Urban and cultic space in Roman Apulum: An archaeological field school

The international project Urban and cultic space in Roman Apulum financed by the EU through the Erasmus Intensive Programmes is the result of cooperation between four universities from three countries (Romania, Germany, and Hungary).



The project will take place in Alba Iulia (Alba County, Romania). The ancient Apulum was one of the most significant urban centres of the Roman province of Dacia during the 2nd–3rd centuries AD and therefore it has been rather intensively researched. During the late nineties – early two thousands one of the most important international excavations, the so-called Apulum Project, unearthed a shrine dedicated to Liber Pater situated in an intensively used urban area (workshops, living quarters, cultic space) of the Roman Colonia Aurelia Apulensis. During the excavation a large amount of spectacular small finds were discovered as well. In the last days a new building and an altar dedicated to Deus Invictus was identified. The scientific aim of the project is the archaeological research of this structure which, on the grounds of the situation of the nearby area, seems to offer an ideal opportunity both for the specialists and students interested in Roman provincial archaeology.
 50 students and 14 lecturers from the mentioned three countries will participate in the project. The excavation will be organized between 17th August and 15th September 2013 in the form of a summer field school where emphasis will be laid on the training of the students. The interdisciplinary project will involve several disciplines, like archaeology, art history, restoration and conservation, archaeobotanics, aerial archaeology, geophysics, topography, and architecture. The training will be based on the combination of theory and practice. The former will be organized in the frame of introductory seminars where the students will have the opportunity to learn about the archaeology and art of the Roman period in general, and of the province Dacia in particular, as well as about the theoretical aspects of the modern methods used by the abovementioned disciplines. Each student will receive a handout of all the lectures which will also be uploaded on the internet. The practical training will involve mainly archaeological field work, but each of the students will have the possibility to participate in the laboratory work as well as in the non-destructive survey activities.
A secondary goal of the project is to offer the possibility for the foreign students to learn about the historical and cultural heritage of Transylvania (for this purpose an excursion will be organized in each weekend) as well as to help the strengthening of the relationship between the organizing institutions and the development of new professional and personal relations between students and specialists from different countries.

Participating institutions:
Universitatea 1Decembrie 1918 Alba Iulia (RO) – host institution
Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca (RO)
Universität zu Köln (D)
Pécsi Tudományegyetem (HU)