MSFS Day 14: Going Out With a Bang

Notes from the Field School: August 5th, 2016

Today began with a bang as loud booms rang out starting at about 7am. The city began to celebrate at this hour in honor of the Madonna della Neve (our lady of the snow). After the succession of booms had ended, a marching band began playing lively songs to greet the day. The band would later be part of the procession that would come from the sanctuary within the castle on top of the hill and would play until the mass that would take place many hours later.

A street poster advertising the celebration.

Last lunch lasagna.

The class had their final Italian lesson with Katia at 11am. She gave us some excellent resources for continuing our studies into the language and told us all about the history of Italian becoming the national language after unification of the country. We practiced verb conjugations and were happy to integrate more vocabulary before concluding with our formal lessons.

Amazing meatloaf with caramelized onions.

Lunch was a yummy lasagna layered with boiled eggs, meat, cheese, and red sauce. After filling our bellies with this, along with a succulent meatloaf resting in juices and caramelized onions as well as fresh fruits. We then took the time to pack up our things and rest a bit before the events to come in the evening. We left the convent around 6pm to go see the procession of the Madonna della Neve. We grabbed our granitas, gelatos, and bottles of water and then hurried to find seats on the steps of the cathedral before the beginning of the procession. 

Eagerly awaiting the procession for the Madonna della Neve.

Before long, the bells began to toll and looking up to the castle gave us a glimpse of the apex of the statue of the Madonna as a throng moved with the fluidity of the Mediterranean Sea itself down the hill. The bells continued to ring as the crowd slowly made its way toward the plaza where we were waiting to see the procession. 

Where the procession began.

People of all ages, some barefoot, others wearing a variety of different kinds of shoes followed robed children carrying a crucifix toward the main town square. After  much of the crowd had passed, we finally saw the church officials, including our very own Padre Paolo, leading the men guiding the cart on which the statue stood. 

The procession approaches. Note Padre Paolo on the right photo in fuchsia.

Flowers for the Madonna.

At the feet of the Madonna was a beautiful arrangement of flowers. The scent of these flowers lingered in the air even after the statue had passed. The Madonna was followed by a few of the most prominent members of the community, including the mayor and the man in charge of cultural heritage for the city. This group was then followed by the marching band, who (amazingly) never missed a note as they descended the steep slopes of slick stones in the narrow streets leading down to the plaza. Behind the band came even more people. The statue was well out of sight by the time that we were able to see the end of the line of people following her down. 

Statue of the Madonna della Neve during the procession. 

The band playing music for the procession behind the statue of the Madonna.

At this point, we joined the crowd and became part of the procession ourselves. We followed everyone down listening to the exciting music and hoping for additional glimpses of the Madonna on some of the less curvy parts of our journey. Once we finally reached the main square, Nicotina, one of the bars that we frequented during our time here, had reserved for our group a table with a lovely wrapping that had the words Buon Appetito written elegantly around abstract artwork. We then had refreshing granitas and more water while we chatted, all the time hearing the music of the band in the background. After a while, the procession had circled back around and was heading back up the hill for a mass to be held at the cathedral. We again watched the procession go by, but this time decided to stay a bit longer before making the trek back to the convent for dinner.

Excited class waiting for the fireworks.

Dinner consisted of mostly leftovers....pizza, meatloaf in the caramelized onions and juices from this afternoon, and eggplant rolls. The dinner was followed by fruit and just a bit more free time prior to making our second descent to the main square for the late night fireworks. We returned to our table at Nicotina and eagerly waited for the firework show to begin. After what felt like a very long time, the show began. A spectacular display of dazzling light rained from the sky in hues of purple, pink, and green. The same loud "booms" from this morning (and, in fact, that we've been hearing almost daily since our arrival) were seen in a new (literal) light as they burst far above the visible face of the castle. The show went on for a good 20 minutes or more...I was not timing it...but, it was much more extravagant than anything that any of us (except perhaps for Dario) had ever seen. The booms were interrupted by crackles and whistles filling the night sky with color, light, and noises as vibrant as all other aspects of Sicilian culture. It was truly beyond all of our expectations (except, again, perhaps for Dario) and is difficult to describe with the appropriate level awe. It was something that none of us will soon forget. As we made the long trip back up to the convent for one last time, I couldn't help but think to myself that all of the loud noises in the mornings may have just been worth it. An appropriate end to an amazing two-weeks...I was happy that we were able to go out with a...literal...BANG!

