The Casa della Regina Carolina (CRC) Project is currently seeking volunteers for its 2020 season. We invite colleagues to circulate this message to any graduate or undergraduate students who may be interested.

Project description

This excavation and survey of a large house at Pompeii investigates relationships between domestic material culture, social performance, and historical change. A new study of Pompeian household space provides an opportunity to reexamine traditional, top-down narratives about the relationship between “macro-scale” history (e.g., political or military developments) and the “micro-scale” of daily domestic experience.

The site of Pompeii is central to any account of Roman households and daily life, as well as to the history of household archaeology more broadly. However, much of the archaeological record at Pompeii results from early excavations conducted before modern field methods and recording practices. This study focuses on the so-called Casa della Regina Carolina (VIII 3.14), a house originally excavated in the early 19th century. However, only the volcanic ash was removed, leaving the floors and garden unexcavated below the 79 CE ground level. Furthermore, and partly because of the early date of the initial excavations, the house has seen very little systematic academic study. Aside from a few brief mentions in specialist publications, little detailed discussion of the house as a whole has appeared since the 19th century. Additionally, the house’s pre-79 CE phases remain entirely unstudied.

The present project aims to survey the house and excavate the garden area, where our 2018–2019 seasons discovered evidence of an earlier occupation phase. The first two field seasons involved ground-penetrating radar, LiDAR recording of standing architecture, a vegetation survey, and  some initial excavation. That excavation confirmed the presence of intact stratigraphy and identified earlier Samnite or Republican domestic structures beneath the 79 CE stratum. Excavation in 2020 will focus on further uncovering the pre-79 CE domestic structures identified in the 2018–2019 excavations, as well as continuing to explore the 79 CE garden.

Applying to join

We intend to go into the field again in June and July 2020 (precise dates to be determined soon), and we are accepting applications now. We are especially interested in filling positions on (1) our digging team, (2) our finds processing team, (3) our drafting and architecture team, and (4) our archaeobotany team.

Applicants should send the following materials to [email protected]: (1) a current CV, (2) a 2-page statement of interest, and (3) for current students or recent postgraduates, a recent academic transcript.

Applications will be considered and accepted on a rolling basis, so prospective team members are urged to submit applications as soon as possible.

Expenses

This project does not charge tuition or fees. However, participants should be prepared to pay for their own travel, room, and board expenses. Team members are required to stay in collective housing arranged by the project. At present, we anticipate that housing may be at the Vesuvian Institute in Castellamare di Stabia, where many team members stayed in 2019. The Vesuvian Institute provides full board (breakfast, bag lunch, and dinner). In 2019, room and board expenses were approximately €45/day per person.

Contact: Dr. Caitlín Barrett, Associate Professor of Classics, Cornell University ([email protected])

More information: More information about the CRC Project and the application process may be found at our project website (http://blogs.cornell.edu/crcpompeii/introduction/the-site/), as well as the website of the Archaeological Institute of America (https://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/casa-della-regina-carolina-crc-project-pompeii-2/).