Danish - Italian excavations on the Forum of Caesar 2023
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Jan Kindberg Jacobsen
Titel
Senior Researcher
Institution
Danish Institute in Rome
Beløb
DKK 525,000
År
2023
Bevillingstype
Strategic Grants
Hvad?
Rome constitutes an excellent location for the study of urban and cultural development in a long term perspective. Since 2017, a Danish-Italian cross disciplinary team has excavated new of the area most renowned for having housed the extensive public building project by Gaius Julius Caesar initiated in 46 BC, namely his public forum. In 2023 a third and final excavation campaign will unearthing an extensive part of the forum area directly to the north of the previously excavated parts. It is likely that this phase will contribute with new insight into the architectural layout of the forum and its sculptural decorative program.
Hvorfor?
The excavations are taking place on Caesar's Forum in central Rome which is a location of vital importance for Western European cultural identity. The area holds archaeological evidence covering three thousand years of Rome's prehistory and historical periods. Such a central excavation offers wide-ranging research possibilities connected to issues about the urban development of one of the Classical world's pivotal city centres. Using the latest technology and newest archaeo-science methods, the excavations on Caesar's Forum are increasing our understanding of the site's urban development as well as giving a better understanding of the site's other, previously excavated complexes. The excavations conducted between 2019 and 2022 have produced new understanding for the transformation of the area during a 3000-year period. From the earliest traces of human activity from the 12th century BCE, to an unknown graveyard from the 6th century BCE and continuing to the Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and modern times.
Hvordan?
I am conducting my research as part of an international scientific joint venture. The excavations are undertaken as a collaboration between Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, the Danish Institute in Rome, and the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University. My own contribution is taking place in Rome. Based at the Danish Institute my work is divided between the actual excavation and the ongoing research on the excavated archaeological material. I coordinate the Roman based research in collaboration with the two other directors Dr. Claudio Parisi Presicce (Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, Direzione Musei archeologici e storico-artistici) and Prof. Rubina Raja (Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence, Centre for Urban Network Evolutions).