer, 2022

The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project (PALHIP) renewed field operations with a scaled back study season in Pompeii from July 4 through July 29. The project team consisted of Ted Peña, Susanna Faas-Bush, and Francesca LaPasta. The team picked up with its work on the characerization of the portable material culture from a set of residences in Insula I.11., completing work with the assemblage from the Casa della Venere in Bikini (I.11.06.07). It also performed rapid surveys of the architectual features of both the Casa della Venere in Bkini and the Casa/Hospitium di Saturninus (I.11.16).

 

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from May 30 through July 1. The project team consisted of Ted Peña, Victor Martínez, Karl Racine, James Gross, Arlene Vespa, and Brent Drone. The team continued to focus on the documentation of the site amphora assemblage, with Karl Racine expanding his work on the African amphoras, assisted by Ted Peña, Victor Martínez continuing his work with the Italian and Hispanic amphoras, James Gross working on various classes of Eastern Mediterranean amphoras, and Arlene Vespa and Brent Drone producing profile drawings of the catalogued specimens of these various classes of material.

 

Spring 2022

Aaron Brown completed the PhD in Classical Archaeology in the UC Berkeley Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies. His dissertation, , Taste and Technique: The Socioeconomics of Food Preparation within the Pompeian Home in the First Century CE , built in substantial measure on work that he carried out in connection with the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project.

Aaron has accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics and the Humanities at Saint Norbert’s College for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Congratulations Aaron!

 

Susanna Faas-Bush completed the MA in Classical Archaeology in the UC Berkeley Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies. Her MA thesis, Ding-Dong: Bells and Tintinnabula of Pompeii and the Surrounding Area, built in substantial measure on work that she carried out in connection with the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project.

Congratulations Susanna!

 

Ted Peña presented a talk entitled “Mico-mobilities: evaluating the movement of people and things around the interiors of residential structures at Pompeii.”  as part of the workshop “New Research on Ancient Mobility and Connectivity” held at the Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, on April 30, 2022.

 

Fall, 2021

Filmo Verhagen, a Ph.D. student in Roman archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden spent the period November 13 - December 18 as a visiting scholar at the Roman Material Culture Laboratory. During this period she undertook research connected to her Ph.D. dissertation "Daily life in the Roman republican countryside. Production, distribution and consumption of Roman pottery. A petrographic study of coarse wares and black-gloss pottery from the Pontine Plain (Central Italy)." Her visit was supported by funding provided by the UC Berkeley Institute for European Studies.  

 

Dr. Leigh Lieberman, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Alexandria Digital Archive / Open Context and a Research Affiliate of the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility, has joined the UC Berkreley Roman Material Culture Laboratory as an Internal Collaborator.

Leigh Lieberman

 

The University of California, Berkeley reopened for the Fall, 2021 semester on August 24, with vaccine mandates in place for all students, faculty, and administrative staff. This includes both the resumption of in-person classes and the reopening of laboratory facilities, with the latter entailing the strict observation of social distancing protocols. The University of California Roman Material Culture Laboratory has accordingly reopened for operations on a limited basis. It is anticipated that it will prove possible to resume the RMCL's participation in the Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program for the Spring, 2022 semester.

 

Summer, 2021

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from June 28 through July 31, operating on a reduced scale in light of the COVID 19 safety protocols in place at the American Academy in Rome, in the city of Rome, and in Italy. The project team consisted of Ted Peña, Victor Martínez, and Karl Racine. The team focused its efforts on the documentation of the site amphora assemblage, with Karl Racine continuing his work on the African amphoras, Victor Martínez continuing his work on the Italian amphoras, and he and Ted Peña working on the classification of the unclassified amphoras.

 

The Summer, 2021 study season for the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project in Pompei was cancelled again this year due to the safety protocols in place at the Parco Archeologico di Pompei in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Ted Peña did, however, spend the week of July 18-24 at Pompeii working on his own with the excavation documentation relating to Insula I.11 and producing descriptions of the interiors of the Casa di Lucius Habonius Primus (I.11.5.8), the Casa di Lucius Caelius Ianuarius (I.11.17), and the Villa Regina a Boscoreale, documenting features relevant to the disposition and accessibility of items of portable material culture.

