Archaeology and Art History Majors at Harlaxton

Ten Archaeology and Art History majors are studying at Harlaxton this semester!  Enjoy some pictures of students at taken at Harlaxton and in London, York and Barcelona.


Rachel, Megan, Sarah, Emma, Mike, Abigail, Kelly and Josephine at Harlaxton





Emma, Megan and Lizzie in Barcelona.



Emma, Lizzie and Sarah in Barcelona.



Sarah and Megan at York.



Mike and Rachel at the Victorial Memorial in London.

Glad everyone is having a good time!

Dig Poggio Civitate, Italy, in Summer 2011!

The Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project is among the oldest and best known field schools in the world and is co-directed by UE Archaeology alumna, Theresa Huntsman ('02). Our program provides students the opportunity to excavate at the site under the direction of a staff of professional archaeologists, conservators, illustrators, and photographers. Participants receive training in all aspects of field work, including excavation and data collection, archaeological survey and drawing, objects conservation, illustration, photography, and cataloguing.

At Poggio Civitate, we believe that the best field experience is comprehensive. Students are encouraged to work directly with directors of excavation units, follow artifacts from discovery through conservation and into cataloguing. Most of our Participants come with no field work experience – many have never even taken an archaeology or classics course –and by the end of the season, we believe, each comes away with a foundation in Etruscan Archaeology and field methods, as well as an appreciation for Italy and rural Italian culture.

The 2011 field season will focus excavation on an area of the hill recently discovered to preserve remains of the sixth century B.C. archaic complex, as well as to explore other areas for traces of non-elite architecture. Work is conducted Monday - Friday, with the weekends free to explore Tuscany and further afield in Italy.

The 2011 Season runs June 28-August 2 at a cost of $4200 (excluding airfare). Program costs include up to 6 academic credits through UMass-Amherst, and participants are housed in a building of the Albergo di Murlo, a local hotel, in double to quad rooms. All meals are provided Monday - Friday, and are prepared by the excavation chef.

For an application, contact Assistant Director Jason Bauer at digmurlo@gmail.com

Student Cynthia Torrez in Athens



Cynthia inside the Parthenon during one of our on-site classes.

During the 2010 fall semester I studied in Athens, Greece with the College Year in Athens program. I feel like I had a unique experience because the program housed us in nearby apartment buildings so my roommates and I had only Greek neighbors. This is definitely something I know some study abroad students never get to experience. From day one we were fully immersed in a culture I knew very little about! This changed pretty quickly, however, and in my Archaeology of Athens, Modern Greek, and Greek Ethnography classes I learned plenty about Greece’s foundations, history and culture. Within the first week of classes, we were already going to on-site locations for my Archaeology of Athens class to get up close and personal with what we were studying. The first day we hiked up the Philopappos Hill, a hill just across from the Acropolis, and we got an amazing view of the city while we learned about the topography of Athens. 

During the first few weekends, my five other roommates and I explored Athens and the surrounding areas; we went to Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon, to Meteora to see the amazing cliff-top monasteries, and to the island Hydra, where no motorized vehicles are permitted. A few weeks into the program, the school took all 150 students to the island of Crete for a week long field trip. After surviving th e 10 hour overnight ferry ride we arrived in the small town of Heraklion. The teachers were our tour guides as we went to sites around the island. One of the most interesting parts was watching the tour busses navigate the narrow, winding cliffside roads that covered most of the island. I’m still convinced that pure luck and magic got us around some of those sudden bends. After a week of visiting ancient Minoan sites all over the island and relaxing on the beaches during our free time, we headed back to Athens.


At Mycenae.

Later in the semester, the school took us on another field trip around the Peloponnese. My Ancient Greek Athletics professor took his classes to many of the old stadiums and sports sites, like Olympia, and we also visited a few Mycenaean sites. They also made sure we saw some other important modern sites like the man-made Corinth Canal and the new Rio Antirrio Bridge, a feat of engineering. We ended our trip at Delphi where we got to see the site of the oracle then we had to return to our “normal” lives in Athens.



Over Thanksgiving break a few friends and I went to Cairo. We got to see all the main sites but my favorite experience was when we went to some stables after dark and were able to ride horses through the desert to a Bedouin camp and drink tea while peering at the pyramids in the distance.

Sitting on the camp wall in Giza with the pyramids in the background.

