Mattietti in Smithsonian Story on Subterranean Rome
AOES Geology professor Giuseppina Mattietti was featured in the April/May Smithsonian magazine’s article Explore Rome’s Hidden Underworld, Where a City Lurks Beneath a City. While a long-time resident of Virginia, Dr. Mattietti is a Roman native who leads students on annual explorations beneath the city.
Miles of underground passages wend there way below Rome. This includes water tunnels rediscovered in the 20th century and the city’s ancient Cloaca Maxima, still used as a sewer today. Moreover, a treasure trove of archeological remains sits below the surface. As Mattietti says in the article, “Many people think of imperial Rome as a lost city. But that’s the interesting thing: It’s not gone! Romans just built on top of it, for century after century.”
Subterranean sites open to the general public include the frescos of a villa from the 3rd century CE, and a first century temple dedicated to the god Mithras. Dr. Mattietti brings her students to more hidden sites as well, such as the now-buried 2nd century apartment complex near the Tiber River. Just as such sites sit underneath famous artifacts of imperial power such as the Forum or Colosseum, ordinary Romans formed a foundation for the power of Rome. Studying the forgotten, deeper layers of the city allows us to better understand the lives of the unheralded 90 percent of the population who sustained the ancient city.
Some Questions and Answers with Giuseppina Mattietti
How does a student get to participate in the expeditions under Rome? For GMU students and affiliates, this is done by enrolling in the geoarchaeology 3 credit class that runs through the Mason Global Education office. Study abroad programs are opened to students from any US university.
When did you start going under Rome? I started twenty years ago, joining some archaeologist and speleologist friends who were looking for a geologist's point of view, as they were working on commissions from local archaeological authorities. They got me hooked, I joined in their research projects any time I was in Rome.
What motivated you to branch out from geology to archeology? My father's own interests, he was a classicist studying evolution of the Latin language from its archaic form, but also an avid mountaineer and outdoorsman. He used to take me everywhere he went, down a rabbit hole to see some obscure inscription, or up on a peak in the Italian Dolomites. Passion for the mountain won me over, but later on, when my friends decided to take me along in the underground, and I became interested in the relationships between the territory and the people of the past, hence, geoarchaeology.
How did these [partially?] intact ancient buildings get buried in the first place? Now, if a building is obsolete, it is taken down, the materials landfilled, and a new building is built. In ancient Rome, things were different. Older, obsolete building were filled up with debris and used as foundations. And there was a lot of help from the Tiber river. The Tiber flooded often, every time bringing sediments and debris in the city, and overall, helping raising the city floor. When you walk downtown Rome, think about the fact that on average in the first century the ground was on average 5 meters below the present day surface.
