By: Anne Tiballi

I just got back from two weeks in the Lake Van region of eastern Turkey, where I was doing pre-dissertation research on sites from the Urartian Empire (860 – 590 BCE). Specifically, my research takes a phenomenological approach, focusing on bodily experiences of archaeological sites: sights, sounds, textures, sensations of movement, and the emotional impact […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

For my fourth consecutive summer, I returned to Egypt to work on Dr. Josef Wegner’s project at the mortuary complex of Senwosret III, located within the ancient site of Abydos. As with previous seasons, I helped excavate around the Senwosret III tomb enclosure, which is part of a mortuary complex that consists of the tomb […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

Summer. To me, it means two things: Greece and archaeology. For the past four years I have spent all or most of my summers in the country doing archaeological work. It all started in 2013 when my advisor Joseph L. Rife at Vanderbilt University, where I was an M.A. student in Classical Studies, invited me […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

In 1988, the author Kurt Vonnegut finished a letter to the “Ladies and Gentleman of 2088” with the following lines: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The sort of leaders we need now are not those who promise ultimate victory over Nature through perseverance in living […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

Even with training in classics and ancient history, my knowledge of the province of Roman Dacia, incorporated into the Roman Empire after Trajan’s two major campaigns in 101-2 and 105-6 CE against the Dacian king Decebalus, was partial at best before embarking on my first excavation. The lack of literary evidence concerning the campaigns, the […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

Thanks to funding from the Penn Museum, I was able to participate in my first international archaeological excavation this summer. My destination was French Guiana (a department of France sandwiched between Suriname and Brazil) where I helped conduct an archaeological survey of the slave quarter at three different 19th-century plantations. This project represented the first […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

This summer, I was fortunate to be able to go into the field with Dr. Chantel White to explore the sub-discipline of archaeobotany, the study of ancient plant remains. I have been in the field before, spending last summer learning to dig with Dr. Megan Kassabaum. Upon my return, I conducted research for my senior […]

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By: Anne Tiballi

This summer I traveled to Transylvania, Romania, to break ground on what is believed to be the central building of a Roman-era villa complex. The site is just outside a small village about a half an hour outside of Deva, the regional capital, and sits at the foot of a majestic volcanic plug, Magura Uroiului. […]

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