Pollentia at Ten

From the forthcoming book “Excavating the Necropoleis of Roman Pollentia: Empty Places, Sacred Spaces, Natural Burial Grounds” a chapter by H. Richard Rutherford, CSC, Professor Emeritus.

“2014-2024 A Treasured Decade”

Two academics, one a seasoned University of Barcelona (UB), ERAAUB, and ICREA archaeologist, and the other, a Roman Catholic priest-professor of theology from the University of Portland (UP), Oregon met by chance around shared research interests at Son Peretó, Mallorca, the site of a late antique Christian church with baptistery. During 2012-2013, still other meetings socially in Alcúdia and over lunch in Sardinia further fostered common interest and a new friendship. Born was the “win-win” collaboration of the University of Barcelona and the University of Portland. Beginning in July 2015 American UP students and faculty mentors would experience firsthand the science of archaeology, working in the field side by side with Spanish peers, both students and archaeological faculty, during Pollentia’s July field school. For the field school the extra trowels in hand enabled a long-desired reopening to excavate Pollentia’s extensive necropoleis, dormant since the 1950’s. Both Dr. Cau’s interest in Late Antiquity and mine in Early and Late Roman Christianity nurtured the hope that the Christian grave goods documented during those earlier dig seasons would portend the discovery of still further material evidence of Christian community life and, one hopes, even a church, perhaps with its own baptistery, or a cemetery chapel. The first generation of archaeologists at Pollentia intimated as much. Yet, as we celebrate the centenary of those early years, barely a few fragments of walls have surfaced. The search continues.

In 2024 UP’s Pollentia Expedition will mark “a treasured decade” of collaboration, generally in the necropoleis but also wherever needed. UP is forever grateful to Miguel Ángel Cau, that first voice of introduction to Pollentia, as well as Catalina Mas Florit (UB, ERAAUB), Esther Chávez-Álvarez (Universidad de La Laguna), and the Consortium of the Roman City of Pollentia for the trust and willingness to take a chance on what seemed like a far-fetched dream.

A coincidental highlight that year was the visit to the site by the then President of the American Catholic Cemetery Conference, whose members have been dedicated supporters of the UP Expedition from the beginning, together with his wife, and several friends. They arrived in Pollentia at a pivotal moment to witness the opening of the grave of a small child – Roman by dating of the grave goods – carrying a small amphora or jug with him/her into the Underworld. The child’s gender and the jug’s contents still await publication. Was it wine, or oil – the amphora being too large for a precious perfume? The visitors’ later “thank you” captured the moment, “Being on the Pollentia dig site in the trenches and witnessing the fields of study by the students and staff of varying disciplines was truly seeing History being discovered as well as History in the making. The dedication and dignity of those working the site is an experience we will never forget.”

The following summers brought returning veterans as well as eager newcomers to face the rigors and rewards of archaeological fieldwork. Among the faculty, a member of the Department of Fine Arts served “artist in residence.” Later, back home, more than a dozen of his watercolors were sold at auction to raise student aid for future expeditions. Research projects on site also saw new levels of visual and thermal infrared photography using a Phantom quadcopter drone, and new instruments for the analysis of Roman coins and for the pigment study in the church museum. Finally, yet another student majoring in Environmental Ethics & Policy and Theology worked with a faculty mentor remotely to study the work of archaeology for its value as a process of human formation. This marked the beginning of a UP interest in viewing the work of archaeology as itself an educational experience, recognizing the “finder” archaeologist to be as significant as the archaeological “find.”

In 2018, with four years of experience to build on, UP’s research teams hit the ground running. One picked up the thread of ongoing coin analysis; another performed spectroscopic analysis of three medieval paintings housed at the Sant Jaume Church Museum. The former landed the UP “find of the summer,” a precious gold coin of Byzantine minting. Although not found in any particular context and thus missing important data for a definitive interpretation, finding such a coin is not without importance. It indicates, as hypothesized throughout these years, that some, at least, of the Christians living in Pollentia in late Antiquity had links to the history of the 6th-century Byzantine reconquest of the Balearic Islands for Constantinople under Emperor Justinian. Theologically too, the coin raised new questions. What kind of Christians were these ancestors whose mortal remains we are privileged to study? Were they Roman Catholics, or Arian Visigoths, or even Byzantine Christians?” We must wait and see, but this one small gold coin might be the key to understanding future major finds in architecture, church artefacts, and the like – should those emerge as hoped in the years ahead.

Still other teams broadened the horizon. One worked with remote sensing, 3-D imaging, and even efforts at using AI technology. One student began a research project in collaboration with the faculty chair of the Dept. of Theology on the ethical concerns surrounding the excavation of ancient human remains. Newly established School of Business internships supported marketing research by two students addressing questions about how to attract more of the thousands of tourists, who arrive on the island weekly by air and cruise ships, to visit the remarkable heritage site of Roman Pollentia. A Biology student, mentored on site and from afar this year, carried the torch of Team DNA that began in 2016. Drawing on new information from the subsequent two years of lab work, they set out to research additional bones preserved in the Pollentia depot from the same individuals whose long bones they are already studying. This time they hoped to include the dense “petrous bone” from near the human ear, the bone in the human body that best preserves DNA after death.

An article “Digging Toward Questions: The University of Portland Undergraduate Research Expedition” in the Fall 2019 issue of Portland Magazine at https://www.up.edu/news/2019/10/pollentia-archeological-dig.html and the award winning short film that accompanies the article at: https://youtu.be/7M76gQ8yQvw offer further accounts of interesting experiences during the 2019 expedition – the last before COVID. These are the work of Jessica Murphy-Moo, Editor, and Adam Guggenheim, UP Photographer at the time, during a week-long visit and hands-on participation during the 2019 field school.

And what about those elusive walls first noted in 2016? As often happens, findings during the last days of a dig season point to potential revelations awaiting the coming year. That is the story of the newly noted evidence of “walls” in parts of the cemetery that would await the return of UP in 2022, post COVID. “Might these be the first solid evidence of a church complex in Pollentia’s necropolis?” was a focal research question for 2022. Indeed, several more promising leads point to potential wall corners but the search continues.

In 2022 the Pollentia expedition, rebranded as the UP RAP Program (Research & Archaeology @ Pollentia), operated for the first time as a designated faculty-led program within the Study Abroad Office. Building on that experience and internal changes at Study Abroad, the academic year 2022-23 provides the perfect opportunity to address more completely the developmental needs of our precocious ten-year-old program. Long story short, during these 10 years, our independent team of faculty and staff has worked hand in hand with the Study Abroad Office for clerical support, a listing among overseas programs, and many other logistics. Beginning next academic year, a further restructured Pollentia Expedition will take its place among the other formal summer study abroad programs as the global component of an Exploration Course in the University’s CORE Curriculum entitled (tentatively) “

While this sounds like “indoor sport” for academics, having its home as part of the UP academic CORE is a big deal for Pollentia, providing better financial support for students and greater recruiting leverage for the program!