Appian Way Research Articles

In This Way We Came to Rome: With Paul on the Appian Way, by Glen L. Thompson and Mark Wilson

In This Way We Came to Rome: With Paul on the Appian Way, by Glen L. Thompson and Mark Wilson

Heritage Sites, Devotion, and Quality Enhancement in Tourism: The Promotion and Management of Ancient Marian Places of Worship along the Appian Way in Puglia and Basilicata

Religious tourism is a significant and growing field of tourism that overlaps with cultural tourism. It has the potential to improve the quality of life of those who live in places of faith or along routes of spiritual interest. Religious tourism involves a complex interplay of spiritual and economic motivations. Effective religious tourism management requires respect for spiritual values, partnerships, local engagement, and quality assessment. Devotional practices have evolved from medieval spiritual care to communal expressions and periodic rituals. This paper specifically analysed the characteristics of the Marian cult and pilgrimage flows to places of Marian faith. It examined their value potential from a religious and cultural perspective and their role as a particular attractor of experiential and quality tourism generated by the territorial context. The area of reference is the region of Puglia, which has often played the role of cultural bridge with the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean in the past. The second part of the paper focuses on the proposed itinerary along the Appian Way in its final route between Puglia and Basilicata. Marian shrines were sometimes the cause and sometimes the evidence of the cultural and economic poles that characterised the medieval and modern variants of this ancient road route. The study outlines a serial path that integrates the usual settlement or infrastructural levels of territorial knowledge with the Marian theme, which was analysed diachronically. An operational track in the contemporary territorial dimension emerged from the correlation of both the stratigraphic reading of the landscape and the interpretation of material and immaterial cultural heritage. This track aims to aggregate and promote the sustainable rediscovery of those places, which are largely cut off from the routes of mass tourism, in adherence to the most recent European and local cultural and landscape guidelines.

Multi-Sensor HR Mass Data Models toward Multi-Temporal-Layered Digital Twins: Maintenance, Design and XR Informed Tour of the Multi-Stratified Appian Way (PAAA).

The article provides an overview of the digitisation project conducted by the Parco Archeologico dell'Appia Antica (PAAA) in Rome, focusing on an 11.7 km section of the Appian Way. This effort is part of the "Appia Regina Viarum" project, supporting the UNESCO heritage site candidacy of the Appian Way. Advanced sensor technologies, including the Mobile Mapping System (MMS), 360° Cameras, Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), digital cameras, and drones, are employed to collect extensive data sets. The primary goal is to create highly accurate three-dimensional (3D) models for knowledge enhancement, conservation, and communication purposes. Innovative tools are introduced to manage High Resolution 3D textured models, improving maintenance, management, and design processes over traditional CAD methods. The project aims to develop multi-temporal Digital Twins integrated with historical documentation, such as Piranesi's imaginary views and architect Canina's monument reconstructions. These informative models function as nodes within the DT, serving the PAAA's geographic hub by means of an eXtended Reality (XR) platform: the paper proposes bridging the physical object and virtual models, contributing to supporting the operators in the maintenance planning as well as information dissemination and public awareness, offering an immersive experience beyond conventional reality.

IMMERSIVE APPIAN WAY HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE: HUMAN CENTRIC DIGITAL TWIN (THE PAAA ARCHEOLOGICAL PARK OF THE APPIAN WAY 12KM STATE-OWN SECTION, UNESCO CANDIDATURE)

Abstract. From Rome to Benevento, the Appian Way (Via Appia Antica) was born as a military road, 'Regina Viarum'. In 312 b.C., consul Appio Claudio extended the infrastructure for 132 miles to Capua. Many transformations and integration occurred across the centuries, resulting in a unique multi-stratified world heritage (landscape, architecture, archaeological remains and tombs along the military way). In the 19th century, Luigi Canina conceived the Appian Way as an outdoor museum, realizing a first state-own section along the 12km here surveyed and described. This year, the Ministry of Culture (MIC) has launched the UNESCO nomination for the road. The article discusses aspects of the mass digitization undertaken by the Parco Archeologico dell'Appia Antica (PAAA, the Archaeological Park of the Appian Way). The aim is to build a Digital Twin of the infrastructure supporting knowledge enhancement, preservation, design, communication and fruition. A virtual space where digital technologies and eXtended Reality are the digital arms of the contemporary Vitruvian humanistic mission and vision of the PAAA Appian Way as a source of wealth and healthiness for all the users and visitors.