The phenomenal fireworks from the main square in Santa Lucia del Mela.

BOOM!

A perfect ending...we miss you already, Santa Lucia del Mela!

Written by  Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

MSFS Day 13: Presentazioni e Pupi (Presentations and Puppets)

Notes from the Field School: August 4th, 2016

The class gathered early this morning for students to give their presentations. Each student described what they learned about the mummy that they chose to examine visually in Palermo and how they perceived their time in the catacombs. They used the knowledge and skilled learned over the past two weeks to help them understand what they were seeing when they assessed their mummies and what their observations could tell them about the life of that individual. They also reflected on the personal and professional impacts of their time here in Sicily. After all of the presentations, we had a nice discussion regarding the cultural perceptions related to mummy studies between Italy and our own countries. Each student presentation is summarized briefly below.

Erin gave a lovely powerpoint presentation describing her Palermo mummy. Her individual had some eye tissue still present on the body, well-preserved tissue on his hands, and holes on his face that likely resulted from insect activity. She then talked about how the MSFS has changed her perspective about mummy studies by showing her how intertwined science and culture can be. She found that many of the things that she learned were relevant to her major as a person wanting to go into the field of medicine. Learning about the different ways that disease and lifestyles can be reflected in bone was particularly fascinating for her. She also fell in love with Sicily because of the beautiful landscape and culture while she was here. She felt welcomed by almost everyone that she met while on the island and was happy to have had such a wonderful professional and personal opportunity to study mummies.

Erin talks about the mummy she examined in Palermo.

Ruth shows the class her mummy sketch.

Ruth spoke to the class about her interests in mummies prior to registering to take the MSFS and expressed her surprise regarding how much one could learn without ever physically touching the mummies themselves. She loved the course and the culture, stating that her time here had affected her both professionally and personally. On a professional level, she found our conversations about ethics in mummy studies particularly relevant. As a Catholic, she felt she had learned a lot about her own religion and experienced things that many American Catholics never have the opportunity to experience. She chose her Palermo mummy because he had facial hair and reported excellent preservation and a lack of noticeable insect damage. She did not see any evidence of dental issues or other pathologies, but she did make an excellent sketch of the mummy himself.

Mallory reflects on all she learned at the MSFS.

Mallory used powerpoint to feature her favorite photos from our trip as she described her MSFS experiences. First, she talked about the child mummy she examined in Palermo. This mummy had no teeth in her open mouth, some well-preserved tissues, and brown hair. She also reported potential insect damage and discoloration that may be of curatorial concern. After talking about her mummy, she expressed her elation regarding her time here in Sicily. This was her first time studying abroad and she had been anxious about coming because she did not have much background courses to prepare her for the field school. She came, "as a sponge ready to soak in information" and learned more than she ever thought she would. She was pleased with all of the hands-on learning, cultural immersion, professorial experience, and opportunities to see lots of different mummies that she got out of this trip. "This really blew my mind," she stated near the end of her presentation.

Erik thinks about his adventures in Sicily.

Erik began his presentation by saying that words could not accurately describe the things he had seen and felt over the last week and a half. He had a rough start because of travel issues getting to Sicily, but once he arrived he fell in love with the culture and the people here. Like Mallory, he didn't feel like he had much background with mummies before the field school. As an aspiring cultural anthropologist, he was delighted to learn so much about mummies from both physical and cultural perspectives. The mummy he chose to examine in Palermo was a child about 2 years of age at death that was wearing a fur-lined bonnet and dress. She had evidence of careful preparation and was well-preserved...she even still had fingernails, which typically fall off over time as they separate from the nail beds of the fingers. He did not see any evidence of insect damage to the body or clothing.

Sam recalls her excitement about the eggplant festival.

