Italy

But in Claudia Paparella’s case, the ticket in question was dated around 1st century CE and included an inscription in Latin, one of the languages attested in ancient Italy.

“I had never seen anything like that, and I don't think I have seen them anywhere else – it was amazing,” says Paparella, speaking from L’Aquila, a city in central Italy.

The PhD candidate with the University of Toronto’s department of classics in the Faculty of Arts & Science is travelling through Italy, exploring dozens of dig sites, ruins, museums and historical archives, thanks to the department’s Norwood Traveling Fellowship, which is funding two months of travel to support her research.

“My project traces the social history of Indigenous Italian languages and their entanglement with the Roman imperial expansion in Italy from the 7th to 1st century BCE,” she says.

“Long before the Roman expansion, Italy was a mosaic of different people with different ethnicities and languages. Some of the most important languages I’m working with are Oscan, Umbrian, South Picene, Messapic and Faliscan.

“Over time, writing and language progressively became a wider component of cultural identity and distinction.”

Claudia Paparella at the Italic sanctuary of Hercules Curinus, near modern Sulmona, Italy .

But then around the 4th century BCE, the Romans – whose empire was rapidly spreading – arrived and began putting pressure on these populations to adopt Latin as their chief language.

Italic peoples did adopt Latin for things like business and trade, but many of these populations resisted and continued to use their own language for several more centuries in more personal and private settings such as funerals or other religious affairs.

“I'm interested in the role the language has when these Italic peoples enter into contact with Rome,” says Paparella. “What I'm trying to understand is the contexts in which Italic people decide to give up on Latin or give up on their own language.

“You speak your own language, but when you have someone as powerful as Rome invading your city [and] colonizing you, you have to decide whether you want to keep speaking and writing your language, or switch to Latin, the language of the colonizer, the language of power.”

Paparella is on the hunt for artifacts with these Indigenous languages through inscriptions found on gravestones, as well as pottery, sculptures and ancient city ruins.

“If I already know what I'm looking for, I go to a museum because I want to see an object with my own eyes and have a first-hand experience,” she says. “Or I hike and visit archaeological sites. Or I meet with people who can open museums that are usually closed because of lack of funds or a lack of public interest. They give me access to archive storage rooms, and I see a lot of unpublished materials.”

Artifacts inscribed with family names and numbers, possibly ancient theatre tickets (circa 1st century CE)

Can she understand these ancient languages? Partially.

“We can recognize letters and read the inscriptions out loud, but there's still work to do on vocabulary, grammar and syntax,” she says. “The context in which the inscription is found and the comparisons with similar languages help a lot.”

For some inscriptions, she is able to follow some established language traditions, such as those often used on gravestones.

“Funerary inscriptions are usually very simple,” she says. “We know there is always the name of the deceased, there is sometimes the name of the person creating the funerary structure.”

There is also a listing of a person’s age and other useful information that enables Paparella to piece together its place and significance.

“I'm beginning to understand where and why people were more reluctant to use Latin or where they were more willing to express themselves, and what is the historical implication,” she says.

Paparella returns to Toronto this month, and though she is a little exhausted and travel-weary from the constant trekking, especially the hikes up mountains in the blazing sun, she says she wouldn’t change a thing.

Decorations of a ritual bone bed (Navelli Necropolis, 1st-2nd century CE)

“I'm extremely grateful for the scholarship because I’m realizing that it takes a lot of time to visit all these sites,” she says. “It also takes a car, a camera, and a good pair of sneakers. The pace is intense, I visit three sites or museums per day, but it's absolutely worth it. So I'm very thankful that I have these six weeks of fieldwork in which I can plan and schedule whatever I want.”

Along her travels she has also been surprised by some of the small towns and villages she’s visited, and their efforts to preserve Indigenous history.

“It's very impressive to see local communities that are still very proud and very aware of this Italic, non-Roman cultural heritage,” says Paparella. “I discovered that in some towns, they do reenactments of rituals or battles. I’ve never experienced anything like that in a small town before. It’s so interesting to see how these places are still very much attached to their origins and their diversity.”