MOBILE MAPPING FOR DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION OF ANCIENT ROMAN ROADS WITHIN A MULTI-SENSOR FRAMEWORK: THE APPIAN WAY IN ROME

Abstract. Digitization of complex Cultural Heritage sites requires the integration of several strategies to achieve a comprehensive description of the site. This is the case of the digitization project of the Appian Way in Rome involving a section of 12 km from Capo di Bove to Frattocchie under the superintendence of the Parco Archeologico dell’Appia Antica. This paper presents some first results of the project with a specific focus on the acquisition of the primary data needed for the further steps of the project. In particular, the paper discusses the integration of different sensors such as lidar-based Mobile Mapping Systems, spheric (360°) cameras and digital (frame) calibrated cameras, for the reconstruction of point clouds to be used as input data for the digitization process. A specific attention is paid both on acquisition speed and to accuracy of the obtained results. The paper presents also some results showing the transformation of the acquired data into a GIS system to be used as a support tool for decision making of the public administration.

Diachronic and Synchronic Analysis for Knowledge Creation: Architectural Representation Geared to XR Building Archaeology (Claudius-Anio Novus Aqueduct in Tor Fiscale, the Appia Antica Archaeological Park)

This study summarises research progress to identify appropriate quality methodologies for representing, interpreting, and modelling complex contexts such as the Claudian Aqueduct in the Appian Way Archaeological Park. The goal is to intrinsically integrate (embed) geometric survey (Laser scanning and photogrammetric) with the materials and construction techniques (Stratigraphic Units—SU), semantic models in order to support the design with a better understanding of the artefact considered, and also to give indications that can be implemented in the future in a continuous cognitive process. Volume stratigraphic units in the form of architectural drawings, heritage building information modelling (HBIM) and extended reality (XR) environments have been oriented to comparative analyses based on the research case study’s complex morphology. Analysis of geometries’ intersection, construction techniques and materials open up new cognitive scenarios, self-feeding a progressive knowledge and making different studies correlatable, avoiding diaspora or incommunicability. Finally, an extended reality (XR) platform aims to enhance tangible and intangible values through new human-computer interaction and information sharing levels.

Living Amidst the Ruins in Rome: Archaeological Sites as Hubs for Sustainable Development

In Rome, the intertwining of natural and built environments is structural, and has consolidated over the centuries. In the contemporary fabric, the overabundant presence of archaeology, always in symbiosis with vegetation, plays an important role for the image of the city and has helped maintain the alternation of voids and solids. Porosity can be seen therefore as a permanent morphological urban character of the city, particularly significant nowadays for environmental considerations. Ruins, which only a few years ago were perceived more as a brake to urban transformation, in recent years are emerging as an interesting potential in terms of biodiversity spots and social catalysts to implement more sustainable development. Out of the concept of sustainability, we can in fact recognize new and more cutting-edge ways of planning and designing heritage territory. This article describes a different approach to the enhancement of archaeological areas, through three case studies—The Appian Way Park, Rome’s City Walls and ArchaeoGRAB—that consider heritage as a sustainable integrated system. These projects present, through a holistic and multidisciplinary perspective, possible ways in which landscape design can contribute to the preservation of natural and heritage environments, as well as the development of healthier lifestyles and strengthening of local culture for the communities that dwell therein.

Introduction

The graphic design of this issue of The Ignatianum Philosophical Year- book front cover includes the entrance gate to the Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow. The gate itself is transformed into a triumphal arch opening towards the road recognizable to every person who feels a bond with the cultural heritage of the Western world. This road is the via Appia, once built by the will of Appius Claudius Caecus, and considered one of the oldest Roman tracts. Called “the queen of all roads” by the Romans them- selves, it is inseparable from the Eternal City for everyone raised on the values of Western civilization. Mikołaj Sęp-Szarzyński wrote about it in his famous epitaph: “today in Rome defeated, Rome invincible,” express- ing this way the overwhelming awareness of connecting the past with what we experience as the present. It was on this road that the legendary scene recalled by Henryk Sienkiewicz took place, in which the question: quo vadis, Domine? is asked by the apostle Peter, fleeing from the Eternal City, to Christ he meets on the Appian Way. The power of this question is understood by anyone who is able to see in the roots of Classical and Christian culture all that is the most important for the Western culture not only in terms of its past, but also in terms of its future.

