Exploring Roman Dacia through Archaeology!
To our most loyal readers, thank you for joining us for another week of the Apulum Roman Villa Project 2026. We are now four weeks into the season, and the ground beneath us continues to yield a great many secrets. This week brought a number of remarkable discoveries. Two bronze coins were recovered from the …
Continue reading “ARVP 2026 – Weekend Excursion to Sighișoara – Caitlin J.”
Dearest gentle reader, Welcome to my entry. I shall endeavor to enter this blog much like a trowel enters the rich earth of Transylvania. That is, with some resistance… But we’ll get it done, because at the end of the day we’ve gotta move that dirt and put it in the bag (or, blog), no …
ARVP is the third site I’ve had the chance to dig at since I’ve begun my career in archaeology, and so far I’ve been enjoying it immensely. Digging here in Romania has been very different from what I’ve experienced in Greece and Italy, and has offered me so many opportunities to grow my skills and …
The mornings bright and full of sun, the afternoons crowded out by thunder, and the evenings a break from the showers. This has encapsulated our first week together in Alba Iulia. We have all been adjusting to the time, work, and routine together; rather well all things said! My week both on site and off …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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