Elizabeth
ColantoniAssistant Professor of Classics
Department of Religion and Classics
University of Rochester
Box 270074
Rochester, NY 14627-0074
Elizabeth
Colantoni
Assistant Professor of Classics
Department of Religion and Classics
University of Rochester
Box 270074
Rochester, NY 14627-0074
Office: 420 Rush Rhees Library
Telephone: 585-275-9360
Email: Elizabeth.Colantoni@Rochester.edu
My teaching is focused on Classical
archaeology, ancient history, and Latin, and my research interests are
in Etruscan and Roman
archaeology, ancient Roman religion, and early Rome. My
appointment is in the Department
of Religion and Classics, and I am on the steering committee for
the Program in
Archaeology, Engineering, and Architecture.
Education
Ph.D., M.A. Classical Art and Archaeology,
University of Michigan
M.A. Latin, University of Michigan
M.A. Anthropology, Florida State University
B.A. Classics and French, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Teaching
I teach a range of courses on the archaeology, history, and
literature of the Classical world.
Recent and future course offerings:
The
Ancient City (Fall 2008)
The
Roman World (Fall 2008, Fall 2009)
Classical
Archaeology: Roman Art and Archaeology (Spring
2009, Spring 2011)
Plautus
and Roman Comedy (Spring 2009)
Engineering
and Society in Classical Antiquity (Fall 2009)
Classical Archaeology: Greek Art and Archaeology (Spring
2010)
Cicero
(Spring 2010)
Ethnic Identity in Ancient Greece
and Rome (Fall
2010)
Research
My research involves three main areas of study: (1) excavation
of the pre-Roman and Roman remains at the San Martino site in Torano di
Borgorose, Rieti, Italy;
(2) material aspects of ancient Roman religion; and (3) the development
of the
city of Rome in
its earliest phases.
(1) I am director of the
University
of Rochester’s excavations at the San
Martino site in Torano di Borgorose, Rieti, Italy. Excavations
here have revealed an intact, uninterrupted
stratigraphic sequence from the middle Republican period through the
present
day, with evidence of a Roman-period villa alongside the still-standing
medieval church of San Martino. Future work at the site will
focus on
clarifying the earliest phases of occupation, including those that
pertain to
an area with evidence of prehistoric settlement, a possible pre-Roman
sanctuary
as suggested by the presence of an imposing stretch of polygonal wall
in the
church’s foundation, and the Roman villa, the full extent of which is
presently
unknown.
San
Martino Archaeological Field School
Webpage
(2) I am particularly
interested in physical evidence for
ancient religious practices. Religion is
well suited to study through both written and material evidence, but
many
modern narratives of ancient Roman religion rely heavily on written
sources,
with relatively superficial use of archaeological data.
Most of my work in this area focuses on the analysis and
synthesis of archaeological evidence for religious practices in Rome,
particularly during
the centuries for which there are no surviving contemporary literary or
historical texts. My goal is to study
and present the archaeological evidence in a way that is meaningful and
useful
to scholars of Roman religion who deal primarily with textual
evidence. In this way, I hope to encourage the
integration of archaeological evidence into the broader scholarly
dialogue about
Roman religious practices, which will in turn lead to a better and
fuller
understanding of ancient Roman religion.
I am currently writing an article about the role of
ancestor cult in early Roman religion as seen through archaeological
evidence,
and I am preparing an article on the differing roles of men and
women in
Roman religion, with an emphasis on visual and archaeological
evidence.
I am also at work on a book-length project on
early Roman religion.
(3)
I am interested in the development of the city of Rome in its earliest
phases, another area of study in which written and archaeological
evidence have
not always been successfully integrated.
My work in this area often overlaps with my studies of Roman religion,
as the formation of city and society in early Rome is closely linked to
religious
developments.
Publications
Forthcoming: “Indagini
archeologiche presso la chiesa di San Martino a Torano (Borgorose)” in
Lazio e Sabina 5. Co-authored
with G. Colantoni and K.J. McDonnell.
2002: Two catalog entries contributed to The J. Paul Getty Museum:
Handbook of the
Antiquities Collection, edited by Tobi Levenberg Kaplan, J. Paul
Getty
Trust, Los Angeles,
pp. 3-4.
2001: “Maenads and Meaning: Antefixes from Tarquinia in
American Collections” in Bulletin,
Museums of Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan 13, pp.
7-30.
2001: “A Bacchic Sarcophagus in the Kelsey
Museum of Archaeology” in Bulletin,
Museums of Art and Archaeology,
University of Michigan 13, pp. 114-117.
2000: “Bacchic Imagery and Cult Practice in Roman Italy” in The
Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii:
Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, edited by Elaine K. Gazda, Kelsey
Museum
of
Archaeology and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor,
pp. 74-82.
2000: “Maria Barosso, Francis Kelsey, and the Modern
Representation of an Ancient Masterpiece” in The Villa of the Mysteries
in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse,
edited by Elaine K. Gazda, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the
University of
Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, pp. 129-137.
2000: Nineteen catalog entries contributed to The Villa of the
Mysteries in Pompeii:
Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, edited by Elaine K. Gazda, Kelsey
Museum
of
Archaeology and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor.
Conference Participation
2009: “Straw to Stone, Huts to Houses: Transitions in
Building Practices and Society in Protohistoric Latium,” paper
presented, Archaeological
Institute of America, 110th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. (abstract)
2007: “Indagini archeologici presso la chiesa
di San Martino
at Torano,” co-authored with G. Colantoni and K.J. McDonnell, paper
presented by
invitation at the Quinto Incontro di Studi sul Lazio e la
Sabina, organized by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del
Lazio and held at the British School and the
Danish Academy in Rome, Italy.
2006: “Sacrificing on Time: The Early Years of the Roman
Religious Calendar,” paper presented, Southern Section of the Classical
Association of the Middle West and South, 86th Anniversary Meeting,
Memphis,
TN. (abstract)
2006: “The Ancestors’ Ancestors: Religion and
the Cult of
the Dead in Archaic Rome,” paper presented, Classical Association of
the
Middle
West and South, 102nd Annual Meeting, Gainesville, FL. (abstract)
2005: Co-organizer (with Meghan Howey), Finding the Overlooked: Exploring Smaller
Social and Ethnic Groups in
the Archaeological Record, paper symposium, Society for American
Archaeology, 70th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT.
2004: “Deos sine Simulacro:
Animism, Anthropomorphism, and the Nature of Early Roman Religion,”
paper presented, Archaeological Institute of
America, 105th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. (abstract)
2002: Invited panelist, Interdisciplinary
Research and the Future of Graduate Education in Archaeology,
forum
organized by E. Christian Wells and Dawn Digrius Mooney, Society for
American
Archaeology, 67th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Book
Reviews
2008: Review of Styling
Romanisation. Pottery and Society in Central Italy, by Roman
Roth, in
Bryn Mawr
Classical Review 2008.05.15.
2006: Review of Women’s
Religious Activity in the Roman Republic, by Celia E. Schultz,
in Bryn
Mawr Classical Review 2006.10.40.
2006: Review of Archeologia al
femminile. Il cammino delle
donne nella disciplina archeologica attraverso le figure di otto
archeologhe
classiche vissute dalla metà dell’Ottocento ad oggi, by
Laura
Nicotra, in Bryn Mawr
Classical Review 2006.02.35.
Links
University
of Rochester: