Vada Volaterrana. A Harbour in the Mediterranean Sea

3/31712
label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Cristian Ion
Our project stems from the archaeological researches the Laboratory of Ancient Topography of the University of Pisa has been conducting for over twenty years at St. Gaetano di Vada (municipality of Rosignano Marittimo, Livorno), along the coast of Tuscany. Here a settlement of considerable interest, related to the harbour system of the famous Etruscan and Roman city of Volterra, has been found and partially excavated.Now the Laboratory of Ancient Topography is going to start a Summer School opened to foreign and Italian students of archaeology, who wish to live an experience of archaeological excavation in Italy.

During three weeks the Summer School's students will practice with all the different activities an archaeologist usually does into the field and in the lab, from the discovery of a new site until its stratigraphic excavation and study:

- Survey in the surroundings of the site

- Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) analysis.

- Stratigraphic excavation, consisting of digging in the site of Vada Volaterrana and related labs (GIS lab, pottery lab)

Lectures will focus on the history and archaeology of the harbour of Vada Volaterrana and its sorroundings and on archaeological methods, in order to explain students all the activities they will face during the excavation on site.

Period
06-07-2014 - 26-07-2014 (3 weeks)

Target group
University students studying archeology.No prerequisites are requested for the field school; students will be trained for all the activities theyll experience. Project Size: 1-24 participants

Minimum Age: 19



Course aim
These will be our main purposes:

- Conducting tutorial activities that allow participants to understand the scientific method that archaeologists use today, starting from when a site is identified through surveys and GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) investigations until the stratigraphic excavation.

- The scientific research of the University of Pisa will extend to a new area of the settlement, recently identified through geophysical surveys. Participants will be deeply involved in this new adventure, thanks to a team of skillful archaeologists.rn

Credits
6.0 ECTS credits

Name of institution offering credit: Pisa UniversityNumber of credits offered: 6 Pisa Univ. credits offered (150 hours). The Laboratory of Ancient Topography of the University of Pisa will issue signed certificates for all the activities made during the Field School, specifying type and hours.

Course fee
EUR 0: 1,920 ($2,500)These fees will cover transports from and to the site, housing, meals, excavation, laboratory equipment, and staff costs, and are payable in full upon admission. There are no application fees, however students are required to pay support fees in full within 2 weeks of admission. International travel to/ from Italy is not included in these fees and is the students sole responsibility.

Course leader
Stefano Genovesi

Classical Archaeologist, collaborator of the Archaeological Superintendences of Tuscany, Liguria and Sardinia. He got his MA degree at the University of Pisa with a thesis on a late Augustan age shipwreck charged with lead inscribed ingo

University of Pisa Laboratory of Ancient Topography
Address: Via M.Mozzoni 18
Postal code: 56017
City: Pisa
Country: Italy
Website: http://www.diggingvada.com
E-mail: diggingvada@gmail.com
Phone: +39 3384755644