Sam utilized powerpoint for her presentation and also passed around professional photos of her mummy that she purchased at the gift shop just outside of the catacombs. She had chosen a unique mummy that had been a peasant named Antonino Prestigiacomo in life. Antonino had saved money through much of his life so that he could afford to be interred within the catacombs alongside members of higher social standing after death. He is particularly special because he was preserved using mercury, which turned his face a red color and prevented insect colonization of the tissues surrounding his skull. She did, however, see holes in his hands and on his clothing that may have been the result of insect damage. After talking about her mummy, she talked about what she had learned regarding conservation and cultural perceptions of these individuals. She talked of how she couldn't really put into words how much her experiences during the MSFS had changed her perspectives saying, "We just don't see these kinds of things back home". (This says a lot coming from someone who works at the state museum back in Nebraska!) With regards to her overall experience, she was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Sicilians that we met during our stay here and was delighted by how welcoming they have been and by how active they are as a community. "They had a party for a vegetable!" she exclaimed while discussing the community events that are held here in Santa Lucia del Mela during the summer.

Breane discusses the importance of mummy conservation.

Breane also gave a powerpoint presentation beginning with a description of her mummy from Palermo. She had examined an anthropogenic child mummy wearing a dress and tucked into a yellow blanket within a wooden coffin. She reported that the mummy was well-preserved with no visible signs of insect activity. She brought up questions regarding the differential preservation of hair in mummies that gave us all something to contemplate before she moved forward with her talk. She also discussed the connection that the catacombs have with the past and with our humanity. She spoke of the importance of conserving the cultural heritage that mummies provide stating that we as a society, "shouldn't let important pieces of history go to waste". She then segued into her reflections of the course drawing from her background as person from a small town. "I never would have had these experiences in Nebraska," she said as she talked about this once in a lifetime experience. She expressed how thankful she was to have been surrounded by such a vibrant culture and history and to have acquired new skills and knowledge regarding mummy studies.

Emily thinks of all that she has experienced at the MSFS.

Emily began her presentation by telling her story about meeting me (Johnica) in a class while I was doing my mentorship for the Preparing Future Faculty program under Dr. Dale Benham at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She connected with me over an interest in honey analysis and I invited her to join Karl and I at Friday coffee, where she would eventually learn about the upcoming MSFS. She then, "came on a whim", as she is studying forensic science and thought it would be both relevant and fun to study abroad in Sicily. (She wasn't wrong...what a whim!) She talked about how much she also loved the culture...both in terms of the people and in terms of the breathtaking architecture and artwork, which she pointed out was important from a religious viewpoint for the widely illiterate societies of the Middle Ages. She also commented that she loved being surrounded by others who enjoyed studying mummies and that she had developed a renewed interest, perhaps even a passion, for "studying the past through the dead". Her Palermo mummy was dressed as a professional. She speculated that he may have been a professor or an author. She reported that he was well-preserved, but seemed to have been spontaneously mummified. He had all of his teeth, but did display some enamel hypoplasias, indicating nutritional stress early in life. She did note some insect activity on his hands and clothing.

Caleb showing his mummy sketch while talking
about insect activity on his Palermo mummy.

Caleb grabbed a seat in the comfy chair and began describing his Palermo mummy to the class. The mummy was dressed and seemingly well-preserved, though he did have some insect activity on his visible hand. He did not see any dental pathology, but could not be sure of the absence thereof due to an abundance of facial soft tissue. The mummy featured soft tissue preservation over much of the skull and even featured a visible ear. Some of the mummy's fingers retained fingernails as well. He was sad that so much of his mummy was clothed as he could not apply the knowledge he had acquired over the past week and a half to report more about the life of his mummy. He then spoke of the differing emotional experience of being with the mummies in Palermo as compared to the mummies of Piraino and Santa Lucia del Mela. He felt less connected to the mummies in Palermo despite being able to see them up close as they were able to do in Piraino. He described the sense of connection that he had unexpectedly experienced in Piraino and how that sort of feeling must be a part of the culture. As a political scientist, he began thinking about how legal policies would affect cultural heritage for Sicily and beyond. He was also struck by the cultural acceptance of the local people and about how they treated us while we were here. "They made us feel like we were really important," he said referring to both Sicilian hospitality and the community's interest in preserving the cultural heritage that the mummies provide for society. He said that his experiences here have changed both his personal and professional perspectives stating, "it's a whole new lens on culture and policy".

Jordan tells the class about his Palermo mummy.

