This past January I was fortunate enough to spend a month in Italy studying Roman history. The itinerary included day trips to visit various museums, basilicas, and archaeological sites. It was an amazing experience with many breathtaking sights, but it was also made me feel very disembodied from the history. I thought that I would feel more connected to the past actually being in Rome and seeing the Roman Forum or walking around Pompeii, but everything was still kept at an arm’s length from me. I felt like I was being spoon-fed the history without getting really immersed in it. Or, at least, as immersed as I would have liked to have been. This internship was an entirely different experience for me. I was able to dive head first into the deep waters of historical research in a much more challenging and satisfying way.
The field work was a lot like blindly submersing myself into historical research. I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into and I was pretty sure that I both wouldn’t like it and wouldn’t be good at it. I have always viewed myself as a more bookish person and I thought this archaeological internship would give me a greater appreciation of field work but it wouldn’t be something I would want to pursue. To my surprise, I immensely enjoyed the field work. It was beyond satisfying to see the progress we made throughout the season, I was actually uncovering history with my own two hands. Each new thing we found was a new part of the puzzle which needed to be considered. Our hypothesis changed from day to day so the work never felt like just blind digging, we were looking for answers.
One moment that really sticks out in my mind is when we realized that the southern wall in my unit extends further than we originally believed. I had been working on leveling the area outside our structure and there were some rocks that seemed really stuck in place. After digging deeper, we found mortar and we realized that the rocks lined up with the visible part of the southern wall, leading us to believe that the rocks were a continuation of the wall. Finding more of the southern wall was my first really big discovery and was a turning point for me. I had been enjoying the time and digging before then, but finding the new part of the wall gave me a new fervor and passion to keep digging and investigating. I realized that I really like walls and working with walls, which has lead me to consider further work with archaeology. It was just so amazing to be a part of the process of discovering a structure and finding out what its purpose may have been. We use the evidence that we uncover ourselves to try and solve an ever-changing puzzle. When I got there, three of the walls (or really two and a half) were completely buried and we didn’t even know they were there. Now, because of the work that I had a hand in, what was a rock pile of a structure is two Roman walls repurposed by a later Byzantine wall into a baptistry.
I am really sad that this marvelous and transformative experience has come to an end, but I am excited to see what the future holds and where I will go from here.