DOMUS AUREA

La Domus Aurea di Roma riaprirà la domenica.

Dopo sei lunghi anni, la Domus sarà riaperta al pubblico solo nel fine settimana, per permettere agli archeologi di continuare i loro lavori (inclusi in un programma di 4 anni) lungo la settimana, che prevedono l'apertura di nuove aree della Domus stessa.


Ai visitatori saranno inoltre spiegate le tecniche di restauro impiegate (che possono anche essere seguite on line sull'Internet).

E' stato annunciato lo scorso venerdì, dai portavoce del Ministero dei Beni Culturali, che saranno necessari 31 milioni di euro per il completo restauro.

La Domus si estendeva inizialmente per una superficie di circa tre campi da calcio, ma i suoi giardini avevano un'estensione molto maggiore: la costruzione dell'intero ricchissimo complesso aveva richiesto l'abbattimento di moltissime modeste costruzioni degli abitanti stessi di Roma (che anche per questo motivo odiavano Nerone e sparsero la voce del famoso incendio provocato da lui). Alla sua morte, in segno di disprezzo e di 'damnatio memoriae' la casa fu abbattuta e sepolta. Anche per queti motivi ora si trova sotto terra e solo una piccola parte di essa è oggi visitabile.
La Domus Aurea fu aperta al pubblico nel 1999, ma alcuni crolli ne consigliarono ripetutamente la chiusura per motivi di sicurezza.

Nel nuovo progetto, per cui la direttrice dei lavori, Fedora Filippi, chiede la partecipazione della cittadinanza, saranno messi in sicurezza e ridisegnati anche i giardini pubblici soprastanti alla villa.


Nero’s Domus Aurea to reopen on Sunday in Rome 




The remains of the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, the opulent villa that the Emperor Nero built for himself in the center of Rome, will reopen to guided visits on Sunday six years after it was closed because of collapses and safety concerns. 

Part of the Domus Aurea in Rome, which will reopen to guided tours on Sunday  

[Credit Fabio Campana/European Pressphoto Agency] 

The visits will take place on weekends so that archaeologists and restorers can continue to work on the four-year project, which will open new areas of the monument. Visitors can tour the work site and learn about techniques used in the restoration, which can be followed online. 

Culture Ministry officials on Friday announced a campaign to help raise the 31 million euros ($39 million) needed for the restoration. 

Only a small amount of the villa remains visible; it once covered an area as large as three soccer fields. 

“This has been a tenacious and silent restoration,” the culture minister, Dario Franceschini, told reporters on Friday. 

“As people strolled in the gardens above, below ground, dozens of people continued the restorations.” 
The villa first opened to the public in 1999, but it was closed several times after collapses. It then closed for the long term in 2005 but restorations continued, stymied partially by infiltrations of water and roots from the garden that covers the structure. 

In the new project, the garden would be redesigned to safeguard the building. 

“We don’t want people to think that we’ve resolved all the problems of the Domus Aurea,” said Fedora Filippi, the scientific director of the site. 

“But we wanted to explain to people what we’re doing so that they can participate.” 


Author: Elisabetta Povoledo | Source: Arts Beat/NY Times [October 24, 2014]

L'incredibile forza seduttiva di Pompei

Pompei rinasce con il turismo: solo nella giornata del 15 di 

Agosto, 13.000 visitatori si sono recati nel sito, per visitare le  

10 'nuove' case che non erano state rese disponibili al 

pubblico prima. Le fotografie non rendono la bellezza della 

Casa della Caccia, né la dovizia del musaico della Casa di 

Apollo, né l'estrema modernità del Thermopolio di Vetutio 

Placido, che sembra quyasi il bancone di un moderno "fast 

food joint".


Pompeii seduces thousands with 10 new houses 


 From the sumptuous frescoes of the Hunting Lodge (Casa della Caccia) to the exquisite decorations of the House of Apollo (Casa di Apollo) and vivid reliefs of the Trojan War, Pompeii is seducing visitors this summer with 10 newly restored houses, some of which had never been open to the public before. 

