Darian Totten wins 2014 Cotsen Excavation Grant

The department congratulates Darian Totten (Ph.D. 2011) for winning a 2014 Cotsen Grant through the Archaeological Institute of America.  Recipients receive $25,000 to support excavations and research. The grant for "first-time" project directors was awarded to Totten for the Salapia Exploration Project. Totten and her colleagues Roberto Goffredo and Giovanni de Venuto (Università di Foggia) will examine the complex, long-term environmental and human history of the coastal lagoon of the Lago di Salpi, located on the Adriatic coast of Italy. While the precarious and changeable coastal landscape posed challenges to habitation during the Roman, Late Antique, and Medieval periods, it also offered many benefits including a natural harbor and productive salt pans. A research program that includes two excavations--one at San Vito, a coastal villa on the southeastern side of the lagoon and the other at the ancient urban center and port of Salapia, located on the southern edge of the lagoon--and a rigorous geomorphological study of the lagoon environment will address how inhabitants negotiated and responded to environmental changes and in the wider economic and social development of the region.