Jordan gave the final student presentation, opening with descriptions of his Palermo mummy. His mummy was clothed, leaving only the face and hands exposed for examination. The mummy had hair on his head and face, but the teeth were concealed by soft tissues. He noted that this anthropogenic mummy was propped up above the pillow within his coffin, which may have been a result of the corpse drying. The mummy retained all of its fingernails and had a reddish tint to the face. He reported no insect damage on the mummy's clothing, but thought he may have seen some holes in the neck. He was happy to have had the chance to experience the thriving culture of Sicily and was struck by the strong sense of community that could be felt in each place that we visited. Being from a small town himself, he felt very at home in the tight-knit communities and was interested in the cultural views that each of these communities had of the dead.

Emily and Mallory talk to the class about the hallway paintings.

Just before lunch, Emily and Mallory shared with us what they had learned about the hallway paintings featuring saints from the region. These two students had a particular interest in these paintings because they are practicing Catholics. They were interested in the stories of the scenes depicted and in the saints themselves. As a class, we discussed our interpretations of the messages being conveyed by the paintings before heading downstairs for lunch.

For lunch today, we had a class favorite, penne in a red pepper cream sauce, along with bread, fire-roasted tomatoes with olive oil and herbs, and a sausage and french fry bowl. After lunch, we returned to the classroom for more Italian lessons with Katia. Simultaneously, each of us was interviewed for Santa Lucia del Mela's YouTube channel about our time here in the city.

Sausage and french fries

Fire-roasted tomatoes and bread (left) and roasted red-pepper pasta (right).

Katia gives an Italian lesson while students wait to be interviewed for Santa Lucia's YouTube channel.

Later that afternoon, we made a trek up to the castle on top of the hill. Some of the students went to the Catholic mass that was taking place in the church within the castle. Others spent some time at the bar next to the castle enjoying roasted beans, refreshingly cold water, and ice cream candy bars along with the spectacular view of the city.

Side view of the castle from the bar's seating area.

Sunset selfie from the castle bar's seating area.

Another beautiful Sicilian sunset over Santa Lucia del Mela.

The beginning of
beautiful street art.

We came back down just before dinner and took a quick detour to see some of the beautiful street art that was being prepared for tomorrow's procession. These were made into abstract designs and flowers using colored salt, coffee, sand, and wood shavings. The art was framed with local branches and stretched a long way through the streets. Some of us only saw a few of the panels  before heading back, but others followed the trail until they caught up to a woman who was making them. Those students were welcomed by the woman and were allowed to place sand on one of the panels themselves!

Meat and cheese rolls.

Dinner was comprised of leftover french fry/sausage and freshly made fried bread rolls, eggplant fritters, cheese-stuffed meat rolls, herbed potatoes, and more of the fire-roasted tomatoes in oil with herbs. It was, of course, amazingly delicious and we all were stuffed by the time we left to go see the Opera dei Pupi, a local event featuring traditional foods, like cannoli, music, and dance performances. The main attraction was a puppet show performed by a family that has been doing these shows for five generations (since 1800). The puppet show featured the story of Perseus and Medusa.

We arrived to the upbeat sound of live music to see women in beautiful costumes twirling around the arms of dapper men. Later, children in traditional costumes joined the dancing and performed perfectly despite their young age and the difficulty of the steps. We pushed through the crowd to find a food table selling cannoli, that delicious hard-shelled sweet with a creamy center that is a cultural masterpiece of an Italian dessert. For only 1.50 euro, you could have your cannolo stuffed in front of you with either vanilla or chocolate cream, or you could get the full experience with the traditional ricotta filling. It was then finished with nuts and cannied fruits before being dusted with powdered sugar. Al bacio!

Traditional dancing to upbeat music at the Opera dei Pupi in Santa Lucia del Mela.

Traditional ricotta-filled cannoli.

