Today’s (July 31, 2016) lecture theme was all about facial reconstruction! Needless to say I was excited! It was something that we’ve seen on t.v., in classes, and in books so to get to try… More
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It’s Mummy Time!
The last few days have been filled with a lot of learning and lectures! In the first two or
three days of lectures we have already learned so much! All of our professors and students here are so knowledgeable it makes a great learning atmosphere. It is pretty amazing that we not only get the chance to see and study these ancient mummies in person but also have some of the best people in the field teaching us about it and sharing all their experience!
We’ve touched on the ethical issues with studying mummies, background information of the importance of saints and relics, taphonomy of human bodies, the restoration of Blessed Antonio Franco, paleo-pathology, and forensic anthropology. So far my favorite lecture topic was the restoration of the Blessed Antonio. Dario (one of the professors) went through how he and his team worked to restore the body of the mummy enough to safely put out on display. Things like fixing broken or detached small parts with glue (that can be degraded and is non-toxic to the remains), adding things the church requested, cleaning and changing the clothing, and adding new teeth. The teeth is probably the most interesting thing because it was redone because the Church preferred for the teeth to be in good shape and visible rather than in the state that they were in. So in order to do that they had to use a mold to create new teeth for him. What is a little funny about it is that the mold was made from Dario’s teeth! That all gave us a little chuckle. The restoration took them 2 full weeks of non-stop work.
Not only didn’t lectures begin this week for us but so did the visual analysis of the mummies. We got to go finally get into the crypt and spend some time really looking at all the mummies that are found in there. The first day we went down there we spent some tim
e listening to Dario tell us some interesting information about them and point out some specimen that had different or interesting features about them. After a little introduction we split up into groups of three where we all got to inspect the mummies more closing. Sadly we aren’t able to open the coffins and remove them or physically inspect them but the amount of information that can be told visually by the human body is extraordinary!!
The mummy our group analyzed was in decent condition. There was some soft tissue that was left on different parts of his body and it appeared to have almost all of the bones in the case, minus a few of the smaller ones and some of the hand/feet bones). There was even some clothing still in tact on his body. What was extra interesting about our mummy was the fact that he had fungus and possibly mold growing on the clothing and parts of the skeleton. It wasn’t observed on the other student’s mummies. It will be interesting to find out more about it! Being in the crypt was such a fantastic experience, it is difficult to describe how if feels to see that stuff and learn about the cultural and religious importance of the crypt to the community!
Outside of class, the days have been of course filled with amazing food and great conversation as always. Everyday we get to try something new to eat and it’s wonderful! It’s nice and different, even though we all keep talking about how we miss some of our old versions of food! We have also began to have some Italian lessons in the evening. We’ve covered some basic words, gestures, time, and dates so far. It’s pretty difficult to pick up but we do have a great teacher! I think the gestures are my favorite part and those are the things that it seems like all of us picked up on (especially the gesture for “I have no money” ). Its such a beautiful language that you get so caught up listening to the way it sounds instead of what it says
After the secon
d day of Italian lessons we went on a late hike up to the castle that is on the top of the mountain above us. It was extremely steep and big walk for 11 o’clock at night. Sadly the bar that was up at the top of the mountain was closed when we got up there…which was the whole reason we went there in the first place…BUT the view was beautiful at night! You were able to overlook the whole area with all the street lights and home lights! Apparently there are wild hedgehogs here because we have came across two different ones on walks. Unfortunately I wasn’t close when they saw them and they ran away before I could see. We have also discovered our new love of Kinder Eggs.. we’ve made multiple trips to the store called “Jolly T” to purchase them. SO GOOD! 🙂
So much as happened already in the first few weeks it is difficult to put it all into words! I’m learning so much and enjoying the time and culture here! Even the amount and stairs and steep hills are (very) slowly getting easier each day.. slowly!
