Two Jefferson Fellows help uncover ancient history in Pompeii, Italy

When Rebecca Frank (JF ‘19) and Janet Dunkelbarger (JF ‘20) joined the Jefferson Fellows Program, they were eager to become part of an interdisciplinary community and engage in collaborative conversations with doctoral students from a wide range of departments and disciplines. Rebecca, a doctoral student in Classics, and Janet, a doctoral student in Art and Architectural History, discovered they share a mutual love for the process of trying to better understand the human story through their respective disciplines.

Having both been involved in numerous excavations in the past, they recently found reason to put their passion, experience, and studies to work in Pompeii, Italy through the Via Consolare Project (VCP).

Together, they excavated two trenches just outside of Pompeii’s city walls, in areas associated with the Villa of the Mosaic Columns, a sequence of street-level shops, and the Necroplis outside Porta Ercolano. Their work supported one of the main goals of VCP, which is to understand better the character of Pompeii’s urban and suburban environments (and how the evidence at Pompeii can be used to interpret evidence from the rest of Roman Italy).

Read about their participation and efforts with VCP here.