A site that you—and many scholars—have never heard of

The ancient site of Gabii sits some 11 miles to the east of the city of Rome, on the 12th milestone of the ancient Via Praenestina, and located just south of the old Lago di Castiglione, which was filled in to make arable land. In this undeveloped space, lying underneath the ground, is a city—well, town—that could revolutionize how we envision early Italian culture and architecture.

Gabii was an city in Latium that, while Rome was but a whelp, was rather wealthy and powerful by ancient standards. If Roman legends can be believed, Romulus (the founder of Rome) and Remus, were educated here, the Romans and Gabii fought in the period of the Tarquins (the last kings of Rome, see below), and forged a treaty soon after on equal terms. Some Roman customs were said to have originated from here, such as the famous cinctus Gabinus, a fancy way to wear the toga during sacrifice and other important cultural events. In 2009, Italian archaeologists found what appears to be a sixth century house that contained ornamental decoration and wall paintings. In a move typical for Italian archaeologists, they declared that they "found the home of the Tarquins," where Sextus Tarquinius was killed by the citizens of Gabii when the kings were forced out of power in Rome (article in English and Italian). No one doubts the importance of this find—we only have a handful of elaborate buildings from the sixth century—but to claim it belonged specifically to Etruscan kings is simply poppycock. I realize that the title "Wealthy Sixth Century Latian House Found" won't get as many readers as "House of the Tarquins Found," but there is danger to overstating the evidence. See also the story about "Alexander's" tomb below in "Tidbits."

This year's excavations were a great success, and the most important discovery is a monumental building, with large rooms and a grand staircase, that covers the area of half a football field. The building dates to around 300 BC, and the monumental aspect of this building complex is unusual for this time period. Conventional wisdom has it that the Romans of the middle Republic were not terribly interested in conspicuous buildings—that would have to wait until the Romans started encountering Greeks in southern Italy and Greece. We'll have to wait for further excavations (see below) and the written report by the archaeologists. Here is a NYTimes article that gives an overview of the monumental find.

Gabii is the center for one of the most intensive American excavations currently going on in Italy, the Gabii Project. If you ever want to get a sense of what a modern archaeological dig requires in terms of manpower and specialists in a variety of fields, go see the project website.There are many great things about the Gabii Project, which is run out of the University of Michigan. First, it is a field school, so budding archaeologists are given the opportunity to sharpen their skills and learn to use the most up to date technological tools that are available. Second, there is a big social media presence on Facebook, and they keep a blog about the ongoing excavations. Their season ended August 5. Originally, their first campaign was set to expire in 2013, but their website now announces that they have extended it to 2014. This is great news.

Weekly Tidbits:

The number of visitors to the Forum and Colosseum during Ferragosto rose 13% over last year. The reason why is not entirely clear, but one wonders if making the archaeological zone a pedestrian-only area had something to do with it.

Mark your calendars for years hence (August 2017)! This is when the University of Catania's experiment to reproduce wine based on ancient grape varietals will, ahem, bear fruit.

They found Alexander the Great's tomb. Oh, wait, let's not jump the gun. Back in October they announced this archaeological find (see here) but ascribed this fourth c. BC tomb to Roxane, Alexander's wife. But over the past few days "news" sources have picked up an run with the idea that this monumental structure is Alexander's tomb...though all sources indicate he was buried in Egypt. Here is a sensible article with excellent pictures, though it still has "Alexander" in the title.