 

Aaron Brown spent the months of June and July working at Pompeii, continuing the documentation of cooking vessels and utensils that he is carrying out in connection with his Ph.D. dissertation. This work was supported by research funds provided by the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility's Stahl Fund and the UC Berkeley Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies.

 

Spring, 2021

The UC Berkeley Department of Classics has changed its name to the Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies.

 

Ted Peña presented a talk entitled "Approaches to the characterization of household artifact assemblages at Pompeii" as part of the University of Pennsylvania, Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, weekly colloquium on Friday, April 4.

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/aamw/events

 

Fall, 2020

Karl Racine successfully defended his MA thesis entitled Morphology, Production and Trade: An Investigation of African Export Amphoras in the Mid-Roman Imperial Period in the Department of Anthropology at Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) on Thursday, October, 29, with his degree to be awarded in January, 20201.

Contratulations Karl!

 

Ted Peña presented a talk on the archaeology of slavery in the Roman world as part of a presentation entitled “Inequalities in Ancient Societies”(co-presenters Kim Shelton and Erich Gruen) in the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility Fall, 2020 brown bag talk series on Wednesday, October, 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBP0nYGv8n8

 

The visit of Filmo Verhagen (PhD candidate, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Sweden) to the University of California, Berkeley Roman Material Culture Laboratory to carry out dissertation research with a predoctoral fellowship from the University of California Institute for European Studies scheduled for September - November was deferred until January - February, 2020, then deferred two more times until November - December, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

 

Ted Peña was on research sabbatical for the Fall, 2020 semester. His plans to travel to Rome to continue work on the Palatine East Pottery Project were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Summer, 2020

The University of California Berkeley suspended faculty and student travel abroad for research purposes due to the coronavirus pandemic, August, 6.

https://coronavirus.berkeley.edu/travel/?utm_source=Response+and+Recovery&utm_campaign=d45afbe80d-Response_Recovery_2020_08_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_940930e328-d45afbe80d-388898404

 

Ted Peña gave an on-line interview “Making sense of material culture at Pompeii” as part of the University of California, Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility/Hearst Museum of Anthropology Interview Series on Wednesday, July 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3l4n5hQ2cA

 

Spring, 2020

The planned Summer, 2021 study seasons for the Palatine East Pottery Project in Rome and the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project in Pompei were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

 

The University of California, Berkeley suspended in-person instruction and faculty and student access to laboratory facilities, including the Roman Material Culture Laboratory, on account of the coronavirus pandemic, March 13.

 

Ted Peña presented a talk entitlled "The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project - Characterizing and Comparing Three Residential Artifact Assemblages" as part of the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility Spring, 2019 brown bag talk series on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.

PENA ARF 2020 ABSTRACT

 

Two RMCL affiliates presented papers at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, held in Washington, D.C., January 2-5, 2020 (https://www.archaeological.org/programs/professionals/annual-meeting/):

Karl Racine presented a paper entitled "Morphology and Trade: An Investigation of African Export Amphoras in the Mid-Roman Empire" (Session 3G, Friday, January 3, 1:45-4:45 PM). This drew in substantial measure on the work that he undertook during the Summer, 2019 PEPP study season as part of his MA thesis at Trent University.

RACINE AIA 2020 ABSTRACT

Aaron Brown presented a paper entitled "Taste and Technique: Reconstructing Food Preparation Strategies through Use-Alteration Analysis of First-Century C.E. Cookware Assemblages from Pompeii." (Session 4A, Saturday, January 4, 8:00-10:30 AM). This reported on the results of the PhD dissertation research that he carried out at Pompeii during August - September, 2019 that builds on the results of PALHIP.

BROWN AIA 2020 ABSTRACT

 

Fall, 2019

Alejandro Quevedo Sánchez presented a talk entitled “Explaining urban transformations through Roman pottery: the case of Carthago Nova (southeastern Spain)” as part of the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility Fall, 2019 brown bag talk series on Wednesday, December 11, 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WoNECUCbWE

 

Alejandro Quevedo Sánchez, a member of the faculty of the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology, Ancient History, Medieval History, and Historiographic Sciences and Techniques at the University of Murcia, Spain, is a visiting post-doctoral scholar in the UC Berkeley Roman Material Culture Laboratory for the Fall, 2019 semester. His visit is supported by a grant from the Región de Murcia's Fondación SéNeCa(+).(http://fseneca.es/)

 

Summer, 2019

Aaron Brown is conducting research at Pompeii from July 9 to September 13 in connection with his PhD dissertation, which consists of a study of cooking vessels and utensils at the Vesuvian sites. His work is being supported by a research grant from the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility's Stahl Fund.

