Tuesday and Wednesday in MD

The name of the N.E.H.-funded portion of our summer-study program was, "Houses of Gods and Mortals." Our group would be spending time in Italy studying temples as houses of the gods, the architectural remains of ancient houses, and tombs as houses of the dead. It made for a nice thematic unit.

Dr. Glenn R. Bugh, Virginia Tech

On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, Dr. Glenn R. Bugh of Virginia Tech presented a lecture on the archaeology of Roman Italy. The next day he lectured about the Etruscans, an ancient race to the north of Rome that declined in influence as Rome was coming to power. They eventually died out and their language along with them. We mostly know about them from their tombs and from what we can make out of their inscriptions. Dr. Bugh told us there are three types of these tombs:

• the Aedicula tomb, like a little house
• the Cassone tomb, like a box or coffin
• the Tumulus tomb, like a little hill with an entryway

In almost all cases, except Cassone, they were intended to be family tombs. There's a communal nature to the tombs and their use. The tombs are arranged in a necropolis, or city of the dead. There are whole streets of the dead in Etruria. I had visited these tombs in the 1980s. They were a favorite part of my summer study then, and I was looking forward to going back.

Mary Lou presents about graffitti

Although this was an N.E.H. Institute, the format was closer to an N.E.H. Summer Seminar. Participants were required to not only do research but to take on many of the lectures. I had the opportunity to be one of the first participant lecturers. My topic was about ancient Roman graffiti, which is mostly found in Pompeii. I gave an overview about what types of graffiti have been discovered and why we should study it. This presentation dovetailed nicely with Sr. Dougherty's, which followed. She had many more examples of graffiti for the group to study than I had in my rather brief but well-received presentation. To view it  on Google Docs, click here and download.

I would like to thank the folks at the National Endowmnent for the Humanities for making this portion of my trip possible.