Impero Project

06/09/2026

The excavations at Rusellae have been featured on TG9!

Fieldwork is continuing in the area of the early medieval cemetery, bringing new evidence to light and raising new questions about the long history of the ancient city.

We are delighted to see growing interest in the excavations and in the IMPERO Project as a whole. If you are nearby, join one of our upcoming Open Days and see the archaeological work in progress for yourself.

Stay tuned for further discoveries from Rusellae!

12/08/2026

Beautiful Cannicci…

06/08/2026

Call for Papers | Funerary Landscapes of Roman Italy

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the forthcoming edited volume Funerary Landscapes of Roman Italy: New Methods, New Perspectives, and Long-Term Transformations, to be published in the MEDI-TO Series by Brepols Publishers.

The volume aims to bring together scholars working on the archaeology of death and burial in Roman Italy, from the Hellenistic period through the Early Middle Ages. We welcome contributions that explore funerary landscapes through innovative methodologies, interdisciplinary perspectives, and new archaeological discoveries.

The book seeks to foster dialogue across disciplines—including archaeology, bioarchaeology, landscape archaeology, anthropology, GIS, archaeometry, digital humanities, epigraphy, and heritage studies—while encouraging comparisons across chronological periods and regional contexts. By bringing together methodological advances and case studies, we hope to offer a fresh perspective on how funerary spaces illuminate social identities, mobility, memory, religious change, and the long-term transformation of ancient communities.

We warmly invite colleagues to submit an abstract and would be most grateful if you could share this Call for Papers with your networks, departments, research groups, and anyone who may be interested. Your support in helping us reach as wide an audience as possible is greatly appreciated.

📅 Abstract deadline: 30 September 2026

We look forward to receiving your proposals and to building a volume that reflects the richness and diversity of current research on the funerary landscapes of Roman Italy.

Editors

Alessandro Sebastiani (University at Buffalo)
Alessandro Carabia (Newcastle University)
Todd Fenton (Michigan State University)

New Methods, New Perspectives, and Long-Term Transformations The funerary landscape represents one of the most dynamic and informative dimensions of the ancient world. Cemeteries, tombs, burial mon…

12/07/2026

18/06/2026

15/06/2026

Gli ex voto anatomici fittili, manifestazioni tangibili della devozione popolare delle genti etrusche ed italiche dell’Italia antica, ci raccontano un fenomeno ancora poco conosciuto ma assai diffuso e radicato, tanto da arrivare, con variazioni di forma ma non di sostanza, sino ai giorni nostri.

Partendo dalle testimonianze archeologiche rinvenute in Maremma, in particolare a Roselle e a Podere Cannicci (Paganico), esamineremo i vari aspetti di questa religiosità popolare antica con Fabiana Fabbri, archeologa e autrice del volume "Etruscan and Roman Hellenistic Anatomical ex voto. Reassessing Popular Religious Expressions in Central Italy", e con Alessandro Sebastiani, archeologo, associate professor di Archeologia Romana alla University at Buffalo (SUNY), direttore di Impero Project.

🎤Vi aspettiamo al MAAM sabato 20 giugno alle ore 18:00 per questa prima, imperdibile conferenza estiva 🏛️

👉Conferenza gratuita, NECESSARIA LA PRENOTAZIONE ⚠️

Contatti:
📩[email protected]
☎️0564-488752

10/06/2026

🇮🇹

Un aperitivo tra gli scavi di Podere Cannicci.

Il 18 giugno alle ore 18:00 vi aspettiamo a Podere Cannicci per incontrare gli archeologi che stanno lavorando sul sito e scoprire le ultime novità dagli scavi.

📍 Podere Cannicci
🕕 Ore 18:00
🚗 Parcheggio disponibile presso il cantiere dell’impianto fotovoltaico

🇬🇧

An aperitivo at the Podere Cannicci excavation.

Join us on 18 June at 6:00 PM at Podere Cannicci to meet the archaeologists working on the site and discover the latest results from the excavation.

📍 Podere Cannicci
🕕 6:00 PM
🚗 Parking available at the solar farm construction site

14/05/2026

We are delighted to share that our contribution, “Beyond Monumentality: Digital Technologies, Minor Sites, and the Future of Museum Narratives in the IMPERO Project,” has been accepted for the 19th International Conference on the Inclusive Museum.

The paper will be presented in Sydney at the end of September by Prof. Alessandro Sebastiani, Department of Classics, University at Buffalo, and Josef Souček, National Museum, Prague.

This contribution is part of the broader research agenda of the IMPERO Project, exploring new ways to share archaeological knowledge with wider publics and to rethink the communication strategies of cultural heritage through digital technologies, inclusive narratives, and the valorization of minor sites.

06/05/2026

Meet the Anthropology Team of the IMPERO Project

The IMPERO Project brings together archaeologists, anthropologists, and specialists working on the long-term history of communities in southern Tuscany, from the Etruscan and Roman periods through Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Our anthropology team plays a central role in the study of human remains, helping us reconstruct health, mobility, trauma, life histories, and funerary practices across the project’s different research areas.

Todd Fenton is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Michigan State University. A board-certified forensic anthropologist, his research focuses on human skeletal trauma, the identification of human remains in medicolegal death investigations, and the bioarchaeology of Roman and Medieval skeletal populations in Italy. He previously served as Director of the MSU Forensic Anthropology Laboratory and as Chair of the Department of Anthropology from 2019 to 2024.

Jared Beatrice is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The College of New Jersey. His research specializes in human osteology, bioarchaeology, and paleopathology. Within the IMPERO Project, he contributes to the osteological analysis of human remains and to student training in skeletal analysis. His current research also includes the bioarchaeology of the historic First Baptist Church of Philadelphia burial ground, dated to 1722–1859.

Mari Isa is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Texas Tech University, where she directs the Anthropology Research and Identification Laboratory. She joins the IMPERO Project to contribute to skeletal analysis and to train students in osteological methods, bringing her expertise in forensic anthropology, human identification, and skeletal documentation to the project.

04/05/2026

Meet our Site Assistants!

This summer at Podere Cannicci, Maggie and John will support the excavation team in the field, working closely with students and staff throughout the season.

Maggie is an MA student in Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University. She received her BA from Saint Anselm College and has previously conducted fieldwork in the Virginia Tidewater region and in Umbria. Before joining the IMPERO Project as a Site Assistant, she developed a strong interest in the archaeology of rural communities and domestic life. Her MA thesis focuses on animal-human interaction in domestic settings in rural Etruria.

John completed his MA in Archaeology at University College London last year, after receiving his BA in Anthropology from The College of New Jersey. He first joined the IMPERO Project as a student and has worked at Podere Cannicci for the past two field seasons. His archaeological experience also includes fieldwork at several sites in the United States and Belize, as well as work with archaeological materials from sites in the United Kingdom.

We are excited to have them as part of the IMPERO Project team!