Researchers piece together the story of an ancient Roman city – one artifact at a time

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 16:23:46 +0000

Researchers piece together the story of an ancient Roman city – one artifact at a time

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 09/12/2022 - 12:23

Cutline

Seth Bernard and his team of graduate students stand in front of a trench in Falerii Novi, an ancient city located about 50 kilometres north of Rome (photo by Emlyn Dodd)

Sean McNeely

Topic

Our Community

Classics

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research & Innovation

From small coins to tiny pieces of ceramic and even clumps of soil, Seth Bernard and a group of graduate students from the University of Toronto are unearthing a story about how a Roman city founded in 241 BCE lived and breathed through time.

“What I want is the day-to-day, what it was like –the connections linking people in the countryside to people in the city,” says Bernard, an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of classics. “And it's just that day-to-day experience we can start to reconstruct in a way we've never done before.”

Bernard is part of an international team of scholars exploring “Falerii Novi,” an ancient city located about 50 kilometres north of Rome.

Seth Bernard holds a lamp from the late
5th century CE (photo by Claudia Paparella)

As part of a five-year project, Bernard collaborates with colleagues from Harvard University and the British School at Rome. He also worked with a team from Ghent University in Belgium during the four-week season this past summer. The project works by concession of the Soprintendenza di archeologia per la provincial di Viterbo e l’Etruria Meridionale (the Superintendence of Archaeology for the province of Viterbo and southern Etruria).

Aside from portions of the city’s original walls that still stand, the site is a scenic flat plain of agricultural fields and olive groves. But buried underneath is a fascinating history of a city founded over 2,000 years ago that, at its height, was home to about 15,000 people.

About 35 scholars from different fields were focused on three separate dig sites. One site, overseen by the British School at Rome, focused on one of the city’s main streets, which researchers believed included both homes and businesses.

��˾��ֱ�� and Harvard students, meanwhile, worked at two separate sites. One is a market building and the other, led by Bernard, is a house believed to be a residence of one of the city’s elite families, which later changed functions to accommodate more work-like activities as the centuries passed.

Each morning, Bernard and his team of students laced up their boots, traveled to the site and began work.

“We had a shed built on site, so we'd open up the shed in the morning, take out our wheelbarrows, pickaxes, shovels and all of our other tools and start digging,” says Bernard.

It was at times grueling, but more often exhilarating.

“Archaeological field work is hard; pickaxing and shoveling red clay in the Italian summer is sweaty and backbreaking work, and analyzing and classifying material as it emerges from the ground is a heady, focused process,” says Matt Coleman, a PhD student in the department of art history as well as ��˾��ֱ��’s Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization (MACS) program.

“But the combination is a lot of fun, and a welcome change of pace from the otherwise desk-heavy grad student life. I gained a new appreciation for what it takes to keep ancient material culture from being lost forever.”

Together, the team wasn’t just hunting for artifacts, it was digging for evidence of human interaction.

“Anytime someone detected something in the area ... we tried to take it out separately so we can understand chronological and other information associated with that action,” says Bernard.

“[Artifacts] are important more for the information they give us than for their intrinsic value. It's always fun to find something cool, but I also like building up that narrative and understanding human activity in that place.”

The “Tupperware” of antiquity

One of the best examples of this is ceramics, which Bernard calls “the Tupperware of antiquity.”

“From these little pieces, you can reconstruct dates and understand importation routes. You can do scientific analysis on the pottery that tells you where it was made, the firing temperature of the kiln and how skilled the person working the kiln was,” he says.

Claudia Paparella holds a yet to be dated
fragment of glass (photo by Seth Bernard)

“And from those sorts of things, you can understand production routes, consumption patterns and the webs of economic networks attaching themselves to that place.”

Encapsulating so much information, it’s no wonder Claudia Paparella, a PhD student in classics and the MACS program, was giddy at finding such artifacts.

“For the first time in my life, I saw fully intact objects emerge from the ground and the feeling of being able to put together the pieces of ancient people's everyday life was indescribable,” she says.

Bernard and his team also collected environmental data. Extracted pollen and soil samples can reveal which vegetables were grown and if they were grown locally or brought in from other communities.

Finding something as simple as different coloured soils was met with great excitement.

“What strikes me as astounding is the level of detail that we can sometimes reach only by noticing two differently colored soils, side by side,” says Paparella. “A few centimetres of soil have the potential to tell us different stories from the ones we read in history books.”

Kate Tandberg, a classics master’s student taking part in her first archeological dig, was equally impressed.

