Director / Esther B. Van Deman Collegiate Professor of Roman Studies / Curator for the Archaeology of the Italian Peninsula
About
Nicola Terrenato specializes in first-millennium BCE Italy, with particular reference to northern Etruria, early Rome, and the period of the Roman conquest. He has been involved in fieldwork in and around Rome, Volterra, and Potenza. He currently directs a major excavation of the Latin city at Gabii, as well as a new investigation of the Sant'Omobono sanctuary in the river harbor of Rome. At Gabii, the NYT-featured discovery of extensive architecture dating to the fourth–third centuries BCE has provided an important glimpse into the early stages of Roman monumental construction. Other interests include field survey methods, history of archaeology, and especially the role of elite mentality in the formation of cities and empires in the Mediterranean. Taking apart the view of these political abstractions as all-powerful entities, he explores with the help of archaeology the role of specific human groups in political decision-making.
