June Newsletter

Saluti!

Festival dei Due Mondi

June offers many festivals to kick off the summer season. A very special festival of arts is the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds). The festivities originated in 1958 by composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Artists from all over the world are in attendance every year to experience the art, ballets, films, and concerts. If you would like to take part in this wonderful experience and celebrate all the art the world has to offer, it is just a short trip to the Umbria region of Italy. The festival occurs from late June to mid-July in Spoleto, Italy.

June Tour

Cave of the Sybil-Cumae

Tour of Cumae Archeological Park & Piscina Mirabilis

Date: Saturday, June 12^th 2010

Time: 10:00 am, meeting @ Cumae Archeological Park

Follow in the footsteps of Aeneas as we tour of the ruins of the ancient city of Cumae with Stephan Bauer, one of our resident historians and former IAS President.  After visiting Cumae we will head to the ancient Roman port of Misenum to view Piscina Mirabilis, the largest freshwater cistern built by the Romans, used to supply the Roman fleet harboured at Misenum.  This incredible marvel of Roman engineering, stands like an underground cathedral with its vaulted cavities rising some 15 meters (45’).  We will end the day with “pranzo” at one of the wonderful restaurants there in Miseno.

May Tour

The Undersea Villas of Baia

And the Terme Romane Archeological Park

It was a very intriguing day filled with extremely interesting artifact viewing and entertaining guides. We experienced the enchantment of undersea antiquities by boat equipped with a special viewing camera and screen.  Afterwards a phenomenal lunch with choice of meal was enjoyed by all at the ristorante Il Tucano. We then made our way to the Terme Romane Archeological Park and explored the thermal rooms, sudario, pools and panoramic viewpoints. This was very fascinating and educational tour.

POMPEII FOOD AND DRINK –

We are very excited about our new involvement with Pompeii Food and Drink.  This year is our first year and we will have 7 members that will volunteer to work with the staff over the 3 week program in Pompeii.  We hope in the coming years to develop a corps group of people that will be able to provide skilled field assistance for many archaeological groups in the area.

This year’s field research assistants will be:

1^st Week – Leslie Xavier, Anna Pizzorusso, Carol Amorosi, Dave Amorosi, Theodore Wisniewski

2^nd Week – Leslie Xavier, Dave Amorosi

3^rd Week – Leslie Xavier, Steve Bauer, Steve Rady

The program will be running from June 20^th through July 10^th.  We will provide updates on the work along with photos on our website.  There also may be an opportunity for IAS members to attend evening lectures.  We will post available lectures when we are informed.  You can get more information on the project at http://www.pompeii-food-and-drink.org/index.htm.  While there are no further openings available for volunteer work, there are opportunities to participate in the regular program as mentioned on their site.  They will be offering a discount of 15% off of the normal weekly fee to participate.

NAPOLI SOTTERRENEA –

We are also very enthusiastic about the possibilities to participate with Napoli Sotterrenea.  We hope to team with them on some of the excavations that they are involved with.  Presently Jorge Sylva has been in touch with the head of the organization and we hope to discuss opportunities soon that would allow our membership to experience firsthand field work.  You can read more about Napoli Sotterrenea at http://www.lanapolisotterranea.it/home_ing.htm.     

Scholarly Activities

We will continue to meet once a month with discussions and lectures on various subjects.  These meetings will be largely aimed at sharing of knowledge and places of interest with regard to the archaeology and history of the area. This will eventually become the forum for participation in our organization.  Topics for discussion at this month’s meeting will include discussions about the upcoming Pompeii Food and Drink, the previous tour at Baia, and a lecture about Cumae and its archeological offerings.

The monthly meeting is always scheduled for the 2^nd Thursday of the month.  This month the meeting will be June 10^th.  Location of the meeting will either be at the Support Site or JFC.

ARCHEOTREK

When IAS was first conceived, the founding members began a newsletter, ARCHEOTREK.  This Newsletter was a means of sharing knowledge and opportunities available here.  In the spirit of this, we hope that by instituting a blog we can encourage all of our members to participate in sharing their knowledge and experiences with other members as well as others here in this area.  Log on today (if you have not already) get your own user name and give others the benefit of your knowledge and experience.

Gladiator Cemetery Found In Britain 

York Archeological Trust has discovered approximately 80 Roman Gladiator skeletons. They appear to have various injuries associated with gladiators that entertained audiences during that time period. Read more at the following link.

http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC100609-0000049/Gladiators-found 

Please take the time to visit our website www.iasnaples.org

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Have you visited someplace interesting?