“There’s nothing like holding an archaeological remain – even something as simple as a shard of pottery or a rusty nail – and knowing that someone thousands of years ago was standing exactly where you’re standing now holding the same object,” she says. “It’s hard to express how cool it is to be the first person to lay eyes on an object in 1,500 years.

“Participating in field work has also given me a better appreciation for the process by which an object is dug from the ground and becomes usable, meaningful data. Before I was only familiar with the end product of field work, the summaries of findings and discussions of significance you find in books and journal articles.”

So far, many of the artifacts and materials are from the fifth and sixth centuries. And it’s during this period that Bernard sees a shift in the building’s function.

“We were finding this interesting mix of material – really nice glass and bronze vessels and coins and high-quality imported pottery from Africa, but also tools or commercial objects like weights,” says Bernard.

“We’re seeing this transformation of urban space, which I thought was really cool. You have wealth, but you also have craft work, you have this intermingling of spatial function that you're not seeing in the early periods – and that got my blood going.”

While Bernard is delighted with the discoveries and findings so far, he wants to dig deeper, so to speak, to find evidence from the second century – the city’s true origins.

“I want that earlier period,” he says. “But I also want to be able to say, here's how life in the city changed over time.”

The international team of scholars and researchers at the ancient walls of Falerii Novi (photo by Emlyn Dodd)

Bernard says he can’t wait to return to Italy next summer, although he plans on visiting the site a couple of times before then “to see my colleagues and make sure things are running smoothly,” he says.

In the meantime, the preservation and analysis of the materials found is ongoing. “You spend all this time getting the materials and data, but then you’ve got to process the data and that takes a while,” says Bernard.

As the data comes in and new information is revealed, Falerii Novi’s story will inevitably change, expand and become richer.

“You're constantly rebuilding, reassessing, reforming that narrative,” Bernard says. “You're always thinking about how that narrative will emerge.”

Multi-language ��˾��ֱ�� project celebrates 700th anniversary of Dante's death

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:52:36 +0000

Multi-language ��˾��ֱ�� project celebrates 700th anniversary of Dante's death

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 03/31/2021 - 10:52

Cutline

Dante displays the incipit Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita in a detail of Domenico di Michelino's painting, Florence, 1465 (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Our Community

��˾��ֱ��

Faculty of Arts & Science

St. Michael's College

Trinity College

The department of Italian studies in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts & Science is leading a project that will see most of the cantos of Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno read in more than 30 different languages – including, for the first time, Indigenous languages.

The Toronto Salutes Dante project, timed for the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet’s death, includes readings from the best-known section of the epic poem, Divine Comedy, in Farsi, Arabic, Swedish, Portuguese, Mandarin, American Sign Language, Russian, Slovak, Thai, Spanish, Bulgarian, German, Ukrainian and Sanskrit, as well as French, Latin, English, Italian and 10 Italian dialects.

The opening 30 lines of the first canto of The Inferno will be read in Anishinaabemowin by translator Matthias Nunno, a member of the Ojibways of Garden River First Nation who is of both Italian and Ojibway heritage. The last section of the final passage will be read in Stoney Nakoda by translator Trent Fox, a doctoral student in education at the University of Calgary who identifies as Îethka.

Both Indigenous translations were prepared specifically for the project.

“We are honoured to be able to start in Anishinaabemowin and conclude with a passage in Stoney Nakoda,” says Nicholas Terpstra, the interim Emilio Goggio chair in Italian Studies, which is largely funding the project. “The idea of starting and finishing with Indigenous languages was something we thought was particularly important in Canada.

“While Dante has been translated into many different languages, he hadn't been translated into Indigenous languages until now – so these are the first ever done.”

Organizers recruited community members, professors, students and alumni to read the cantos and share their thoughts about Dante and the canto they chose. ��˾��ֱ�� alumna and former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson – who earned her bachelor of arts in English language and literature in 1960 as a member of Trinity College, a master of arts in 1962 and an honorary doctor of law in 2001 – will be among the performers.

Clarkson, who learned Italian as a doctoral student and has a special passion for Dante, will read the entire first canto in English, including the portion previously read in Anishinaabemowin.

The canto texts will also be available for download from the department’s website in Italian, English and the language its performer chose for the reading.

