Papers by Gary Farney
Ville romane nella Sabina tiberina. Il territorio di Forum Novum, 2024
Studies in Digital Heritage
Between 2016 and 2018, excavations at the Roman villa of Vacone, carried out by the Upper Sabina ... more Between 2016 and 2018, excavations at the Roman villa of Vacone, carried out by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, transitioned to completely digital recording practices. The methodological shift was accompanied by a three-year campaign of backfill removal and cleaning, which allowed most of the villa’s extant architecture and décor uncovered since 2012 to be digitized. Moreover, a new documentation protocol was established that employs photogrammetry in lieu of scale drawing to model the three-dimensional spatial characteristics of every archaeological context. Notable artifacts were also modeled to facilitate off-site study. The excavation’s experiences with this conversion offer valuable lessons for other long-term archaeological projects contemplating a similar shift amid active fieldwork. The project’s digital recording team developed a methodology for layer-by-layer modeling that ensures precise alignment between stratigraphic contexts using fixed markers. From these, standard...
Oltre La Villa: Ricerche nei siti archeologici del territorio di Cottanello, Configni, Vacone e Montasola, 2019
Atti del XXIII Colloquio dell’Associazione Italiana per lo Studio e la Conservazione del Mosacio, 2018
The Villa Romana di Vacone has been undergoing excavation since 2012. Over the course of the 2015... more The Villa Romana di Vacone has been undergoing excavation since 2012. Over the course of the 2015 and 2016 seasons, the full extent of two rooms near the southern portico was revealed. Room 30 has a tessellated black mosaic with polychrome inserts forming a " zampe di gallina " motif. Room 32 has a white ground tessellated mosaic framed by a double wave motif and a polychrome threshold with meander swastika and simple floral motif inset within a border. In both cases, the closest comparanda for the patterns date between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, suggesting that these two new rooms belong to the same imperial phase of the villa. There are particularly striking similarities with mosaics from the nearby villa at Cottanello.
Lazio e Sabina 11, 2017
The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project è un progetto avviato nel 2011 dalla Rutgers University del New... more The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project è un progetto avviato nel 2011 dalla Rutgers University del New Jersey (U.S.A.) in collaborazione con la Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio, finalizzato allo studio delle realtà insediative romane in territorio sabino con lo scopo di valutare le evoluzioni locali dell'insediamento rurale e dello sfruttamento agricolo, alla ricerca del riscontro archeologico del dato storico-letterario 1 .
Lo scavo del sito della villa romana di Vacone è stato intrapreso nell'estate 2012 dalla Rutgers ... more Lo scavo del sito della villa romana di Vacone è stato intrapreso nell'estate 2012 dalla Rutgers University (USA) nell'ambito di un più ampio progetto d'indagine denominato "The Upper Sabina Tiberina Project" 1 . Il progetto, nato nel 2011, ha lo scopo di indagare un gruppo di ville romane nella Sabina tiberina settentrionale, focalizzandosi sul periodo tardo-repubblicano e alto-imperiale, al fine di valutare le evoluzioni locali dell'insediamento rurale e dello sfruttamento agricolo, alla ricerca del riscontro archeologico del dato storico-letterario e, in particolare, dell'evidenza dell'intensificazione dell'attività agricola e del conseguente sviluppo economico a cavallo tra età repubblicana e alto-imperiale 2 .
In the first centuries of the Roman Empire, the various ethnic groups that made up Italy coalesce... more In the first centuries of the Roman Empire, the various ethnic groups that made up Italy coalesced into one singular Italian identity. These groups lost some of their peculiar Italic identity, like their languages, their unique nomenclature, aspects of their religion and their unique reputations. Yet, some of the same aspects of their culture became considered Roman and Italian rather than just the practices of one Italian group. For example, some Romans may have emulated the Etruscan practice of providing a matronymic in their names, and some also took up Etruscan haruspicy as an Italian religious practice. In the case of their reputations, the Apennine people, shedding their previous negative steretoype, passed along a newly developed, positive one for austerity, religiosity, and old-fashioned morality to the rest of Italy and Italian colonists in the western provinces. In the end, any Italian origin became considered the ‘best’ ethnic origin for a Roman politician to possess. Senators and even emperors down to the 3rd century AD went to some lengths to advertise their ancestors’ origins from various Italic communities, and so their own respectability and suitability to be Roman leaders.