Casa della Caccia Antica [Credit: Jacques Pleau/Flickr] 

After long controversy regarding the lack of personnel at Pompeii, the ministry of culture has dispatched 30 new keepers for the holiday season, a State exam to select new janitors is in the works, and extended opening hours on Friday mean the public can stroll through the ruins after sundown. 

Mosaic at Casa di Apollo [Credit: ANSA] 

Tourists are enjoying the new sites: more than 13,000 visitors flocked to Pompeii on the August 15 national religious holiday, bringing proceeds in excess of 114,000 euros, while 122 people decided to explore the city preserved in lava during night visiting hours. 

Casa della Caccia Antica [Credit: Brett Woodvine/Flickr] 

The 10 new houses include the Thermopolium (Latin for restaurant) of Vetutius Placidus, where people could buy cooked food to go. It boasts shrines to Mercury and Dionysus (the gods of commerce and wine, respectively), a dining hall, and an adjoining mansion with a vestibule, a garden, and a dining room. 

Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus [Credit: Vanni Archive/Corbis] 

The Ancient Hunting Lodge (Casa della Caccia Antica) is another must-see at Pompeii. According to experts, it had just undergone renovation when it was buried under meters of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. An extensive hunting scene is still visible on one of its garden walls, and its interiors are luxuriously decorated with beautiful paintings and marble-like coverings. 
Also noteworthy are the Domus Cornelia and its exquisite sculptures, the House of Apollo adorned with images of the god to which it owes its name, and the House of Achilles with its impressive reliefs of the Trojan war. 


Source: ANSA [August 19, 2014]

Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.it/2014/08/pompeii-seduces-thousands-with-10-new.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheArchaeologyNewsNetwork+(The+Archaeology+News+Network)#.U_XrXih7DfU
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Riapre la 'Tomba Bella' di Cerveteri

Cerveteri si prepara al rilancio, offrendo al pubblico di visitatori anche alcune tombe che erano state chiuse (nella figura la Tomba dei Rilievi, o Tomba Bella, non tomba dei leoni come specificato nella didascalia in inglese: si tratta della tomba dei Matunas, del IV secolo a.C. splendidamente decorata con stucchi in rilievo ancora portanti il colore originale). Anche la sbiadita Tomba dei Leoni dipinti sarà in mostra.
Il sito di Cerveteri è uno dei più grandi siti archeologici del mondo (supera in dimensioni persino la Valle dei Re Egizia) e si spera di riuscire a rilanciarlo dopo un massiccio investimento di riorganizzazione, pulizia, restauro ed incremento delle protezioni dai furti (illuminazione, telecamere) da parte dell'Unione Europea.

Cerveteri's Etruscan city of dead set to wow visitors 

 UNESCO world heritage site the Etruscan Necropolis of Banditaccia at Cerveteri north of Rome is gearing to amaze visitors with a July inauguration showcasing previously closed tombs and a new welcome center, officials told ANSA this week. 

Previously closed Tomb of the Painted Lions to open to public [Credit: ANSA] 

Thanks to a 2.3-million-euro collaborative investment of European Union and Italian State funds, the three-millennia-old Banditaccia is getting an upgrade and plans to show off the latest renovations at the July 4 inauguration of its new Visitor Center. 

One July highlight will be the re-opening of the Tomb of the Painted Lions, a 7th-century BC tomb once frescoed with lions, which have since faded away due to exposure, along with other previously closed tombs. 
Additionally, Banditaccia's long-neglected pedestrian paths have been cleaned up for the upcoming inauguration, including 'La Passeggiata di Lawrence', a pathway named after writer DH Lawrence whose book Etruscan Places inspired the site's rediscovery. 

Both weather and grave robbers have repeatedly contributed to the site's degradation over the decades, which the Banditaccia project aims to rectify with the addition of 80 surveillance cameras and an evening illumination. 
Over the next 18 months, the Banditaccia project also will add an interactive multi-media experience, new itineraries, and visitor facilities upgrades such as a restaurant and bathrooms. 