Cannoli in hand, we climbed onto the stone steps leading to the cathedral to watch the dancing for a bit longer. After the dancers bowed and exited the staging area, a woman read a story about a local legend. The story was that a man from Messina known as Colapesce, who was swimming in the sea and saw that one of the three pillars holding Sicily up out of the water was cracking. Seeing this, he dove down to the pillar and stood within it to brace the structure with his own body and strength. The legend goes that he is still there today, making sure that the island he loves doesn't fall into the sea. Afterward, a few men recited poetry in the Sicilian language of old. Then the live band from before returned to treat the crowd with several more traditional songs before the puppet show was to begin. The puppet show was performed on a stage elevated above where the other events had taken place. The miniature wooden theater featured bright colors and royal blue curtains that were swept back to reveal a bronze sun with flashing red eyes. The sun began to speak in Sicilian on a set designed to look like a ship in a prologue to the events that would shortly unfold on stage.

Moments before the show began.

The story of Perseus begins with the king of Argos, Acrisius, being told by the oracle at Delphi that his grandson would one day kill him. When his daughter, Danaë, gave birth to Perseus, who was Zeus's son, Acrisius locked his daughter and grandson in a wooded box and tossed them into the sea. The box washed up on the island of Serifos and they were taken to the king, Polydectes. Perseus grew up on the island and eventually Polydectes fell in love with his mother. Perseus was very protective of his mother and Polydectes wanted him out of the way, so he demanded the head of Medusa from Perseus. To protect his mother and his own honor, Perseus set out to complete the quest. Athena, at the behest of Zeus according to the puppet show, went to give Perseus advice and a shield to help him defeat Medusa. He also got a sword and special pieces of armor from the gods before he went to find Medusa. After a few epic battle scenes, he defeated Medusa and the men who had followed him to kill him as Polydectes had wished.

Perseus puts on his armor from the gods during the show.

We returned to the convent discussing what we had just seen (recall that the entire play was in Sicilian, not in English) and reflecting on the other experiences of the evening. Though it was late and we were all a bit tired, we were all happy to have had just a rare opportunity to see a traditional puppet show, dancing, and a musical performance while in Santa Lucia del Mela. It was a wonderful cultural event that was previously not a scheduled part of the course, but what a fortuitous addition it was for both the students and the instructors of this year's class!

Written by  Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

MSFS Day 12: Tying It All Together: Full Circle Discussions and Preparations for Student Presentations

Notes from the Field School: August 3rd, 2016

Spaghetti in chili oil.

Students were given the morning off to work on their presentations that they will be giving tomorrow. They will be talking about the mummies that they examined yesterday in the catacombs beneath the Capuchin Church. It will be exciting to hear how everyone has applied their new knowledge and skills as students of mummy studies to their examinations of yesterday's mummies.

Breaded eggplant and succulent
pork with caramelized onions.

Lunch was a student favorite of spicy pasta known to them as "hangover pasta" because Dario informed them that the dish is traditionally eaten after a night of excessive drinking. In addition, we were served a deliciously juicy pork with caramelized onions, bread, nectarines, and my new favorite, fried eggplant with parmesan.

Karl tells students about his work with bog bodies.

After lunch, Karl gave the students a series of short talks on the origins of tuberculosis, the gut contents of bog bodies, and some of the radiographic and CT scanning work that he has done with mummies. He discussed the paradigm shifts in the archaeological understanding of when tuberculosis was present in the New World. He talked about the work of Jane Buikstra and Della Cook during the 1980s and 1990s and about later molecular work that led researchers to understand the link between human TB and the type of TB found in seals living along the South American coast. He also talked about his work with the Zweeloo woman (a bog mummy) and other bog bodies that have revealed interesting information about iron age diets.

Mari blocks natural light
so that projected images
could be seen clearly.

There was a nice breeze coming through today that kept us cool until we needed to block incoming light to better see the photos that Karl was showing. At this point, the strong breeze continued to blow open the largest window, so Mari selflessly stood at the window to make sure that all students could see. (Thank, Mari!)

Next, Dario gave a lecture on the famous historic embalmer, Alfredo Salafia. He mentioned Salafia yesterday when talking about the history of the beautiful child mummy of Rosalia Lombardo, so today he gave the students more details about this important person's life and showed some excellent historic photos. Salafia was born in 1869 and died in 1933. He worked as a taxidermist and later as an embalmer in Palermo, which we visited yesterday and saw some of his work. Dario scoured archives to learn about Salafia's life. We know that he never went to a university to train as an embalmer, but he did learn from an anatomist early in his career. Salafia did his first body restoration in 1902 on Francesco Crispi.