An article on the topic from the title for the Blackwell's Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient ... more An article on the topic from the title for the Blackwell's Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean (2014)
In one of his last publications, the late Ernst Badian detailed the history of the patrician Iuli... more In one of his last publications, the late Ernst Badian detailed the history of the patrician Iulii from its beginnings to the time of Caesar the Dictator. There he discussed what others have also long noticed: that the Dictator was not the first Iulius or the only Iulius in his own time to claim a Trojan ancestry. 1 This paper proposes to add to Badian's insightful remarks and examine in more detail the Julian claims that Caesar and Augustus inherited-rather than invented-that are visible in the surviving literary, epigraphic and numismatic sources. 2
Posters by Gary Farney
Lo scavo della villa romana di Vacone (RI) è stato intrapreso dalla Rutgers University (NJ, USA) ... more Lo scavo della villa romana di Vacone (RI) è stato intrapreso dalla Rutgers University (NJ, USA) a partire dal 2012. Il sito, noto da sempre attraverso la letteratura, era stato oggetto negli anni Ottanta del Novecento di un intervento di emergenza della Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio che aveva portato alla scoperta di ampie porzioni di mosaico pavimentale al di sopra e in prossimità della struttura già visibile del criptoportico e all'individuazione di un'area produttiva accanto all'altra struttura emergente, identificata nel 2013 come una cisterna.
Publications by Gary Farney
Lazio e Sabina 10, Jun 11, 2014
Summer 2012 was the first season of major field work on the Roman villa at Vacone (Rieti) underta... more Summer 2012 was the first season of major field work on the Roman villa at Vacone (Rieti) undertaken by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project (Rutgers University, USA). This first season of excavation concentrated on uncovering rooms between two known concrete structures (opus incertum), a cistern and a cryptoporticus. Two phases of villa habitation were uncovered, an earlier phase (perhaps dating to the time of the concrete structures, ca. 100 BCE) and a later phase (early Imperial).
Talks by Gary Farney
Abstracts by Gary Farney
Conference Presentations and Posters by Gary Farney
Post-occupation burials in Roman villas are common in central Italy. The style and location of th... more Post-occupation burials in Roman villas are common in central Italy. The style and location of these burials evolve considerably from Late Imperial Rome through the Medieval period. In the first two centuries C.E., tombs were often constructed close to and sometimes even attached to habitation quarters. But following the abandonment of many villas beginning in the early 300s C.E., several styles of burials have been identified within the walls of villas. According to site-specific publications, these interments seem to diversify into other styles through the Late Antique period; these are usually less elaborate, but they often incorporate material from the ruined villa itself. It is not unusual for medieval churches and cemeteries, some functioning today, to be built on the foundations of villa cemeteries. Previous research has proposed that this trend is related to reoccupation and reuse of villa structures after the collapse of the Roman empire, or alternately it is related to more general economic and religious changes. While some authors promote one of these two causes as the primary factor leading to burials in villa ruins, this trend is most likely connected to both. We apply findings from ongoing excavation in the Sabina Tiberina as a case study of burials inside villa structures after abandonment, to elucidate potential chronology of different burial styles after the fourth century. To date, excavations in the Roman villa at Vacone have uncovered a minimum of six individuals in four graves, including four adult males, one subadult, and one infant. All adult individuals exhibit signs of poor dental health, developmental stress, and possible infection. No grave goods have been recovered. All individuals, excluding the infant, were buried with knowledge of the villa's physical structure; material from the roof and walls is incorporated into each burial. We expect forthcoming radiocarbon dates to solidify the chronology of these burials. Though previous research has used the presence of human remains to indicate the end of villa function, burials in fact provide evidence of continued importance of Roman structures beyond their ruin. Burial style may reveal changes in religion and relationships with the dead, whereas skeletal remains themselves reveal changes in the health, mobility, and demography of local populations. It also has the potential to elucidate local attitudes toward Roman remains in the early Medieval period.
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Papers by Gary Farney
Posters by Gary Farney
Publications by Gary Farney
Talks by Gary Farney
Abstracts by Gary Farney
Conference Presentations and Posters by Gary Farney