We have officially entered summer mode at the Kelsey Museum, and with summer comes fieldwork! This year, the Kelsey is sponsoring archaeological research at various sites across the Mediterranean, including Gabii, Italy; Notion, Türkiye; and Pella and Kea, Greece. Headed by Kelsey-affiliated faculty, these projects will involve U-M undergrads and more than a dozen IPAMAA students.

Natalie Abell examines clays and inclusions of pottery from Kephala.

Natalie Abell and her team are going to the Cycladic island of Kea, Greece, from mid-May until mid-June. This season, Natalie and students are primarily working toward the publication of the metal and metallurgical assemblages from the sites of Kephala and Ayia Irini. The team ultimately hopes to contextualize the evidence for metallurgy as part of the domestic economy and daily life in these settlements and to consider how people working with metals in northwestern Kea were connected with—and affected by—things happening in the wider Aegean over time.

Students washing pottery in the Finds Lab at Gabii, 2024.

The field season at Gabii, Italy, will run from June 8 through July 12. Last year, researchers began excavating a new city block, which contained a monumental entrance to a buried building. They will continue to investigate this entryway—along with a four-meter-deep pool or fountain carved into its facade—to get a better sense of its function within Gabii’s urban environment. This season will also mark the first under the leadership of IPAMAA alum Marcello Mogetta (University of Missouri), who assumed the director role after Nic Terrenato stepped back in 2024.

Archaeologist Gözde Ergül (second from left) and workers at the Bouleuterion, 2024.

At Notion, Türkiye, project director Christopher Ratté and his team will continue to investigate the history of the site during the Hellenistic period, especially the ways in which local communities responded to Roman rule, from June 10 until late August. Researchers will resume their excavation of a house on the city’s east side and their documentation of cemeteries in the Hales River Valley. The team will also make use of a newly constructed archaeological research facility consisting of a storage depot, conservation lab, and photo studio.

Excavations of the courtyard house at Pella, 2024.

Lisa Nevett and David Stone are leading the fourth season at Pella, Greece, from June 23 through August 1. This project will undertake field survey and excavation in pursuit of its goal of establishing a comprehensive picture of the ancient settlement and the lives of its inhabitants. The 2025 season will involve the continued excavation of a courtyard house, allowing researchers to better understand the formation of its residents’ identities. The team will also explore the density of occupation and chronology of the Roman colony of Pella.

Rather than focusing on the tangible evidence of urban centers at Gabii (pictured), Emptyscapes will investigate spaces devoid of built structures.

Starting in July, a second Kelsey-sponsored project will begin at Gabii, Italy. Unlike other studies of urbanism in pre-Roman and Roman Italy, which focus on city walls, roads, and other built elements, the “Emptyscapes Project”—led by Laura Motta—aims to uncover and interpret the invisible evidence of human activities in seemingly open areas. The inaugural 2025 field season will utilize coring, test trenches, sediment micromorphology, and soil analysis to explore such “areas in between” at Gabii during the Iron Age and Archaic period.