Dario tells students about Alfredo Salafia's life.

The body had been embalmed by someone else, but was restored by Salafia, who made the body appear more like a living man rather than a corpse. Later, Salafia was called to prepare the bodies of an archbishop, a senator, a count, and many other residents of Palermo. He even embalmed his own father! He was assisted by two of his nephews for many of these endeavors and he spent some time in New York embalming bodies and doing demonstrations for medical professionals. When he returned to Sicily, he continued working as an embalmer. His famous works from these later years in his life included a consulate, his brother, and of course little Rosalia. He died from a stroke in 1933 and was buried in the most up-scale cemetery in Palermo alongside aristocrats and other members of high society. In 2000, his remains were exhumed as the city sold off his grave to make room for others. Dario went on to talk about how he met some of Salafia's relatives who gave him Salafia's journal. With this text, Dario learned about the embalming fluid formula and methods that Salafia used for the preparation of bodies. Salafia was an embalmer years ahead of his time who paved the way for modern embalming practices.

A view of the Poker Bar, one of
our favorite local establishments.

After the lecture, the class had a great discussion about mortuary rituals in Sicily and how embalming became common practice in the USA. The Civil War had a profound effect on the population's desire to have fallen soldiers sent back to their families without the bodies decomposing before they could make it back to their homes for burial. We discussed these issues as related to societal perceptions of death and cultural shifts in mortuary practices.

We decided to carry our discussion to the Poker Bar down the street so that we could enjoy coffee, granitas, and gelato while we talked. As always, the staff greeted us warmly and engaged us in some Italian conversations to see how the course was going.

The class enjoys a mid-day break at the Poker Bar.

Another excellent evening meal.

We then had a few hours of downtime before dinner. Tonight, Camelina served us a yummy sausage and mushroom risotto along with salad, bread, and a tray of meats and cheeses. We also had fruits and sparkling wine afterward to finish the meal.

Katia met with us again tonight to go over verbs and sentence structure in Italian. We also learned about when to use which articles before the lesson was over. Many of us then went down to the square to see the concert going on and to further experience the culture of Santa Lucia del Mela.

The town plaza full of vendors for the evening's event.

A vocalist sings a beautiful song at the concert.

Musicians perform at the concert in the square.

Written by  Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

MSFS Day 11: The Ins and Outs of Palermo's Cultural Heritage

Notes from the Field School: August 2nd, 2016

Pineapple juice, cappucino, and
chocolate croissants for Elisa's last day.

We awoke early in the morning to grab breakfast before we walked down to the bus for our journey to Palermo. Many of us went to the Poker Bar to say farewell to our visiting researcher from Brazil, Elisa Pucu. Elisa had to leave the MSFS a bit early to prepare to attend the 9th World Congress on Mummy Studies in Lima, Peru. She will be giving a presentation at the conference and will be talking at a special session dedicated to the memory of her father, Adauto Araujo, who was an important researcher in the area of mummy studies as well as other aspects of paleoparasitology. We already miss Elisa and the parasitological/epidemiological perspectives that she brought to the class to enrich our discussions.

After a long bus ride to Palermo, we reached the Capuchin Church where we would be seeing mummies later in the day. First, we ate the packed lunch provided by Carmelina and Padre Paolo in a relatively cool and shaded area on the steps outside of the church. These individual servings of baked pasta were delicious, containing penne, vegetables, a tomato-based sauce, and melted cheese. With our stomachs full and our bladders empty, we walked to the cemetery where people were buried after mummification and the use of the catacombs was outlawed in the city.

The cemetery was filled with marble slabs, mausoleums, and other memorial structures for the dead. Photographs and flowers were scattered about the graves as we walked through looking at these monuments. Among the graves were rows of cypress trees, which not only provided shade and an aesthetically pleasing landscape, but were also symbolically important representations of eternal life because they are evergreens. Among the many important and loved individuals whose remains are found in this cemetery were two people who were particularly special. The first was Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, who wrote one of the most important pieces of Sicilian literature, The Leopard. The other was S.E. Pietro Scaglione, who was murdered near his place of eventual interment as he came to visit his late wife's grave in 1971. He was a judge who had become well-known for working to stop the activities of the mafia. He was a hero for the city of Palermo for this work and he continues to live in the hearts and minds of the people for his efforts to stop the violence and corruption within the community.

