Lab News

I finally have sometime to tell you about where I work.

Tivoli is a small town about a hour away from Rome on bus. It is situated on top a hill (very picturesque. Next time I will pull out my camera so yall can see it. The most visited thing is actually Villa Adriana which I think is very cool. The entire lab came to get me from the station the first time I made the trip out there. Little did I know that we were on the way to an excavation. We arrived at a 13th century building that has gone through several remoldeling over the years. What they were unearthing at the time was an elevator shaft. They date the remains back to the 2nd WW but the issue was that at the time the building functioned as a hospital for the elderly and what they were finding were the remains of children. On top of it all was that the few skulls that had already emerged showed signs of fatal traumas including bullet holes and knife gashes. Not a bad introduction to my new job. As it turns out what I am going to be looking at wont take me the whole time. From what I can see I should have a few more days after I finish. So they have invited me to help on the site. I am so excited! I cant wait! The only issue is that no one really speaks english in the lab.

It has been a huge asset to know spanish and it is the only way I have been getting by. The more I hear though, the easier it gets. Not to mention, the Argentinian person I work with has been helping translate whenever I go out to like the supermarket and stuff like that. In the lab, it is mostly my very broken italian and we sort of get by. There are 18 people total but normally only 4 are in the office as the rest are at the excavation.

The specimens that I am looking at are from 417 AD Roman and consist of about 54 individuals that were in a mass grave. They are believed to be commoners because of enviroment in which they were found and the high incidence of disease. They have a little of everything from leprosy, tuberculosis, trepanematosis, brucello, etc. It has been amazing to handle this bones. Another problem is that they were not buried with any kind of separation or method of identifying what belongs to whom. So each piece is treated separately which complicates things immensely. I have worked it out transportation for the rest of the time here. There is a girl that also works there who lives near la Sapienza so in the mornings I meet her outside the front entrance and she has a car that she uses to get there. There is a toll that we have been trading off everyday. They have a huge collection of which I am seeing a tiny portion. Apperantly they publish 4 or 5 articles a year which I can understand since they get new material almost everyday and they are the only ones in that specific area. On my first day, I was given a copy of their newest book to give as a present for George and here the stories of how they know each other etc.

Besides work, this week (please see Wenjie's post) I basically went with Wenjie's friends and her throughout Rome and Ostea. Sunday I had to take a break solely bc of my feet. They look and feel like they went through a tree chucker so I just did some things around the house, clean, and fixed my computer up a little to give my feet a break. But, now I am back and ready to start again. Until later....peace.