The department of Classics at McMaster University began the Metaponto Archaeological Project in 2017. The project’s goal is to reconstruct the patterns of life in the countryside of the ancient Greek city of Metaponto.
Ancient Metaponto, located on the Ionian Coast of Italy in the modern province of Basilicata, was founded by Greek settlers near the end of the seventh century BC. The new city soon came to occupy an area of nearly 400 km2, through which extended a network of villages, farmsteads and rural sanctuaries. The occupation of the countryside went so far as to include a system of irrigation canals to maximize water resources.
“... this is what Humanities looks like at McMaster.”
In October 2018, I made a trip to the area to oversee the next steps in the project. I selected an area for excavation and made plans for a geophysical survey (magnetometry) and remote sensing at the site. My week began with clearing brush and weeds from the site with the assistance of two workers; once cleared, the site was ready for the magnetometry survey. A team from the University of Siena performed the work and created a plan indicating abnormal densities that might correspond to archaeological deposits. The following day, a team of technicians carried out remote sensing to create a detailed map of the surface. Their drone took a series of aerial photographs of the site that will be stitched together to create a highly detailed georeferenced plan of the site.
Dr. F. Pericci running the magnetometer over the surface of the site
A team of Classics graduate and undergraduate students will get to work this summer. As the students uncover buried artifacts, record them using GIS technology and use remote sensing tools such as drones, I will certainly look on and think that this is what Humanities looks like at McMaster.