SCU students work with Assistant Professor Carolynn Roncaglia in Italy and Greece on Roman inscriptions and lamps
SCU students Zachary Gianotti, Serena Futch, Molly Bonney, Mitchell Hart, and Nicholas Mantovani worked with Assistant Professor Carolynn Roncaglia this August to use Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) on Roman inscriptions in Aosta, Italy. The RTI process produces interactive digital images of objects that can reveal otherwise invisible surface details. This summer the Santa Clara team, with the help of the Dipartimento Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali and Dott. Maria Cristina Ronc, used this process on inscriptions on stone, bone, and lead in the collections of the Museo Archaeologico Regionale. In one case, we were able to reveal new letters on a tiny box from a Roman tomb and in doing so were able to reconstruct the long-lost name of the tomb's occupant. Outside of the museum and storeroom, there was also time to explore the Gran Paradiso National Park, Fortress of Bard, Pont d'Ael aqueduct, Torino's Museo Egizio, and Aosta's Roman ruins.
SCU students Mitchell Hart and Molly Bonney and local lamp expert Karen Garnett endured Greek rail strikes and scorching temperatures to photograph and document hundreds of Roman lamps from the Fountain of the Lamps in Corinth, Greece. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens has been excavating at Corinth since 1896, and Mitchell and Molly helped ensure that these collections will be preserved for another century. Mitchell, Molly, and prof. Roncaglia were also on hand for the opening of the renovated Greek galleries at the Corinth Museum, which house a pair of newly discovered Greek kouroi.
