This is the second in a series of five lectures on Material Environments, hosted jointly by the American Academy in Rome and the British School at Rome over the academic year 2025-2026. Through five evening lectures, speakers will present new research on environments of ancient and post-Classical Rome and Italy. Changing technologies of research provide new answers to questions about the experience and effect of landscape and climate. These lectures showcase the ways in which environmental considerations recast our study of the past.

This evening's lecture by Jacopo Tabolli presents the most recent discoveries at San Casciano dei Bagni, between rituals and landscape surrounding the sacred hot spring. Not only thermo-mineral water played a fundamental role, but also fire. Merging water and fire, this lecture presents the diachronic development of the sanctuary of Bagno Grande in a constant dialogue with nature around it. Jacopo Tabolli is Associate Professor of Pre-Roman Civilizations and Etruscology at the Università per Stranieri di Siena.