 

The Pompeii Artifct Life History Project (PALHIP) completed its seventh annual study season ar Pompeii during the period July 1-27.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Aaron BrownSusanna Faas-Bush (both graduate students, Graduate Program in Classical Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), and Sara Eriksson (entering graduate student, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley).  The season marked the second year of a five-year research cycle for the project, in which the team is focusing its efforts on the characterization of the portable material culture recovered in several small- to medium-sized residences in Insula I.11 at Pompeii. The team worked in the laboratory space at the Casa di Bacco for the entire four weeks of the season, focusing on the finds from four residences: the Casa Imperiale (I.11.17). the Casa/Hospitium di Saturninus (I.11.16), the Casa del Piano Superiore (I.11.15), and the Casa della Venere in Bikini (I.11.06.07),

PALHIP 2019 - Traditional Team Photo

PALHIP 2019 - Sad Team Photo

PALHIP 2019 - Frisky Team Photo

 

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from May 20 through July 7.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Victor Martínez (Department of Classics, University of Arizona ) as Associate Director, Karl Racine (graduate student, Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Canada), Yuan Zhang (graduate student, Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), and Arlene Vespa (Architect, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).  The team, which worked at the American Academy in Rome, focused its efforts on the documentation of the site amphora assemblage, with Ted Peña, Karl Racine, and Yuan Zhang working on the African amphoras, and Victor Martínez continuing his work on the Italian amphoras.  Arlene Vespa served as project illustrator.

Karl Racine also collected data for his MA thesis, which consists of a study of aspects of morphological variability in the African IIA Amphora. His participation was supported by research grants from the  Gilbert and Stewart Bagnani Endowment and the TUARC Armitage Research Fund.

PEPP 2019 Team Photo

 

Spring, 2019 

Sarah Erikkson has accepted an offer of admission to the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology's PhD Program in Archaeology and will be joining the department beginning with the Fall, 2019 semester.  Welcome to Berkeley Sarah!

 

Ted Peña presented a talk entitled “The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project” at the Roman Discussion Forum, Oxford University, Oxford, UK on February 27, 2019.

 

Aaron Brown presented a talk entitled “Reconstructing the Life Histories of Bronze Kitchenwares: The 2018 Season of the Pompeii Artifact Life History Project.” to the Sacramento Archaeological Society in Antelope, California on January 26, 2019.  https://sacarcheology.org/announcements/

 

Aaron Brown and Sara Eriksson presented a paper entitled  "A use-alteration analysis of bronze kitchen wares from two houses in Regio I, Insula 11 at Pompeii, and a consideration of their social context" at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, San Diego, California, January 4, 2019 (https://www.archaeological.org/annualmeeting/). 

BROWN AND ERIKKSON AIA ABSTRACT 2019.pdf

 

Fall, 2018

Ted Peña presented a lecture entitled “New wine in old bottles: the reuse and recycling of pottery in the Roman world.” at the Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa,  on September 9, 2018.  https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/calendar/eid/ED89ECF096B603D7/lectures/j-theodore-pena/

 

Summer, 2018

The Pompeii Artifct Life History Project (PALHIP) completed its sixth annual study season ar Pompeii during the period July 2-28.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Aaron Brown, Ryan Reynolds, Susanna Faas-Bush (all graduate students, Graduate Program in Classical Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), and Sara Eriksson (graduate student, Lund University, Sweden, and visiting student, University of California, Berkeley).  The season marked the beginning of second five-year research cycle for the project, in which the team will focus its efforts on the characterization of the portable material culture recovered in a set of eight small- to medium-sized residences in Insula I.11 at Pompeii. The team worked in the newly created laboratory space at the Casa di Bacco for the entire four weeks of the season, focusing on the finds from two residences, the Casa di Lucius Haboniaus Primus (I.11.5.8), and the Casa Imperiale (I.11.17).   