Commentary: The Questions We Should Be Asking About Socially Responsible College Admission Testing

Educational Measurement: Issues and PracticeEarly View Commentary Commentary: The Questions We Should Be Asking About Socially Responsible College Admission Testing Emma M. Klugman, Corresponding Author eklugman@g.harvard.edu orcid.org/0000-0003-2016-6350 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Correspondence Emma M. Klugman, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138. Email: eklugman@g.harvard.eduSearch for more papers by this authorLily An, orcid.org/0000-0002-1931-1533 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorZachary Himmelsbach, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorSophie L. Litschwartz, orcid.org/0000-0003-3981-133X Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorTara P. Nicola, orcid.org/0000-0002-2463-5911 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this author Emma M. Klugman, Corresponding Author eklugman@g.harvard.edu orcid.org/0000-0003-2016-6350 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Correspondence Emma M. Klugman, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138. Email: eklugman@g.harvard.eduSearch for more papers by this authorLily An, orcid.org/0000-0002-1931-1533 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorZachary Himmelsbach, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorSophie L. Litschwartz, orcid.org/0000-0003-3981-133X Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this authorTara P. Nicola, orcid.org/0000-0002-2463-5911 Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 16 July 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.12449Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Phelodinium fensomei sp. nov.: a protoperidineacean dinoflagellate cyst from the lower Paleocene (Danian) of the Oyster Bay Formation, Vancouver Island, Canada

Phelodinium fensomei is a new species of organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst described from the Appian Way section of the Oyster Bay Formation, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Phelodinium fensomei sp. nov. differs from other species of Phelodinium in its unique combination of characters including an elongate epicyst, bilobate endocyst antapex, and microgranulate to verrucate surface ornamentation. The species occurs exclusively within Dinoflagellate Cyst Zone D4 of the Oyster Bay Formation along with the Danian indicator taxon Danea californica. This is also the first study to perform scanning electron microscopy and epifluorescence analysis on a specimen belonging to the protoperidinioid genus Phelodinium, revealing minute features and a negative response to ultraviolet light exposure, indicating a heterotrophic feeding strategy for the motile cell. Although P. fensomei sp. nov. occurs at markedly low relative and absolute abundances in the examined interval, it is restricted to strata of Danian age suggesting potential biostratigraphic utility.

Dinoflagellate cyst-based paleoenvironmental reconstructions and phytoplankton paleoecology across the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary interval, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

A conformable K/Pg boundary succession is reported for this first time in North America west of the Rocky Mountains and in the north-eastern Pacific based on biostratigraphic controls, occurring within the upper Maastrichtian–lower Selandian marine sedimentary rocks of the Oyster Bay Formation, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Approximate placement of the boundary is made possible by a suite of temporally constrained palynological K/Pg interval indicator taxa. The low-diversity, homogenous coastal dinoflagellate cyst assemblages of the Cordosphaeridium, Glaphyrocysta, Hystrichosphaeridium and Spiniferites-dominated uppermost Maastrichtian of the Lynnwood section transition to that of a more intermixed estuarine setting dominated by Areoligera, Exochosphaeridium and Ginginodinium along with peaks of low-salinity tolerant Senegalinium into the Danian–Selandian strata of the Appian Way and Oyster River sections. A marine assemblage turnover in the middle Oyster Bay Formation under conditions of elevated primary productivity and community heterogeneity owing to nutrient-rich waters is observed. Evidence for this interpretation is reinforced by the presence of overall higher cyst concentrations, peridinioid abundance and greater species diversity in association with botanical and shallow marine invertebrate fossil assemblages. The palynological data record probable eustatic regressive and transgressive sequences which illustrate a history of fluctuation between a predominantly coastal and largely estuarine paleoenvironment punctuated by the end-Cretaceous event. The presence of heavily negative δ13Corg values in addition to facies changes throughout the succession support a neritic profile for the Oyster Bay Formation. The palynological assemblages reflect localized paleoenvironmental conditions and climatic changes across the K/Pg boundary consistent with observations from numerous localities across both hemispheres.