Etruscan site at Cerveteri [Credit: Mike Wilson]

 Lorenzo Croci, Cerveteri's sustainable-development councilor, hopes that the upgrades will double visitors to the heritage site, considered the cradle of Etruscan civilization with its more than 1000 tombs. 
"Few people know this but this is the largest archaeological site in the world, even bigger than the Valley of the Kings in Egypt", Croci told ANSA, adding "today we have 65,000 annual visitors. 
"We want double that, and for the site to receive the recognition it deserves," he said. 
The Etruscans lived mainly between the rivers Tiber and Arno in modern-day Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany, in the first millennium BC. 
By the sixth century BC they had become the dominant force in central Italy, but repeated attacks from Gauls and Syracusans later forced them into an alliance with the embryonic Roman state, which gradually absorbed Etruscan civilization. 
Most of what is known about the Etruscans derives from archaeology as the few accounts passed down by Roman historians tend to be hostile, portraying them as gluttonous and lecherous. 
This problem is compounded by the fact that Etruscan cities were built almost entirely of wood and so vanished quickly, leaving little for archaeologists to investigate. 


Author: Erica Firpo | 

Source: ANSA [June 05, 2014] 

Read more at: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.it/2014/06/cerveteris-etruscan-city-of-dead-set-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheArchaeologyNewsNetwork+(The+Archaeology+News+Network)#.U5HpK3J_uSo
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Visita alle catacombe del Vaticano

Visit the Vatican’s ancient catacombs with Google Maps tour

They date back almost 2000 years, to the roots of the Christianity, and are dug deep into the ground by the Romans. Now, thanks to Google Maps, anyone can take a virtual visit of the early Christian burial sites in the ancient Priscilla catacombs and Dino Compagni catacombs.

The winding tunnels inside the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome [Credit: Reuters/Max Rossi]

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Commission of Culture and of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, which oversaw the catacombs restoration, first suggested the project to us in 2011. During the inauguration of the revamped museum of the Catacombs of Priscilla, the Cardinal said our project closed “the gap” between “two extremes, remote antiquity and today’s contemporary world.”

View Larger Map

What our ancestors created is astounding. Restorers uncovered vivid late fourth-century frescoes depicting Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and Saints Peter and Paul accompanying Christians into the afterlife. Jesus’ face resembles portraits of the Emperor Constantine, who legalized Christian worship in 313. Users of Google Maps can now click the “see-inside” option for the catacombs, which allows them to move virtually through the narrow corridors tunneled out of soft tufa stone, and to see high-resolution images of the interiors from practically every angle.

View Larger Map

The artwork has spurred a fascinating debate. One fresco features a group of women celebrating a banquet and another shows a woman, dressed in robe and praying. Advocates for the ordination of women say it bolsters their assertions that women served as priests in the early church. But Fabrizio Bisconti, the superintendent of the Vatican's sacred archaeology commission, has said the women weren't celebrating Mass.

Whatever the truth, we are happy to contribute to art and culture. As this exciting project demonstrates, the Internet provides an extraordinary resource to make masterpieces available all around the world, or even under-earth!

Author: Giorgia Abeltino | Source: Google Europe Blog [November 28, 2013]

Supervulcano in Piemonte

Italian fossil supervolcano highlighted in new UNESCO Geopark

Piedmont territory in northwest Italy is designated geopark backed by 80 Alpine communities. Area is an important geological and cultural locale that promotes awareness of earth sciences and sustainable use of resources.

The 'Sesia Valley Grande geopark', a project of the Val Grande National Park and the association Supervolcano Sesia Valley, was officially approved by the World Conference on Geoparks: the protected area thus becomes part of the World Network of Geoparks UNESCO [Credit: La Stampa]

“It is a rare event that geology is a catalyst of public cooperation and celebration,” says geologist and volcano expert James E. Quick, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The new Sesia-Val Grande Geopark is an example of just that, says Quick, whose international team in 2009 discovered a fossil supervolcano that now sits at the heart of the new geopark. The discovery sparked worldwide scientific interest and a regional geotourism industry.

Recently designated a geopark by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Sesia-Val Grande Geopark encompasses more than 80 communities in the Italian Alps.