However, after break, the semester was finishing up and most of my time was devoted to studying for finals. This didn't stop me from spending my last days wandering around Athens and seeing things I hadn’t seen yet around the city. I also practiced my Greek while souvenir shopping, and by now I could speak almost all Greek from the time I walked into a store to when I left. Most of the locals were surprised to hear I wasn’t at least Greek-American; I was pretty proud of myself about that. But finally the time came to leave. I'll hopefully find myself back there soon.

Alumna Andrea Wannemuehler Exhibits Her Original Art

Alumna Andrea Wannemuehler is exhibiting some of her original ink and watercolor illustrations on the second floor of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library, Central Branch (200 SE MLK Blvd.). Show your support for an art history alumna and see what she has been doing since graduation!

Theresa Huntsman lecture on February 14

On Monday February 14, 7:00-8:00 pm in SOBA 73, Theresa Huntsman ('02) will give a presentation entitled "Poggio Civitate: 45 Years on the Piano del Tesoro."  The 2011 field season marks the 45th successive year of archaeological exploration at Poggio Civitate (Murlo) located in central inland Tuscany.  The excavations have brought to light a massive complex, the largest in the region during the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.  During two phases of occupation the inhabitants constructed monumental buildings including an elite residence, a religious building, and a workshop, all elaborately decorated with sculptures.  For reasons still unknown, the site was burned to the ground in the third quarter of the sixth century BCE, never to be inhabited again.

Students at UE have the opportunity to participate in the 2011 summer archaeological field season.  Participants will experience all aspects of archaeological work, including excavation, conservation, survey, illustration, and photography.

Theresa Huntsman is a PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also earned her MA in 2005.  She received her BA in Archaeology at UE in 2002 and has participated in the excavations at Poggio Civitate since her first trip as a field school student in 2001.  Currently, she serves as cataloguer, collections manager, and field school instructor for the project.

Alumna Profile: Marika M. R. ('10) in London

I graduated from UE with a BA in Art History and a minor in Business Administration, and following commencement in May 2010, I moved to England to start my career in the arts. The education I received from the brilliant staff in the Department of Archaeology and Art History, as well as the experience I gained as an intern while attending UE, fully prepared me to find a position within the art world. After a month in England, I found an opportunity to start gaining experience in gallery work.

My current position is Gallery Assistant at the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, London. Shoreditch is a trendy art area in downtown east London. The gallery is fairly new, having been open now for two years, and it is part of a PR company for the arts. The gallery exhibits mostly photography, and photographers including John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins, Robert Altman, Nat Finklestein, and Mick Rock have exhibited at the gallery. My role at the Idea Generation Gallery has included assisting with print sales, performing networking and social media for the gallery, and doing research for new exhibitions. For our recent exhibition, Mick Rock: Rock Music, I participated in the Launch Party for the exhibit and the closing event with the artist, and I helped with marketing the event, print sales of the work, and an auction preformed by the artist.

While at UE I took advantage of the opportunity to complete an internship for course credit at the Evansville Museum, where I assisted the Registrar with the set-up of five exhibits, completed condition reports and numbered objects, and updated the museum database.  This experience definitely helped me land my current position in London.

My classes at UE and the professors that helped me on the way to graduation also helped me get where I am today.  Dr. Heidi Strobel advised me throughout my university career.  She is dedicated to her students and continually pushes students to be better.  She encourages thought-provoking class discussions and critical thinking, engaging her students.  I took my senior seminar class with Dr. Ebeling, and in this class I learned the skills needed to get out into the real world.  She gave her students the last push in helping us to decide what we are doing after we graduate and gave us all the information and training on how we can get there.  In her class we were given the individual attention we needed.  Dr. Thomas also gives students individual attention.  The knowledge the Archeology and Art History department faculty possess is enthusiastically passed on to its students.

Life in London is treating me well!  I have been in love with the never-ending cultural things to do, museums to see and galleries to visit.  The city is fast-paced and full of diversity.  England wasn’t much of a culture shock- it is very similar to the US, but with so much more history (yay)- although I have managed to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road and in manual while also being left-handed.  It is truly favorite city thus far and I love having the opportunity to visit other European countries and art around the world.  In the future I plan to take on other roles within the art world in order to gain more experience with exhibition and curation, and I am planning to attend graduate school for museum curation.