Geoarchaelogical Study of the Roman Pietra Dell’Oglio Bridge at the Service of the Old Appian Way, Campania, Southern Italy

The Pietra dell’Oglio bridge is the only Roman infrastructure that crosses the Ofanto River between Mirabella Eclano (Aeclanum in Campania) and Venosa (Venusia in Basilicata), just near the border between Campania and Basilicata. The bridge was built on a substrate consisting of the stable middle Miocene Cerreta-Bosco di Pietra Palomba Sandstone (ACP) and where the Ofanto River valley is narrower. The current state of the bridge shows that 18 architectural and structural elements are original, 12 were restored, 1 was modified, 4 were reconstructed, and 4 were added in the last century. The original architectural and structural elements (ASEs) are built by the technique of opus quadratum and opus incertum using the pebbles of the Ofanto River and ashlars of phytoclastic travertine and ACP Sandstone cemented by very hard mortar. The opus incertum technique and its use for many bridges in Italy and France suggest that the Pietra dell’Oglio bridge was built between the II and I century BC at the service of a very important public road. The present research is allowed to identify the Pietra dell’Oglio bridge with the Pons Aufidi related to the old Appian Way layout between Mirabella Eclano and Venosa and contributes to improving the knowledge of Roman bridge engineering, particularly in Campania.

Managing Early Christian Funerary Practice in the Catacombs of Ancient Rome

Using data collected in the early Christian catacombs of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way and comparing these with data from the Jewish catacombs of Villa Torlonia on the Via Nomentana, this article discusses what sort of labor the building of the early Christian catacombs of Rome entailed, what kind of investment this required, and how these expenses related to the costs incurred in other big architectural projects dating to the same general period. It then explores the significance of these expenses by historically contextualizing the evidence in reference to current debates on the issue of early Christian catacomb organization, early Christian social history, and managerial developments within the early church. The article concludes by highlighting how economic feasibility was a major factor that allowed the early Christian catacombs to develop into huge communal cemeteries and how this development, in turn, affected early Christian identity formation.

Can the Pain of Vystopia Help to Create a More Compassionate World?

Can the Pain of Vystopia Help to Create a More Compassionate World?

Hostile Hashtag Takeover: An Analysis of the Battle for Februdairy

Hostile Hashtag Takeover: An Analysis of the Battle for Februdairy

Saint Cecilia/Chicken Head

Saint Cecilia/Chicken Head Becca Barniskis (bio) Her story is not without beauty or merit.It is said Every day when I walk to school I gotta go past the Jenkins farm and all those chickens. she was a pious virgin who loved Godand covered her parts with coarse horsehair. They peck incessantly at the dirt my toes my hands when I try to swipe them away. When her betrothed approached she warned:“There is an angel who watches meand wards off anyone who would touch me.” I complain to my mother but she ignores me. “Whaddya talking about? Just git to school. I don’t wanna hear any more complaining.” He did not believe her so she told himto go down the Appian Way and he would surelysee the angel. Also he better get himself baptized. [End Page 69] Maybe they think my toes are worms in the warm dust of the road. Not my fault they wriggle deliciously when I walk by. Sure enough the angel appeared and her fiancéfainted, then converted. Cecilia got even holier.So holy she angered the Roman Prefect. Know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna grab the axe from the shed. Sick of those chickens. He tried to boil her. She did not die.He tried to behead her. But her neck would not quitesever. She lived three more days, bleeding and givingaway her possessions to the poor. Anyway what do I care if the world loses a few more chickens? [End Page 70] Becca Barniskis Becca Barniskis is a poet and performer who has published a chapbook of poems, Mimi and Xavier Star in a Museum that Fits Entirely in One’s Pocket (Anomalous Press). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in a wide range of journals including Poetry London, Conduit, Michigan Quarterly Review, Colorado Review, Vinyl, and many others. She performs her poetry for live audiences regularly as part of the bands Downrange Telemetrics and Pancake7. Visit www.beccabarniskis.com. Copyright © 2019 University of Nebraska Press

Una cosmografia Cristiana? Le radici astronomiche della cupola del perduto edificio martiriale di San Prisco presso Capua (v sec.)