The canto readings are being posted at regular intervals on the department’s YouTube channel. The first video was posted on March 25, the traditional New Year’s Day in medieval Florence, where Dante was born in 1265. The series will conclude in June.

The March 25 start date is also significant because it marks the day Dante enters The Inferno, the first canticle of The Divine Comedy, which also includes two other sections: Purgatorio and Paradiso.

The Toronto Salutes Dante project is the brainchild of Terpstra, Associate Professor Elisa Brilli and ��˾��ֱ�� alumnus George Ferzoco, who earned his bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1980 as a member of St. Michael’s College.

The Emilio Goggio visiting professor for the spring 2021 term in the department of Italian Studies, Ferzoco had established a tradition while teaching in the U.K. of having his students read Dante aloud to better appreciate the poem and get over their shyness around speaking Italian.

“Like most poetry, Dante is meant to be read aloud,” says Ferzoco, a visiting fellow at the Calgary Institute for the Humanities. Through the University of Calgary’s vice-provost for Indigenous engagement, he arranged for the translation by Fox of the final passage of The Inferno into Stoney Nakoda.

“I thought, ‘Well, I'm from Toronto, which is such a multicultural city. I'm in the Italian department. Can I bring something to my visiting professorship, and can it reflect the culture of the city, and indeed the country?’”

An acclaimed Dantista for her research and publications, Brilli has made ��˾��ֱ�� an international centre for Dante studies through a series of annual seminars. Two years ago, the Dante Society of America held its annual meeting in Toronto, the first time the society has held a meeting outside the United States since its founding in 1881.

“Toronto Salutes Dante is rooted in research done at the University of Toronto and the events we’ve held here, like the first-ever meeting of the Dante Society of America in Canada in 2019, and my 'Dante. Les vies Nouvelles’ Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council project,” says Brilli.

“I warmly hope this new endeavour will foster collaboration among scholars, students and our community of alumni, and the broader audience interested in Dante.”

While the bulk of funding for Toronto Salutes Dante comes from the Goggio Chair, community sponsors of the project include the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Toronto (Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto) and Villa Charities.

In February, ��˾��ֱ�� hosted an international event for the Italo-Indigenous community called Indigenous-Italian Canadian Connections: Starting a Conversation that was led by people of Indigenous-Italian-Canadian heritage. The event included more than 100 participants from five countries – Canada, the United States, Italy, Spain and Costa Rica. It launched a year-long research and community project at the Italian studies department’s Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian-Canadian Studies that will include a workshop in May and a conference next year.

Celebrating Indigenous students and International Women's Day: Check out these March events

tom.yun — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 21:33:11 +0000

Celebrating Indigenous students and International Women's Day: Check out these March events

tom.yun Fri, 02/28/2020 - 16:33

Cutline

(photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

International Women's Day

Italy

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

School of the Environment

Sustainability

��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga

��˾��ֱ�� Scarborough

Women and Gender Studies

With spring approaching, there are a plethora of events taking place at the University of Toronto in March. International Women's Day falls on March 8 and will feature a gala, performances from a Syrian women's choir and more. The fourth annual Honouring Our Students Pow Wow is also taking place this month.

Here are some of the many events taking place this month:

March 1

Experience all thing Japan at the ��˾��ֱ�� Japan Association’s Winter Festival, taking place at Hart House. Raffles, performances, food and more will be on hand. Tickets are $8.

March 3

��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler, a renowned urban theorist, will be discussing his vision of city-building and the challenges that the Toronto region faces at University of Toronto Schools. He’ll be interviewed by Marina Jimenez, ��˾��ֱ��'s global media strategist.

Learn about Italian-Canadian cuisine through this food talk taking place at ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga’s Noel Ryan Auditorium. Teresa Lobalsamo, an associate professor of language studies, will explore the links between food, immigration, identity and cultural meaning in the Italian community.

March 4

Writer and concert pianist James Rhodes will be speaking at the Isabel Bader Theatre. He’ll be talking about his latest memoir, Instrumental, which details how music has helped him through mental health struggles and childhood trauma.

Comedian and ��˾��ֱ�� alumnus Adam Growe, best known for hosting Cash Cab on Discovery Channel, will be delivering a talk at the George Ignatieff Theatre.

