American Academy in Rome - School of Classical Studies: History of Arch at the Academy

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HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY @ the ACADEMY

Excavations of the Atrium Vestae in the Forum (Rome, Italy), (Van Deman Collection, VD 577)

In the first half century of the American School for Classical Studies, first as an independent entity and then as part of the American Academy in Rome, it was not possible for foreign academies and institutions in Italy to have excavations. Thus, American archaeological endeavors were applied in other directions. The planning of Norba was an undertaking of the very first years of existence of the School, which began to an on-going tradition of topographical studies. Academy archaeologists also carried out useful work in observing and

documenting the excavations carried out by their Italian colleagues. Esther Van Deman, who was allowed by Giacomo Boni to photograph in the Roman Forum at the beginning of the 20th century and remained active into the 1920s and 1930s, is emblematic of this trend.

Under Frank Brown after the Second World War the AARacquired a program of field archaeology with Academy projects rather than undertakings of scholars associated with the AAR. This development marked the history of archaeology at the AAR for decades:indeed efforts still continue to publish the results of Brown's work. In 1948 he began digging at Cosa, which remained the main focus of the Academy's archaeological program well into the 1970s. In the 1960s he added the excavation of the Regia in the Roman Forum. Russell Scott continued work in the Forum in the Regia and the nearby Atrium Vestae in the 1980s and 1990s, and Elizabeth Fentress returned to Cosa in the 1990s.

Trajan's Market (Rome, Italy), ( Ernest Nash, Fototeca Unione Collection, FU 484)

As the 1990s turned to the new millennium, the tendency became for the Academy not to run directly financed archaeological projects but rather to give logistical support to affiliated projects proposed to it. At the same timethe projects have gone beyond excavation to take advantage of various new technologies, ranging from geophysical surveying to underwater exploration and the analysis of Roman concrete.

Villa of Diomedes (Pompeii), (Parker Collection, Parker 2158)

The American Academy has been committed to archaeology since the days of its forerunner, the American School. The archaeological program is important not least because interacting with the established archaeologists associated with it (many themselves Fellows) is formative for the current Rome Prize winners and offers them an inspiration for their future work. It is merely the form of this commitment that has changed over the years in response to the conditions in which the AAR has found itself and the opportunities offered.