PALHIP 2018 Team Photo

 

Ted Peña presented a lecture entitled “The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project – the study of the life histories of objects in a Roman town.” for the Rome Society of Archaeological Institute of America at John Cabot University, in Rome, Italy, on June 14, 2018.

 

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from May 21 through July 29.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Victor Martínez (Fine Arts Department, Roanoke College) and Janne Ikäheimo (Oulu University, Finland) as Associate Directors, Jennfier Black (graduate student, Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), and Arlene Vespa (Architect, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).  The team, which worked at the American Academy in Rome, made substantial progress on its documentation of various classes of pottery in the Palatine East pottery assemblage.  Jennifer Black completed her work with the regional fineware pottery.  Victor Martínez continued his work on the Italian amphoras. Janne Ikäheimo continued his work with the cookwares and utilitarian wares.  Ted Peña continued his work on various classes of tableware.  Arlene Vespa served as project illustrator.

PEPP 2018 Team Photo

 

Spring, 2018 

Caroline Cheung presented a paper entitled “Precious pots: making and repairing dolia,” in the panel “Making Value and the Value of Making: Theory and Practice in Craft Production” at the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, held in Cologne/Bonn, Germany, May 22-26, 2018.  http://www.aiac2018.de/

 

Jennifer Black presented a lecture entitled "The Palatine East Pottery Project" for the Sacramento Archaeological Society, in Carmichael, California on April 22, 2018.  http://sacarcheology.org/announcements/

 

Caroline Chueng accepted a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in the Princeton University Department of Classics to begin in August, 2018CONGRATULATIONS CAROLINE!

 

Amanda Dobrov presented a poster entitled "Roman Amphorae of North Africa: Markers of a Pan-Mediterranean Economy" at the 83rd Annual Meeging of the Society for American Archaeology, held in Washington D.C., April 11-15, 2018. This reported the results of her senior honors thesis project that involves the analysis of the African amphora compoment of the Palatine East pottery assemblage that she is undertaking as part of PEPP.

 

Aaron Brown completed an internship at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, in Rome, Italy, during the period March - June, 2018 under the auspices of the University of California, Berkeley Department of the History of Art's Mellon Initiative for Graduate Study in Curatorial Preparedness.  http://arthistory.berkeley.edu/announcement/1799046-mellon-initiative-for-graduate-study-in

 

Ted Peña presented a lecture “The Palatine East Pottery Project: the study and on-line publication of 20 tons of pottery from downtown Rome.” at the Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, Calfironia, on January 31, 2018.  http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html?event_ID=114744&date=2018-01-31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpvPSulKjG8

 

RMCL affiliates made three presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of American, held in Boston Massachusetts, January 4-7, 2018.  

https://www.archaeological.org/annualmeeting       https://www.archaeological.org/meeting/program

Jennifer Black presented a paper entitled "Parthian Rhyta at Home and Abroad: Reconsidering the Ivory Rhyta of Nisa in Light of Roman Evidence from the First Century B.C.E".

Caroline Cheung presented a paper entitled “Fragile giants: the manufacture and repair of dolia in west-central Italy”.

Caroline Cheung and Gina Tibbott (with S. Chang) presented a poster entitled “Calculating material use in dolium production: a synthetic approach”.

 

Fall, 2017

Laure Marest-Caffey accepted a position as the Cornelius and Emily Vermeule Assistant Curator, Greek and Roman Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MassachusettsCONGRATULATIONS LAURE! http://www.mfa.org/membership/museum-council/news/2018/spring/curator-laure-marest-caffey

 

Ted Peña presented a lecture “The state mobilization of olive oil in Zeugitana and Byzacena during the later fourth century CE” for the Stanford Archaeology Center Annual Lecture Workshop Series, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA on October 12, 2017.  https://stanford.app.box.com/s/dg90lse2jw8ny6b7i504mb73k4ly3adr

 

Caroline Cheung presented a lecture “Dolia Pompeiana: storage and packaging in Pompeii and the Vesuvian region” at the Symposium Campanum “Recent Work in Vesuvian Lands: New Projects, Practices, and Approaches,” held at the Villa Vergiliana, Cuma, Italy, on October 7, 2017.  http://www.vergiliansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Symposium-Campanum-2017-Program.pdf

 