With the decline of print media and the rise of new technologies, what’s happening to journalism in the modern era? CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan will be moderating a discussion on this topic at ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga featuring National Post reporter Tom Blackwell, Toronto Star reporter Wendy Gillis and Globe and Mail assistant managing editor for news Christine Brousseau.

See the story of Sarnia, Ont. and the Aamjiwnaang First Nation through the Broadleaf Theatre’s Chemical Valley Project. This documentary-theatre project is hosted by ��˾��ֱ��’s School of the Environment and is taking place at the Robert Gill Theatre.

It’s Games Night at the ��˾��ֱ�� Scarborough Library Makerspace. You can choose from a selection of board games or bring your own.

March 5

As part of their coursework, students at the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies are putting on a performance of The Winter’s Tale. Catch this Shakespearian classic from March 7 to 14. General admission is $20 while students can snag tickets for $10.

March 7

Ahead of International Women’s Day, the Women’s and Trans Centre at ��˾��ֱ�� Scarborough is holding its annual conference. Tickets to Metamorphosis are $10.

March 8

Celebrate International Women’s Day at ��˾��ֱ��. The International Women's Day Gala is taking place at Hart House. There will be speakers, performances and a dinner. Tickets are $25.

Toronto’s Haneen Choir, a Syrian women’s collective, will be performing at Hart House in celebration of International Women’s Day. The choir aims to promote Syrian heritage and support newcomer women.

As a part of ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga’s Sustainability Week, the second annual Trashion Show is taking place at Kaneff Rotunda. Fashion designers and artists will be showcasing their sustainability-themed outfits made from re-used and recyclable materials.

March 11

This year marks the 99^th anniversary of Skule Nite, the annual musical and sketch comedy show organized by ��˾��ֱ�� Engineering students. You won’t want to miss Skule Nite 2T0, which runs until March 14 at Hart House Theatre. Tickets are $17 for students and $22 for everyone else.

Explore mental health at the annual Mindfest mental health fair spearheaded by ��˾��ֱ��’s department of psychiatry. The event, held at Hart House, is free and includes expert speakers, peer mentors, wellness workshops and more.

March 13

The Physics Student Union is celebrating Pi Day one day early this year. Free pie will be served at the McLennan Physical Laboratories. In addition, physics professor A.W. Peet will be delivering a lecture on general relativity.

The Afghan Students Association at ��˾��ֱ�� Mississauga is holding a Nowruz Gala at the Blind Duck. There will be performances, food, dancing and more to celebrate Afghan/Persian New Year.

March 14

Architecture and planning students from ��˾��ֱ�� and Ryerson are organizing City Building Expo 2020 at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Panelists will include experts and professionals in urban planning, engineering, architecture and more.

The seventh annual China Law Conference is taking place at the Faculty of Law. Hear about the intersections between Chinese law and current events from scholars and legal practitioners.

March 15

Join the Hart House Art Committee for ArtWORK, a one-day networking event for the ��˾��ֱ�� arts community and leading arts professionals.

March 18

It’s the last Winter Market of the year at ��˾��ֱ�� Scarborough. Local vendors will be gathering at the Meeting Place in the S-Wing selling fresh food and artisanal crafts.

March 19

Nobel Prize-winning chemist and ��˾��ֱ�� University Professor John Polanyi will be at Hart House to discuss the risks and potential of artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies. He’ll be joined by Jason Millar, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Ottawa.

March 21

Join the Indigenous Studies Students' Union for the fourth annual Honouring Our Students Pow Wow, which is being held at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. All are welcome for this celebration of Indigenous communities.

March 25

Come to the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union’s Supper Social for a jam-packed evening of fun activities. There will be food, karaoke, T-shirt screen printing and quiet space to de-stress. It’s taking place at Rex’s Den at ��˾��ֱ�� Scarborough.

March 26

The last Hart House Music Committee Open Mic of the school year is on. If you have a knack for music, poetry, comedy or anything else, now is the time to show off your talents. The show takes place in the Hart House Music Room.

March 26

The Hart House Camera Club is holding an opening reception for its photography exhibition. Awards will be presented for the best photographs from the ��˾��ֱ�� and Hart House community.

March 27

This year marks the 35^th anniversary of the City of Toronto Women and Gender Studies Institute Scholarship. To celebrate, there will be an anniversary party in New College's Wilson Hall, where this year's awardees will be honoured, the creators of the scholarship will be recognized and new scholarships will be announced.

