URBAN GEOLOGY OF ANCIENT ROME: INTRODUCTION TO GEOARCHAEOLOGY AND SPELEOARCHAEOLOGY

This interdisciplinary course is offered as a 2-week intensive study abroad program in Rome, Italy. The course uses a field geology approach as the gateway to archeological, historical and anthropological understanding of the evolution of the urban environment across the centuries. The course is part of an ongoing collaboration between George Mason University and the Center for Speleoarcheological Research Sotterranei di Roma, Italy. The course fulfills the University general education requirement in global understanding. The goal of the course is to help students to develop an understanding of the interplay of the territory and the culture and to see “the past is the key to the future” principle in application at the scale of human history. At the street level, Rome shows mostly the last 4-5 centuries of its development, the reminder of the city is still below the surface in structures that are now part of the urban stratigraphy.

The course consists of a set of instructional sessions and field exercises. Three factors constitute the common denominator of all course activities: topography, geological settings (including hydrology) and building materials and techniques. The instructional sessions take place at archeological sites where the three factors are evident so students learn how to observe/measure orientation and relationships among man-made structures and correlate them in space and time. These learning objectives are supported by just-on-time teaching techniques and Socratic questioning. The field exercises are designed to introduce the students to methodology and techniques of exploration of hypogean structures (Speleo-geoarchaeology). Students receive basic training of progression in hypogean environments and are equipped with protective gear. For the exercises, groups of 3-4 students interact directly with the researchers working at the excavation sites in a mentor-apprentice relationship; the exercises last half to a full day so students have time to practice on site strategic problem solving under the guidance of the experts.

The model developed for this course could be easily transferred to other urban environments and/or archeological sites where the goal is the understanding of how human history is embedded in the geologic history of a place.