Ted Peña presented a paper “Recycling in the Roman world: definitions, materials, and organization” at the Oxford Roman Economy Project conference "Recycling and the Ancient Economy", held at Oxford University, Oxford United Kingdom, September 22-23, 2017http://oxrep.classics.ox.ac.uk/pages/recycling_and_the_ancient_economy/

 

Summer, 2017

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from June 20 through July 29.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Victor Martínez (Department of Art, Kansas State University) and Janne Ikäheimo (Oulu University, Finland) as Associate Directors, Jennfier Black (graduate student, Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), Arlene Vespa (Archiect, Champaign Illinois School District), and Amanda Dobrov (a University of California undergraduate majoring in Anthropology and Classics).  The team, which worked at the American Academy in Rome, made substantial progress on its documentation of various classes of pottery in the Palatine East pottery assemblage.  Jennifer Black continued her work with the regional fineware pottery.  Victor Martínez continued his work on the Italian amphoras. Janne Ikäheimo ciontinued his work with the cookwares and utilitarian wares.  Ted Peña completed work on the various classes of African Sigillata and thin-walled ware.  Amanda Dobrov continued work on the North African amphoras, in preparation for a senior honors thesis that she will complete during academic year 2017-2018.  Arlene Vespa served as project illustrator.

PEPP 2017 Team Photo

 

The Pompeii Artifct Life History Project (PALHIP) did not undertake a study season during Summer, 2017 as the project had completed its first five-year research cycle in 2016.  The project team will be back in the field in Summer, 2018.

  

Spring, 2017

Janne Ikäheimo and Victor Martinez presented a paper reporting on some of their PEPP research entitled “Same as it ever was? – Structured light 3D-scanning and the specific gravity of late Roman transport amphorae from North Africa and Spain” accepted at the Sixth International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, held in Agrigento, Italy, May 24-28, 2017.  ABSTRACT  http://www.fasticongressuum.com/single-post/2016/08/16/Sixth-International-Conference-on-Late-Roman-Coarse-Wares-Cooking-Wares-and-Amphorae-in-the-Mediterranean-Archaeology-and-Archaeometry-Land-and-sea-pottery-routes---24-25-26-27-28052017-Agrigento-Italy

 

Jennifer Black has been awarded a grant from the Sacramento Archeological Society to support her participation in the PEPP Summer, 2017 study season.  CONGRATULATIONS JEN!

 

Aaron Brown has been awarded a Mellon Curatorial Internship for the Fall, 2017 semester from the University of California, Berkeley Department of the History of Art under its Mellon Initiative for Graduate Study in Curatorial Preparedness and Object-Based Learning program (March 23, 2017).  The locus and dates of the internship are currently being arranged.  CONGRATULATIONS AARON!

 

The initial set of PEPP project results was migrated onto RES ROMANAE (March 22, 2017).  

For a description of these materials go to New Site Content (http://resromanae.berkeley.edu/node/3702) and PEPP – Pottery Assemblage Data (http://resromanae.berkeley.edu/node/3576).

 

Winter, 2016-2017

Amanda Dobrov has won a SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) from the University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Sciences to support her work on the African amphoras from the Palatine East as part of the PEPP Summer, 2017 study season (March 10, 2017).  This fellowship will also support the analysis of this material that she will undertake as her senior thesis during the 2017-2081 academic year.  CONGRATULATIONS AMANDA!

 

PALHIP featured in article in USA Today (January, 20, 2017).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/20/truth-garbage-new-research-examines-ancient-roman-trash/96815766/

 

Amanda Dobrov made a presentation entitled “Roman amphoras of North Africa: Markers of a pan-Mediterranean economy” at the Sacramento Archaeological Society's Scholar Symposium in West Sacramento, CA, on January 15, 2017, reporting on the work that she carrried out in Rome during the 2016 PEPP study season supported by a grant awarded to her by the Society.

 

Members of the PALHIP team made three presentations on their work (some PALHIP related, some not) at the 118th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, held in Toronto, Canada (January 5-8, 2017):

Caroline Cheung and Gina Tibbott presented a poster “The dolia of Regio I, Insula 22: Evidence for the production and repair of dolia” in the poster session, for which they were awarded the prize for best posterCONGRATULATIONS TO CAROLINE AND GINA!

