Mediterranean Trivium: Earth, Sea, and Culture
(Updated July 2014)
The 2013 Seminar in Advanced Interdisciplinary Learning (SAIL) examined how the singular geological framework and distinctive ecology of the Mediterranean region, and in particular Italy, shaped Classical, Renaissance and modern cultures. Archeological and documentary evidence in these periods demonstrates how people managed, explained, and imagined nature. At the same time, the land contains its own precise geological and ecological record. Focusing upon a Mediterranean “Trivium” of Earth, Sea, and Culture, the seminar involved visits to and discussion about the physical earth context and cultural heritage in Rome, Naples (Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Herculaneum), Florence, Orvieto, and Pisa, for examination of the interplay between people and nature over time.During the collaborative experience in Italy, each day’s itinerary offered interdisciplinary perspectives for the purpose of curriculum development. The leadership team from Colorado College devised the itinerary that would offer examples of points of intersections between disciplines in order to stimulate ideas about teaching/learning activities, and spur realizations about implementation of meaningful curricular work and future course development by participants.
Throughout the 10-day seminar, time was allocated for teams and individuals to work on curricular projects, grapple with challenges, and in a collaborative fashion acquaint ourselves with cognitive learning resources and methods of meaningful assessment of interdisciplinarity in undergraduate education.
Day 1: June 25 | Day 2: June 26 | Day 3: June 27 | Day 4: June 28 | Day 5: June 29
Day 6: June 30 | Day 7: July 1 | Day 8: July 2 | Day 9: July 3 | Day 10: July 4
Day 1: June 25
Palatine and Capitoline Hills, and the Forum. Participants arrive in Rome (FCO) then make their way to the Hotel Navona. In the afternoon we will visit the Palatine and Capitoline hills, and the Forum. Emphasis on aspects of regional geology that encouraged optimum use of earth resources (Siddoway) and on how the topography of the sites affects their social function and the development of the societies themselves (Thakur and Ashley).
Itinerary
- 2:30pm Meet in hotel lobby, walk to Palatine.
- 3:00-6:00 Palatine (3:00-4:00), Forum (4:00-5:30), Capitoline (5:30-6:00)
- 6:30 Personal introductions and overview of the seminar
- 7:00 group dinner Campo dei Fiori.
- Night in Rome: Hotel Navona
Readings:
- Livy History of Rome Book I: 1.1-1.17 (selections on the founding of Rome: Romulus and Remus and the hills) [eText: University of Virginia]
- Ovid, Fasti entries for Jan 11, Feb 15, Feb 17, Feb 21, Feb 23, Mar intro, Mar 15, Apr 21, May 9, May 14, June 9 [Poetry In Translation] [Ovid’s poetic calendar ties myth to specific locales in Rome we will be visiting; of interest are how topography and history influence cultural production(s)]
- Juvenal, Satire 3 [Poetry in Translation] [Juvenal’s short poetic satire on life in Rome is, like Ovid’s, also a commentary on Rome’s topography and monuments]
- Vitruvius, de architectura Book 2 Chap.3-7 (inclusive), Book 3 Chap. 2-4 (inclusive), Book 4 Chap. 4-6 (inclusive), Book 5 (all) [University of Chicago][Vitruvius’ work, still influential amongst architects today, describes various building materials and practices, and illustrates how ancient Romans were well aware of the natural world. The Vitruvius can be read rather cursorily, depending upon a participant’s level of interest]
- DiRita, D. & Giampaolo C., “Ancient Rome was Built with Volcanic Stone from the Roman Land,” 2006, in Special Papers or Jackson, Marie D. “Vulcan’s Masonry,” Natural History, 116 (2007): 40-45.
- Alvarez W., The Mountains of Saint Francis (Part II), W.W. Norton, 2009, 288 pp. [Used Books: Amazon]
- Heiken G. et al, Seven Hills of Rome (Chapters 1-2), Princeton University Press, 2005, 245 pp. [Available on Amazon]
Day 2: June 26
(a) Rome: The Pantheon: 8:30-9:30 Focus on the union of concept, design, and site.
(b) Disruptive Nature 1. Introduction to the environs around Vesuvius, look at urban planning of sites, archaeology, history, art history, anthropology, economics. Professor Thakur will discuss the history of the cities of Herculanium and Pompeii, the eruption of 79 A.D., and discuss issues of site preservation and management. Professor Siddoway will talk about the geology of the site, the geological principles of uniformitarianism vs. catastrophism, and the effects of active volcanism on communities.