A Town Welcome
Sunday night (July 23rd) the town hosted a small little welcome party for us. We all meet in the church, Basilica Cathedral, with some people from the town and there was a discussion panel that contained two of our professors for the course, the town mayor, a politician, a lawyer, and a cultural heritage member. They discussed the importance of the Mummy Studies field school to both students and the town (at least that is what we got out of the conversation considering it was 100% in Italian). While at the church we got to the Blessed Antonio Franco, who was beatified in 2013.
After the discussion panel we made our way back to the convent (the one that we are staying at…) to go down into the crypts where the mummies are housed. It was a very quick trip down there because we were on the way to a big dinner with members of the church, the Father, and the Mayor but, it was so neat! Tomorrow we get to go back into the crypt to spend more time with the mummies. When we got back for dinner we had a TON of food for us, it was all so amazing!
After the discussion panel we made our way back to the convent (the one that we are staying at…) to go down into the crypts where the mummies are housed. It was a very quick trip down there because we were on the way to a big dinner with members of the church, the Father, and the Mayor but, it was so neat! Tomorrow we get to go back into the crypt to spend more time with the mummies. When we got back for dinner we had a TON of food for us, it was all so amazing!
We had our first day of classes today, we started off with discussing some ethical issues behind mummy research and some background information about mummies in general. We talked about all the different kinds of mummies that can occur. We split our lectures up throughout the day for breaks to hang out around the convent as well as a break to go to a local cafe down the hill called the Poker Bar for some Gelato and Cappuccino. On our way down there we came across a little festival in the square with bouncy houses, face painting, snacks, and music for the kids. This was also the first time we “successfully” ordered and paid for our food without the help of any professor! Although the barista had to correct us, I’d say it still counts! After our coffee break we came back for another lecture and ended the night all hanging out before and after dinner. Day three = Success!
Getting to Santa Lucia del Mela
Well the travel here was sure an interesting one. It started out at about 2:30 am to get ready to head to the airport. All my flights went well minus a few delays in Omaha, Chicago, and Rome. Some due to mechanical issues (luckily it wasn’t anything big) and others due to ticketing issues, but finally I arrived in Palermo with all my luggage and met up with the other students and professors.
We ended up taking a taxi from the airport to the hostel in Palermo where we stayed for the first night. It was a great way to travel into the city because we were able to see a lot of the area really well. It is neat to see the water on one side of you and then mountains on the other. When we got into the city the architecture was so great and beautiful! It was different than any place I’ve seen before because everything was so close together and built upwards with very great detail and many statues everywhere. Another interesting thing was the way people drove in the city. They are so fast and crazy but hardly get mad or honk…nothing like Nebraska traffic!! With the narrow streets and cars just blasting through there were a few times where we were a little worried we’d crash or hit something but they make it look so easy! Also, people just cross the streets in front of cars and where ever in the streets, so paying attention to traffic reaches a whole new level here.
Our hostel was conveniently located next to a supermarket and across from a little cafe called Cafe Roma. At the little cafe was the first Granita we tried…which was amazing!! We ate dinner at a wonderful pizza place where we had just the best food and wine I’ve ever experienced. People were not joking about Italian Red Wine. 🙂 After dinner we went back to get ready to sleep because we had an early morning to get ready for the train.
The next morning, July 23rd, we traveled to Milazzo by train. It was a chore to load 14 people’s worth of luggage plus all the lab equipment onto and then off the train before the doors closed, but we accomplished it in record time! It was a three hour train ride from Palermo to Milazzo where we were being picked up and taken by bus to Santa Lucia del Mela. Once we made it to old convent where we will be staying we had to carry all our luggage up some decently sized hills that were not always smooth. The convent over looks the town and it is breath taking, especially in the evening when the sun begins to set. Pictures do not do it justice.
Overall the trip and field school is off to a great start and I can’t wait to get started with the studies!
First Gelato — Chocolate with fig
First Dinner in Palermo
Breakfast at the Hostel
Have You Seen My Mummy? 