The ��˾��ֱ�� Festival of Dance is taking place at Hart House. The event will feature over 200 dancers performing a wide variety of styles of dance, from ballet to hip hop and everything in between. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors.

Earthquake in Italy: ��˾��ֱ�� expert on the extent of the damage to historical sites

ullahnor — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 18:00:53 +0000

Earthquake in Italy: ��˾��ֱ�� expert on the extent of the damage to historical sites

ullahnor Tue, 08/30/2016 - 14:00

Cutline

Nicholas Everett: "The images of the bell tower with the clock frozen at 3.36 am are haunting" (Photo by Manuel Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

City & Culture

Faculty of Arts & Science

Last week’s 6.2-magnitude earthquake in central Italy has claimed more than 291 lives with the death toll still rising. As the country buries its dead and digs through the rubble, it is becoming clear that along with the loss of life, Italy has lost scores of cultural and historical sites. The country’s Minister of Culture has said at least 293 cultural heritage destinations were damaged and 50 have been completely destroyed. ��˾��ֱ�� Medieval History Professor Nicholas Everett, who is soon to publish a book titled Patron Saints of Early Medieval Italy, has been looking at photos of some of the damaged churches. He talked to ��˾��ֱ�� News about some of the damaged historical sites, noting that it still may be too early to tell exactly what has been lost.

In terms of monuments and historical buildings, what has been damaged or destroyed?

In Amatrice, there’s a number of 14th and 15th century churches, containing frescoes and mosaics. The historic churches include that of San Agostino, San Emigdio, San Francesco. These are all but destroyed now. The architecture of these churches and the artwork within were expressions of the aspirations of the town and its identity. Since churches were the focal point of a town's public life, religious art was also the major (and often only) source of patronage for artists and craftsmen of the Middle Ages. The region was the centre of conflict between Angevin and Aragonese rulers but as a result benefited from patronage of rulers attempting to consolidate or shore up their support in central southern Italy. These churches were also part of pilgrimage routes throughout southern Italy. Most were made from local sandstone.

Norcia is the birthplace of Saint Benedict (6th century), who is the founder of the Benedictine Order and monasticism in the West. The 12th century church on the site of Saint Benedict's home has been damaged, as are the 13th and 14th century frescoes in the church of Saint Agostino. The city’s medieval town walls are also damaged.

At L'Aquila, which also dealt with an earthquake in 2009, the Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio has been damaged. The cathedral in Urbino was damaged, and in Camerino the monastery of Santa Chiara was damaged. In Macerata, the cathedral of San Giuliano was damaged, and in Rome the baths of Caracalla appear to be cracked.

The extent of the destruction is not quite clear. It’s coming to light now, and we’re realizing that this went much further than we thought.

Why is it difficult to determine the extent of the damage on historical sites?

Because the earthquake hit some of the more remote regions of Italy, which are not easy to reach, and therefore the information has not come out as quickly. I think they’re going to find a lot more has been destroyed. In a lot of these places, these monuments especially the churches and particularly the mosaics are going to be difficult to reconstruct, if not impossible. Amatrice is a complete tragedy: the images of the bell tower with the clock frozen at 3:36 am are haunting.

The other worry is that because these churches are located in regions that are economically far poorer than other parts of Italy. They don’t have as much infrastructure or as many resources locally to pour in, so they’re going to have to rely on federal help.

Why are these sites historically and culturally significant?

This part of Italy holds a great deal of cultural inheritance from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Some of Italy’s richest artistic endeavours are in these churches. It really is a period of magnificent church decoration. People would pour resources into a church decoration as much as we would a public monument, or infrastructure for the Commonwealth games. So in the Middle Ages, the church and its decoration was a point of pride for the community. And the importation of artists and their particular style was very important. The mosaics and paintings in these churches reflect the aspirations of a city and a sense of pride. Through these mosaics, the pictures and these frescoes, we can trace the history of art as it developed into the Renaissance and early modern period. The artists were mostly anonymous so we don’t know much about them, where they learned their technique or how they achieved their colours and designs, but their work is right in front of you. In that sense, these sites are living monuments. The churches themselves tell us a lot about the city, in some cases it’s the only thing that tells us what happened in that particular town in the 12th to 14th century. We rely on these living monuments to help us maintain the historical record.