Itinerary
- Rome: The Pantheon: 8:30-9:30. Focus on the union of concept, design, and site.
- 10:00-1:00 Bus to Pompeii (Lunch en route on your own)
- 1:00-6:00 Pompeii ½ time structured (Thakur; C. Hardy, Carleton; M. Simpson, Luther); ½ time free
- 8:30 Group dinner at the hotel: Introductions of curricular plans and of goals and outcomes.
- Night near Pompeii: Hotel Costa
Readings:
- Braudel, F. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II: Preface to the first edition; Part I (The Role of the Environment), chapters I, II, and IV. [a seminal study on history of and history in the Mediterranean]
- Horden, Peregrine & Nicholas Purcell: The Corrupting Sea (London: Blackwell, 2000): Part 1, Chapter 1, A Geographical Expression, pp. 9-25; and Part 2, ‘Short Distances and Definite Places,’ pp. 53-172 [an important contrasting approach to the region]
- Poehler, E., “The Drainage System at Pompeii: Mechanisms, Operations and Designs,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 25 (2012): 95-120.
- Wayman, Erin, “The Secrets of Ancient Rome’s Buildings,” Smithsonian Magazine, 2007.
- Wallace-Hadrill, A., “The Monumental Centre of Herculanium: In Search of the Identities of Public Buildings,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 24 (2011): 121-160.
- Vitruvius, de architectura Book 6 (all)
Day 3: June 27
Disruptive Nature 2. Mt. Vesuvius, including a climb to the caldera. Siddoway will discuss the geology of the site, how the active volcano has helped to shape the communities which have and continue to live in the shadow of the volcano and the surrounding areas.
Itinerary
- 8:30 Depart for Vesuvius
- 9:00-12:00 Vesuvius.
- Lunch on your own
- 3:00-4:00 Herculaneum (Thakur)
- 5:00-8:00 train to Florence
- Curriculum planning: team planning session afternoon (on train)
- 8:30 Group dinner in Florence at the Osteria de L’Ortolano (Via degli Alfani, 9r)
- Night in Florence: Loggiato dei Serviti
Readings:
- Horden and Purcell, The Corrupting Sea, Part 3, Chapter 8, Mediterranean Catastrophes, Section 2, An Unstable World, pp. 304ff.
- Pliny, Letters 6.16 and 6.20 [on the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79]
- Stewart, Doug, “Resurrecting Pompeii,” Smithsonian Magazine, 2006
- Barnes, K., Europe’s Ticking Time Bomb, Nature, v. 473 (12 May 2011), p. 140-141
Day 4: June 28
Florence: the city, its location, the Arno river. Walking tour of Florence (Ashley), concentrating on the high medieval/ Renaissance periods and on the Arno’s role in shaping the city’s history. We will discuss the relationship between the city’s lay out and its location in a flood plain. (Savina, Carleton).
Itinerary
- 8:30-12:00: Walkabout
- 12:00-1:30 Lunch on your own
- 1:30-4:30 Curriculum planning: (a) Discussion of readings, specifically the distinctive cross-disciplinary approaches to the Mediterranean. Participants will also share their disciplinary perspectives on the topography, ecology, culture or history of the Mediterranean and in particular of Italy. (b) Small groups from different academic disciplines develop an inquiry-based exercise related to the material presented on Days 1-4. Report back to the whole group.
- Group 1) Siddoway, Balaam, Simpson, Ziskowski
- Group 2) Ashley, Carrasco, Savina, Trull
- Group 3) Thakur, St. Clair, Thompson, Schodt
- Group 4) Casson, Hardy, Kann, Lynch
- 4:30- Duomo visit and climb to the cupola (if you have the energy)
- Dinner on your own
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Readings:
- Bruni, Leonardo, Panegyric to Florence, in Kohl, B. G. and R. G. Witt, The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978) [the city from a civic humanist’s eyes].
- Masters, R., Fortune Is a River : Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, (New York: Free Press, 1999) Chapter 2. [the title tells the tale]
- Malesani et al., “Geolithology and Provenance of Materials of Some Historical Buildings and Monuments in the Centre of Florence” Episodes, 2003
- Caporali E. et al., “The Arno River Floods,” Giornale di Geologia Applicata, 1 (2005):177-192.