C. Cheung and G. Tibbott Pose with Their Award-Winning Poster

 

Laure Marest-Caffey presented a paper "Reconstructing networks from the archive of Seleukeia on the Tigris: ruler portraits on hellenistic seals" in the session "Graeco-Roman Graffiti, Seals, and Crafts", for which she was awarded honorable mention in the best graduate student paper competition.  CONGRATULATIONS TO LAURE!

Ted Peña and Caroline Cheung presented a paper “The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project: new methodological approaches and illustrative results” in the colloquium session "Small Finds; Writ Large".

 

Fall, 2016

Caroline Cheung, a charter member of the PALHIP team, holds a Rome Prize at the American Academy at Rome for academic year 2016-2017.  During her fellowship tenure she is working on her PhD dissertation, which examines packaing in the Roman world.

 

The RES ROMANAE website goes live! (November 7, 2016; 9 AM Pacific Standard Time). 

 

Ted Peña undertook a sabbatical research trip to Rome, where he worked in the archaeological storeroom at the American Academy in Rome on pottery for the Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP)  (November 12, 2016 - January 4, 2017).

 

PEPP was awarded a grant of $4,200 by the UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility Stahl Fund in support of its planned Summer, 2017 season (December 7, 2016).

 

Ted Peña joined the editorial board of the American Journal of Archaeologyhttp://www.ajaonline.org/about

 

Summer, 2016

The Pompeii Artifct Life History Project (PALHIP) completed its fifth annual study season ar Pompeii from June 6 through July 9.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Aaron Brown (graduate student, Graduate Program in Classical Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), Caroline Cheung (graduate student, Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), and Laure Marest-Caffey (graduate student, Graduate Program in History of Art, University of California, Berkeley).  This year the team worked on two different sub-projects.  They spent the first four weeks of the five-week season beginning a new sub-project at Oplontis Viila B, a warehouse/wine bottling facility on the outskirts of Pompeii that was excavated by the Sopintendenza Archeologica di Pompei n the 1970s and 1980s and has been the subject of renewed excavation and documentationn by a team from the University of Texas, Austin since 2012.  The PALHIP team focused on the detailed study of a sub-set of the over 1000 used wine amphoras that were being held in storage at the facility awaiting re-filling with wine.  The work, which shed interesting new light on the practices of wine bottling in the Roman world, involved the experimental application of two high-tech procedures - the use of a structured light scanner to produce 3-d scans of the amphoras and the use of UV/IR photography to document the tituli picti (painted shipping lavels) present on some of the vessels.  The team devoted the final week of the season to completing its work on the sub-project that involved the study of the materials recovered in tthe Università Statale di Milano excavations of the refuse middens immediately ourside the city wall of Pompeii in the area of Tower 8.  The team attended the international conference Fecisti Cretaria hosted by the Soprintendza per i Beni Archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabiae at Pompei on June 17 and 18, with Ted Peña presenting a lecture on the team's work with the Tower 8 midden materials and Caroline Cheung and Gina Tibbott presenting a poster on the team's work with the Insula 1.22 dolia

PALHIP 2016 Team Photo

 

The Palatine East Pottery Project (PEPP) completed its annual study season in Rome from June 20 through July 30.  The project team consisted of Ted Peña as Director, Victor Martínez (Department of Art, Kansas State University) as Associate Director, Jennfier Black (graduate student, Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology. University of California, Berkeley), Arlene Vespa (Archiect, Champaign Illinois School District), Amanda Dobrov (a University of California undergraduate majoring in Anthropology and Classics), Samantha Lloyd-Knauf (a University of Califorrnia, Berkeley undergraduate majoring in History of Art and Italian Studies), and MacKenzie Davis (a Monmouth College undergraduate majoring in Classical Studies).  The team, which worked at the American Academy in Rome, made substantial progress on its documentation of various classes of pottery in the Palatine East pottery assemblage.  Jennifer Black completed her work with the regional fineware pottery.  Victor Martínez and MacKenzie Davis continued their work on the Italian amphoras,  Ted Peña and Samantah Lloyd-Knauf worked on the various classes of thin-walled ware.  Amanda Dobrov initiated work on the North African amphoras, laying the groundwork for a senior project that she will complete during the summer of 2017 and academic year 2017-2018.  Arlene Vespa served as project illustrator.

PEPP 2016 Team Photo