As a summer storm settles over Alba Iulia, I find myself with a quiet moment to reflect upon the journey that has been the 2025 ARVP campaign. As a fledgling archaeologist, I made my best effort to enter into this experience with no expectations and a beginner’s mind. Having spent only a little time in …
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ARVP 2025 – Week 3 – Alex C.
In the final week of digging in Trench AW, we found many new contexts, most memorably roof tiles and a lot of pits. We spent a lot of time on the roof tiles so we could uncover each one without damaging it. It kind of felt like being a dentist, because we were scraping the …
ARVP 2025 – Week 3 Excursion – Xinyu
Romania welcomes her scorching summer, and we are approaching the end of our excavation. On our final excursion, also the last day of the ARVP 2025, we wrapped up this journey in the hometown of the vampire Dracula, Sighișoara. Sighișoara is an ancient town in central Romania, rich in history and well-preserved as a medieval …
ARVP 2025 – Week 2 Excursion – Hannah
For the second week’s excursion, the ARVP team traveled north to Turda. Home to one of the most spectacular salt mines in Europe, this trip had everyone especially excited! Upon arrival, we descended 120 meters into the Rudolf Mine. This area of the mine was full of fun activities — we played ping pong, mini …
ARVP 2025 – Week 2 Excursion – Janae
Sunday excursions are always a captivating escape from our daily archaeological work routine. This past Sunday was no exception; we dived into the local history by visiting the Roman Fortress of Potaissa, the Turda History Museum (Muzeul De Istorie Turda), and the Turda salt mine (Salina Turda), which are clustered in the nearby city of …
ARVP 2025 – Week 2 – Daria
This past week at the Apulum Roman Villa Project, we finally broke through the topsoil in Trench A East and got to get down to the ancient contexts. The shift happened quite suddenly and we somehow went from one context to nine being open. However, this also led us to pits. Never. Ending. Pits. In …
ARVP 2025 – Week 2 – Anita
Hi, I’m Anita – I’m also in trench C! At the beginning of this week, we extended two areas on the eastern and southern sides of our trench. The southern part is a smaller square area that previously had a stone wall and a burial. A new burial was discovered last week next to the …
ARVP 2025 – Week 1 Excursion – Chloë
We clambered into the bus at 9 in the morning, tired from a birthday celebration the previous night but beyond excited to see our first pieces of Romanian history and culture. Following a two hour drive through serene fields of wheat and corn blowing in the breeze, we wound our way up switchbacks into green …
ARVP 2025 – Week 1 – Jade
Hello! My name is Jade and I am from Trench C, a wonky-shaped grouping of squares with two Roman walls, a ditch, and some burials. In this first week we were working on removing a ton of backfill – the dirt that completely covers up a site when it is not being excavated. It is a …
ARVP 2025 Week 1 – Kiera
Welcome to the first week of excavation from ARVP’s 2025 season! Two new trenches were opened in Section A of the site, Trench A East and Trench A West. Trench C is still going strong from last year! Most of the week was spent digging through topsoil, and all that shoveling and spading through the …
Apulum Roman Villa Project 