- Montgomery, D., The Rocks Don’t Lie, 2012 (Ch. 3-4), W.W.Norton, 302 pp. [Various Formats: Amazon]
- Canuti, P. et al., “Geoscience for Cultural Safeguard in Florence,” 32nd International Geological Congress, 2004
Day 5: June 29
Florence. Landscape and the imagination. We will look at how people envisioned nature by examining portrayals of landscape in paintings in the Uffizi museum. We will then examine how people put the natural elements to use in cultural representations. (examples of Etruscan bronze sculptures and tools at the Archeological Museum).
Itinerary
- 8:30-11:30 Uffizi. Ashley and N. Thompson, St. Olaf, plus time to explore individually or as teams.
- 11:30-12:30 Lunch on your own
- 12:30-2:00 Archaeological Museum (A. Carrasco, Luther: metallurgy/environmental impact of mining)
- 3pm-6pm Curriculum planning: (a) How participating colleges “do” interdisciplinary learning (what works/what doesn’t) (P. Balaam, Carleton and D. Casson, St. Olaf) (b)Time for team planning.
- Dinner on your own
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Readings:
- Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Pt. 4, The Discovery of the World and of Man (parts 1-3) [Several versions available online at Project Gutenberg: HTML | ePub | Kindle] [seeing nature as an object]
- Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting, Prologue, Books 1-3. [Cambridge Books Online][Various Formats: Amazon]. Open access edition here. [the mathematics of perspective]
- DaVinci, Leonardo, On Painting (edited by Martin Kemp), 1989. Part IV, The Depiction of Nature, pp 159-191. [the techniques of capturing nature in one dimension]
- Cosgrove, Denis, “The Geometry of Landscape: Practical and Speculative Arts in Sixteenth-century Venetian Land Territories,” 254-276 in Cosgrove, Denis and S. Daniels, eds., The Iconography of Landscape, 1988. [how mathematics, perspective, and neo-Platonism influenced reclamation plans]
- David Branagan, “Geology and the Artists of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, Mainly Florentine,” in Battista Vai, Gian and Caldwell, W. Glen E., “The Origins of Geology in Italy” GSA Special Paper 411, 2006, pp. 31-42.
Day 6: June 30
Hills. Orvieto as an example of the relationship between topography and city planning and life in the city.
Itinerary
- 8:00 Bus to Orvieto
- 11:00-12:30 Under Orvieto
- 12:30-2:00 Lunch on your own
- 2:00-4:00 Duomo (M. Trull, St. Olaf) and further exploration of the town.
- 4:00 – Bus back to Florence
- Curriculum planning update (time flexible- upon our return or bumped to day 7 if we get back too late)
- Dinner on your own
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Readings: Geology
- del Monaco et al., “Field Guide to Orvieto, Civita de Bagnioreggio, & Ancona,” 2nd World Landslide Forum, 2011, pp. 1-17.
- Morello N., “Steno, the Fossils, the Rocks, and the Calendar of the Earth,” in Vai GB et al., The Origins of Geology in Italy, GSA Special Paper 411, 2006, pp. 31-42.
- Cencetti, Corrado et al., “The Rock of Orvieto (Umbria, Central Italy),” Giornale di Geologia Applicata v. 1, 2005, pp. 103–112.
Readings: Broader approaches to interdisciplinary learning.
- Wiggins G. and J. McTighe, Understanding by Design [2nd ed.], Pearson Publishing, 2005, 384 p. (Chapter 1, recommended). See also: UdB.
- Shannon K. McCoy & Susan K. Gardner, “Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Campus: Five Questions,” November-December 2012.
- Mansilla, Veronica B., “Assessing Student Work at Disciplinary Crossroads,” Change 37, no. 1 (2005):14-21.
Day 7: July 1
Mountains.
Mountains: “Virtual” geology: GoogleEarth analysis of the Apennines
Itinerary
- 8:30-11:30 Laboratory: Siddoway and Thakur
- 11:30-1:00 Lunch on your own
- 1:00-2:00 Tutorial on images/video A. Kann, Coe
- 2:00-5:00 Curriculum planning: (a) In the afternoon, team planning session. (b) Free time for visits to sites of interest.
- 5:00-6:00 (if not day 6 ) curriculum planning update for the whole group.