The communities joined forces more than two years ago to promote the park’s creation, which UNESCO made official in September. The geopark spans tens of thousands of acres and has at its center the massive, 282 million-year-old fossil supervolcano.

“Sesia Valley is unique,” said Quick. “The base of the Earth’s crust is turned up on edge, exposing the volcano’s plumbing — which normally extends deep into the Earth and out of sight. The uplift was created when Africa and Europe began colliding about 30 million years ago and the crust of Italy was turned on end. We call this fossil the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for supervolcanoes because the depth to which rocks are exposed will aid scientific understanding of one of nature’s most massive and violent events and help us to link the geologic and geophysical data.”

The fossil supervolcano was discovered by Quick’s scientific team, which included scientists from Italy’s University of Trieste. The supervolcano has an unprecedented 15 miles of volcano plumbing exposed from the surface to the source of the magma deep within the Earth. Previously, the discovery record for exposed plumbing was about three miles, said Quick.

Located in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy, the geopark also includes Val Grande National Park, the largest wilderness area in Italy. Sesia Valley and Val Grande are important historical and cultural locales.

Only a handful of locations worldwide are chosen annually for UNESCO’s coveted geopark designation, which supports national geological heritage initiatives.

Geoparks promote awareness of the earth sciences, including natural hazards and sustainable use of resources. Worldwide, there are now 100 geoparks. Sesia-Val Grande is Italy’s ninth.

Sesia-Val Grande area is popular for diverse geology, culture, ecosystems

Community cooperation is new to this part of the Alps, where villages have valued their independence for centuries and residents in adjacent valleys may speak distinct dialects. In the wake of the supervolcano discovery, the communities in Val Sesia and Val Grande joined in an unprecedented partnership to promote tourism, education and a collective identity, then applied to UNESCO for admission to the Global Geopark Network.

The  'Sesia Valley Grande geopark' features hiking trails, areas of geological significance and pristine forests visited each year by scholars and researchers from universities around the world [Credit: La Stampa]

Delineated by two neighboring Alpine valleys in northwest Italy, the territory of the geopark is a well-established tourist region that is popular for its wine, cheese, quarried marble, cultural heritage spanning thousands of years, hiking, skiing, rafting, biking and climbing.

The area is about half the size of Rhode Island and has 153,000 residents. Its four environmentally diverse ecosystems are rich in biodiversity and diverse microhabitats, progressing from lowland agricultural prairies to expansive forests to Alpine peaks, the highest of which is 15,203-foot Monte Rosa in one of Europe’s largest ski resorts.

Supervolcano was cataclysmic eruption, set off catastrophic global cooling events

The Sesia Valley supervolcano is a vast rocky expanse, in some places visible in plain sight and in others hidden by forests or under young sedimentary deposits. The supervolcano extends over a third of the Sesia-Val Grande geopark’s territory, said Quick, who previously served as program coordinator for the Volcano Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The supervolcano was active for about 6 million years, beginning about 288 million years ago, Quick said. Its volcanic activity culminated 282 million years ago with an eruption that left an enormous crater measuring more than eight miles in diameter. The cataclysmic eruption released gas from molten rock or “magma,” raining down particles and gases measuring more than 186 cubic miles in volume, Quick has estimated. His team reported the discovery in the scientific journal “Geology” in a 2009 article.

Throughout Earth’s geologic time, supervolcanoes have spread lava and ash vast distances. Scientists believe the fallout may have set off catastrophic global cooling events at different periods in the Earth’s past.

“We want to use this discovery. It can help us understand the fundamental processes that influence eruptions: Where are magmas stored prior to these giant eruptions? From what depth do the eruptions emanate?” Quick said.

Sesia Valley’s unprecedented exposure of magmatic plumbing provides a model for interpreting geophysical profiles and magmatic processes beneath active calderas, he said. The exposure also serves as direct confirmation of the cause-and-effect link between molten rock moving through the Earth’s crust and explosive volcanism.

“It might lead to a better interpretation of monitoring data and improved prediction of eruptions,” said Quick, who is a professor in the SMU Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and SMU associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies.

Source: Southern Methodist University [November 25, 2013]