September - 2017

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Vetricella and Vignale

Vetricella and Vignale

Glorious early autumnal weather is perfect for excavating in Italy. The colours in the soil clearly show up layers and features and provide an opportunity to make informed judgements about stratigraphic relationships. From these relationships new archaeological narratives emerge. At Vetricella the excavations are into their third week. Everyone is now excited. We have a working hypothesis for this unusual early medieval site between the lost Follonica lagoon and the Via Aurel

Awarding an Honorary Doctoral Degree to the irrepressible Rula Jebreal

Awarding an Honorary Doctoral Degree to the irrepressible Rula Jebreal

Last night AUR awarded an honorary doctoral degree to the irrepressible Rula Jebreal, a journalist who has used her many connections to confront the present refugee crisis. Meet AUR’s Syrian students, selected from many now refugees in Lebanon, and you can hear W.H.Auden’s gruff warning, made in the late 30s, in his elegiac Refugee Blues: ‘Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet ther

Tuscany and the origins of the Euro (nEU-Med)

A (West) Baltic Sea treasure trove

A (West) Baltic Sea treasure trove

I was fortunate to hear Unn Pedersen’s lecture on the Viking port of Kaupang at the Norwegian Institute (just up the road from The American University of Rome). Unn spoke about the recent Kaupang excavations in which she took a leading part (http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/people/aca/unnpe/index.html) Simply told, well illustrated, it was an exceptionally clear and wide-ranging lecture for an audience with or without much knowledge of this celebrated Dark Age emporium in so

A new student lounge at AUR

A new student lounge at AUR

Back in AUR, having battled with Lucifer – the summer heatwave – our architects and their colleagues have worked a small miracle – a new student lounge. Addressing the eager eyes of our students, it feels like we’ve hurdled generations to open this new lounge. It is light, subtly painted, and above all comfortable for our students with or without lap-tops. Today everyone is excited as this paves the way for the substantive academic changes AUR is making. It feels like a littl

Italy in Philly: Gran Caffe L’Aquila

Italy in Philly: Gran Caffe L’Aquila

Philadelphia has its own Little Italy and strong connections with the Mezzogiorno of old. But now there is a new connection and one that resonates with the new energy in this city and the “made in Italy’ brand. Gran Caffe L’Aquila Gran Caffe L’Aquila was a landmark café in L’Aquila. In 2007 it won the prestigious café of the year for all of Italy, but was then badly damaged in L’Aquila’s devastating earthquake of 2009. Three years later the owners Stefano Biasini (Gelato Cham

Lecturing at Catholic

Lecturing at Catholic

Mediterranean history at Catholic (University of America) (Washington DC) I am at CUA (in Washington’s “Little Rome”) to lecture, give a grad seminar and talk about our summer school for historians in the Maremma. CUA students took part in a summerschool that Dr. Jennifer Davis (from CUA) and I led in 2016. Now we are looking at a new program for May-June 2018, focusing upon Vetricella, the marvellous early medieval site at the heart of my nEU-Med project (with the University

Analysing the Devil in the White City

Analysing the Devil in the White City

H.H. Holmes was a serial killer made famous by Erik Larson’s gripping The Devil in the White City. In Chicago’s gilded age Holmes preyed on gullible young women and their families, running insurance scams to become rich. Some say he was London’s infamous Ripper to boot. Finally captured in 1895, Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) admitted to 27 murders (but he may have committed as many as 200) and was executed in 1896 and buried in a cement coffin (to deter grave robbers)

Big Moose Adirondack Camp

Big Moose Adirondack Camp

Labor Day weekend and the end of summer. I have motored to the Adirondacks. Generally unknown outside of the States, the Adirondack park covers over 6 million acres and includes more than 10,000 lakes and 30,000 miles of mountain rivers and streams. For almost two centuries it has welcomed flocks of visitors. An oasis in summer, it is between now and Columbus Day that it is most spectacular. The leaves of the wilderness forests are luxuriantly draped in radiant russets and ve

Philly redux

Philly redux

Landing at Philadelphia International Airport, multiple signs in baggage claim spell out that the city of brotherly love is the USA’s first Unesco World Heritage City. It has been inscribed for two years and is mightily proud. How things have changed. When I first lectured here in 1980, parts of the city seemed to be a war zone. Returning in 1994 I was warned off walking from the University of Pennsylvania ten blocks to a lunch in Center City. Violence was endemic. Not today!

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