- Dinner on your own
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Resources and Readings:
- GoogleEarth Geospatial Resource: Free Download (Google Earth)
- GeoMapApp Geospatial Resource: Free Access (GeoMapApp)
- Tarquini S. et al., TINITALY/01: Digital Elevation Model of the Whole Italian Territory: Annals of Geophysics, 50 (2007): 407-425.
- Alvarez, W., The Mountains of St. Francis (Part IV). Norton Press, 2009, 288 pp. [Books: Amazon]
- Tewksbury B. (ed.), “Teaching Geologic Map Interpretation Using Google Earth”
- Cowie P. & Tucker T., “Landscape Evolution in Response to Active Tectonics: The Italian Apennines (accessed Feb. 2013)
- Armiero, Marco, A Rugged Nation: Mountains and the Making of Modern Italy, 2011. Epilogue, pp. 173-194. [on the Vajont disaster]
Day 8: July 2
Pisa and the Arno River Valley: the relationship of Pisa to the sea, the valley of the Arno and Florence, and the coastal environment. Emphasis on current issues of urban development, agriculture, and flood control.
Itinerary
- 8:30 Leave for Pisa
- 9:30-10:30 Il padule di Funcecchio-M. St. Clair, Coe.
- 11:30-1:30 Campo dei Miracoli -Ashley and Smith on site, design, and construction of the buildings, especially the Tower.
- 1:30 to 2:00 Lunch on your own
- 2:00 Return to Florence
- Afternoon: Curriculum planning and review: Finalize team and individual reports. Culminating session to review curricular development ideas.
- Group dinner (Le Barrique, Via dei Leone 40)
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Readings:
- Masters, R. 1999, Fortune Is a River: Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History, Chapters 1-3, Chapters 4-6, Chapters 7-9, Chapters 9-11, Plume Press, 278 pp.
- Sarti, Giovanni, Bini M. & Giacomelli S., “Correlations Between Landscape, Geology and the Growth and Decline of Pisa (Tuscany, Italy) Up to the Middle Ages,” Il Quaternario—Italian Journal of Quaternary Sciences, 23 (2010): 311-322.
- Slayman A, “A Cache of Vintage Ships,” 52 (1999)
- Whallon, Robert, “Spatial Analysis of Occupation Floors II: The Application of Nearest Neighbor Analysis,” American Antiquity, 39 (1974):16-34
Day 9: July 3
- Morning: Curriculum planning and review: Culminating session to review curricular development ideas and present to the group. Next steps.
- Lunch on your own
- 1:30 meet bus
- Tuscan Terroir (Siddoway)
- 3:00 Volpaia (tour wine making facilities)
- 5:30 Montefili (growing grapes and building an agriturismo) Lynch (Luther) on Tuscan ecology.
- Roberto and Elena Bencivenni on building an agriturismo and making Chianti.
- Group dinner (Trattoria “da Pordo,” Valigondoli)
- Night in Florence: Loggiato
Readings
Cita, Maria Bianca et al., 2004, Italian Wines and Geology.
Colacicchi, R., 2004, Geology Tasting and Wine Mapping in central Italy, Field guide P40, 32nd International Geological Congress [Florence, Italy, Aug. 20-28, 2004].
Day 10: July 4
Rome. Visit Piazza Navona and St. Peters to summarize the new perspectives gained in the seminar. Begin with Piazza Navona, then visit St. Peters, including the Scavi Vaticani and the Roman necropolis beneath the basilica, the Basilica itself, and a climb to the top of the cupola to view the contemporary city from its highest point.
Itinerary
- 8:30: Train to Rome
- 11:00 Hotel to drop off bags
- 11:30-12:30 Piazza Navona A. Ziskowski, Coe (aqueducts/water delivery)
- Lunch on your own
- 1:30-5 pm Thakur: St Peters (Scavi, Basilica, Cupola)
- 7:30 Group dinner
- Night in Rome: Hotel Navona
Readings:
- Frontinus, de aquis book 1.1-23 [University of Chicago][on Rome’s various aqueducts, also demonstrative of how much Romans knew about water and engineering]
- Vitruvius, de architectura Book 8 (all)
- Heiken G. et al, Seven Hills of Rome (Chapters 1-2), Princeton University Press, 2005, 245 pp. [Available on Amazon]
- Bozzano F. et al., “A Geological Model of the Buried Tiber River Valley Beneath the Historical Centre of Rome,” Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 59, no. 1(2000):1-21.
July 5
Conclusion of ACM SAIL – Mediterranean Trivium
