Gabii Legacy Data Project
Gabii Legacy Data Project
Examining artefacts at Gabii in 2022 (Credit: Laura Banducci)
Aerial photo of the Area Urbana under excavation in May 1999 (Credit: Sopraintendenza di Roma)
The Gabii Legacy Data Project is a collaboration between the Soprintendenza Speciale Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Roma and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology-Gabii Project to study, digitize, and preserve archaeological materials from unpublished excavations of the Area Urbana at the archaeological site of Gabii (prot. N. 44170 del 06/11/2020). The project aims to integrate the documentation from excavations undertaken by the soprintendenza from 1998-1999 (including excavation diaries and a photographic archive) and the ceramics and small finds together with the data recovered in the contiguous area by the Gabii Project excavations (which have been ongoing since 2009).
The 2021 campaign involved the digitization of the entire archaeological archive by Giordano Iacomelli and Anna Gallone.
The 2022 campaign saw the beginning of the integration of the spatial data (including balloon photos, maps, and other photographs) with a modern GIS. Laura Banducci also began reconstructing our understanding of the stratigraphic units and creating a first harris matrix based on the original excavation diaries. This allowed for our first study season to examine pottery and other artefacts in storage at Gabii. The lab work was undertaken with the help of Annabeth Deakin, Nigel Klemenčič-Puglisevich, Charlotte Parry, Alison Rittershaus, D. Buck Roberson, Giordano Iacomelli, and Shannon Ness.
The 2023 campaign saw Marilyn Evans continue the assessment of the excavation record creating a broader harris matrix for the area urbana where excavations in 1998 and 1999 overlapped with the Gabii Project work in “Area F,” the monumental 3rd century BCE complex. Laura Banducci also led more laboratory work studying the artefacts in storage. The laboratory work was undertaken with the help of Annabeth Deakin, Shanna Ingram, Nigel Klemenčič-Puglisevich, Erica Venturo, and Shannon Ness.
The 2024 campaign will focus on understanding the latest phases of the area urbana excavations from 1999 which overlapped with our Gabii Project’s “Area G and H” excavations from 2016-2018. Parrish Wright is leading the effort to interpret the excavation diaries pertinent to this sector of the site. Laboratory work on the artefacts in storage at Gabii will continue in the summer of 2024.
Preliminary results will be presented at the Archaeological Institute of America meetings in Chicago in January 2024: Marilyn Evans, Laura Banducci, Parrish Wright, Rocco Bochicchio and Chiara Andreotti: “Re-Populating Late Antique Gabii: The first two seasons of the Gabii Legacy Data Project.”
The project has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University, and the Harvard Loeb Foundation.