Known only through modern copies and descriptions, the iconography of the lost mosaics of the fifth-century building in the San Prisco cemetery on the Appian Way outside Capua remains unique in Early Christian art. Similarities between the composition scheme of the Capuan dome's mosaic and images in astronomical treatises, such as the miniature of the Ptolemy's easy Tables, attest to the influence of cosmological models in the mosaic's iconography. Specific connections between cosmological imagery and depictions in the Early Christian world emerge from the analysis, enabling the author to present San Prisco's mosaic as a Christian Cosmology adapted, by members of a highly cultivated ecclesiastical elite, to the devotional needs of the Capuan martyrial site.

The Roman cistern of road Cristoforo Colombo, Rome, Italy: operating mode and connection with the old Appian Way

The cistern is located on a hilly area consisting of the middle Pleistocene p. p. pyroclastic formation Pozzolane Rosse in road Cristoforo Colombo about 625 m SW of old Appian Way. It came to light in 1940 as a result of earthworks carried out for the construction of the Imperial Way, connecting downtown with the area in which the Universal Exhibition of Rome (EUR) would have been developed in 1942. This hydraulic structure, built with a cylindrical shape in the late second or early third century ad, was excavated in the Pozzolane Rosse. The inner part is composed of a trapezoidal entrance vestibule, from which starts a shaft used to transport water to the outside, two concentric corridors, one outer with 10 compartments, one inner, and a central compartment, covered with hydraulic mortar and communicating via openings. The cistern was fed by rainfall that converged on the central hole of the impermeable cover in direct communication with the corresponding central compartment of the cistern itself. The actual volume used for the water supply is 573 m3. The order of magnitude of water that could enter the cistern in a year is 26,334 m3. The water was used for a fundus in the southern suburbium of Rome, which most probably included a villa connected to old Appian Way through a secondary road.

Soil pollution: Anthropogenic versus geogenic contributions over large areas of the Lazio region

During the last three decades, the scientific community, politicians and decision makers have focussed on the behaviours of trace elements in soil, its accumulation and toxicity, the bioavailability and risk of metals, and soil remediation technologies. Trace metals (or metalloids), such as As, Pb, Cr, Cd, and Ni, cause more environmental contamination than organic chemicals. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to distinguish between the geogenic and anthropogenic sources of these trace metals, and to understand that the background values change depending on the area and the scale of the area investigated.A total of 40 selected topsoil samples were collected near urban areas in the Lazio region of Italy, from sites characterised by different geological substrate, specifically the Appian Way Regional Park, Borgo Montello, Cisterna di Latina and Roccasecca. Concentrations of V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Cd and Pb in topsoil and background samples collected at a depth of approximately 1m have been analysed. The analytical results were used to calculate the geoaccumulation index (Igeo) to evaluate possible metal enrichment in topsoil related to human activity. The results indicate that there is no contamination associated with anthropogenic impact at the selected sites; however, a detailed study based on the lithological characteristics of the areas indicates local enrichment by several of the metals considered, especially in the Roccasecca topsoil.

A review of the plants of the Princeton chert (Eocene, British Columbia, Canada)

The Princeton chert is one of the most completely studied permineralized floras of the Paleogene. Remains of over 30 plant taxa have been described in detail, along with a diverse assemblage of fungi that document a variety of ecological interactions with plants. As a flora of the Okanagan Highlands, the Princeton chert plants are an assemblage of higher elevation taxa of the latest early to earliest middle Eocene, with some components similar to those in the related compression floras. However, like the well-known floras of Clarno, Appian Way, the London Clay, and Messel, the Princeton chert provides an additional dimension of internal structure. In the present study, we outline the history of Princeton chert plant research, starting with Boneham and others, and extending into studies by Stockey and her students and colleagues. These studies were undertaken primarily at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. We then re-examine the individual elements of the Princeton chert flora, using the framework of the currently recognized Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG III) phylogeny and in light of recent fossil discoveries. We hope that this update will bring to mind new aspects of the significance of the Princeton chert flora to Paleogene paleobiology, biogeography, and plant evolution.