Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Beginnings
Our intrepid group of 25 college faculty scholars from across the US and our leaders ( Greg Warden, our scholar in residence; Carole Lester, our incomparable Director: and Marsha Anderson, Co-Director and Local Arrangements guru across Italy) began our study of the lost culture of the Etruscans on June 5, 2012. Our group was harmonious from the outset and only contiued to bond as we shared our various knowledge and expertise with each other over the next three weeks. In our first 3 days in Orvieto, we were able to visit excavations under a church from the 11th century ( we went farther back in time below the church), view the Etruscan countryside from the heights of Orvieto, hold artifacts that were thousands of years old, have seminars in the lovely Orvieto library, explore the first of our 12 museums and enter the first of our many Etruscan necropli. These days set a tone of high quality and scholarship. The institute would only become better!
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Road Scholars
ReplyDeleteOn June 8, we took our first field trip to the Tarquinian tombs. The scent of mustiness was strong as we descended several yards underground to view tomb paintings that were several thousand years old. The colors in many of the tombs were still vibrant and the works displayed the often present Etruscan banqueting theme. This ancient group was beginning to come to life for me as I viewed and pondered several dozen burial sites. The patterns and symbols that our readings had discussed came to life before my eyes in the tombs.
June 9th saw us heading for the town of Cortona. We all enjoyed the layout and arrangement of the artifacts in that museum. This would be one of our themes: noting how well or not a museum displayed their holdings and what type of information was presented to the viewers. We were honored to have Dr. Luca Fedeli, Archaeological Inspector join us for the museum tour AND to have him provide us with a tour of the Melone del Sodo necropolis. This archaeological site is a classic Etruscan tumulus and we were able to view the ongoing dig as well as walk all around the massive tomb. The Etruscans were speaking to us in a variety of ways.
Sunday, June 10 was the feast of Corpus Christi and is a major holiday in Orvieto. There were many other people in town for the weekend. We had time to prepare readings for the next week but also to participate in the festivities. Part of the procession began across from our hotel and we marvelled at the Middle Ages and early Renaissance attire of the participants. Everything was quite authentic including the crossbows and swords. This religious feast celebrates a miracle that occurred when a priest saying Mass in a nearby town had the host bleed when he broke it. The Orvieto Cathedral was built to house the altar cloth upon which the blood was spilled. The cloth is also carried in the procession. It was a wonderful opportunity to witness and partake of a Middle Ages ceremony that has been celebrated since the 13th century.