Dario tells students about the cemetery behind the church.

 Cypress trees have a special religious significance at the cemetery behind the church.

Views of the graves at the cemetery behind the church.

Site of Scaglione's remains within the cemetery.

Next, we embarked on a journey through the city to see the cathedral containing the remains of Palermo's patron saint, St. Rosalia. The church was enormous and was adorned with lavish paintings, carvings of angels and other religious icons, and alcoves containing relics. The most impressive part of the church was of course the silver altar dedicated to St. Rosalia that encases her bones. As you, faithful readers, may recall from a previous blogpost about this saint, Rosalia's ghost appeared to a man during a plague epidemic in 1624. She told the man to go gather her bones from the cave where she lived and died on Mount Pellegrino and to carry them through Palermo in a procession. The man did as she asked and the epidemic came to an end. In honor of this miracle, the city venerated Rosalia and made her their patron saint.

The sanctuary of the cathedral containing the remains of St. Rosalia.

    

 The altar of St. Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo.

We took a quick break for drinks and gelato after leaving the church before we walked back to the Capuchin Church to finally see the catacombs. We were immediately struck by how large the catacombs were and by how many people were interred beneath the church. Out of respect for the mummies, we only took one photo of the class as they first entered the area and did not take any closeup pictures of the individuals themselves. Photos of some of the things that we saw can be found on the Facebook page for the catacombs, which is here.

Students enter the catacombs of the Capuchin Church to look at mummies.

Dario, who is the curator of these mummies, led us through the different corridors talking to us about the history, curation, and culture of the individuals. There was a corridor filled with friars, another with priests, another with professionals (men) of the community, and another for women. There was also an alcove specifically for children, though a few other children were scattered in other areas of the catacombs as well. Students were able to look at differential preservation as they viewed mummy after mummy dressed in various kinds of clothing, displayed in niches, in coffins, or on shelves, and each demonstrating different amounts of soft tissue preservation. Some mummies were almost totally skeletonized, while others maintained enough tissue to make out facial features. Some even had hair on their heads and/or faces, giving them a more life-like appearance than others.

The body of Rosalia Lombardo
(taken with permission of the curator).

At the end of one corridor, in a special nitrogen chamber was a tiny wooden coffin adorned with metal decorations of lions' heads and elevated on metal shaped like the paws of lions. This coffin contained the most life-like mummy within the catacombs, and in fact the most well-preserved mummy in the world. Beneath the layers of glass and bactericidal gas chamber was the body of little Rosalia Lombardo. This beautifully preserved child mummy was prepared by the famous embalmer, Alfredo Salafia after the little girl died at the age of 2 as a result of a type of pneumonia. Many years later, researchers, including our very own Dario Piombino-Mascali, used modern technology to see that her internal organs were intact and were able to determine what techniques Salafia used to create such a perfectly preserved person. Her haunting beauty was beyond description. She seemed to be sleeping or to have only died recently rather than being a person who lived and died long before my parents were born.

Sanctuary of the Capuchin Church
above the catacombs.

After the guided tour, students were asked to each chose one mummy on which to do a visual examination. The students scattered around to pick an individual and began taking notes on pathologies, taphonomic issues, and any demographic data that they could gather visually. In a few days, the students will describe their observations to the class in formal presentations tying in all that they have learned during their short time in Sicily and how the MSFS has affected their professional and personal development. Some students even went so far as the sketch the mummies because photographs were not allowed.

Once we all emerged from the catacombs, notes in hand and new information in mind, we took a look at one final church sanctuary...the Capuchin Church above where we had spent the last few hours examining mummies. The church was as ornate and beautiful as many of the others we've seen over the past week and a half. It featured breathtaking architecture, frescoes, and statues along with relics arranged in a large, elaborately carved wooden display case.

 Art and relics in the Capuchin Church.

As we rode back to Santa Lucia, some of us slept while others reflected on all that we had seen during our time in Palermo. When we arrived at the convent, dinner was already waiting for us in the dining room. Boiled eggs, peppers with spices and breadcrumbs, pinwheels with ham, spinach, and cream cheese, and a pasta with a little bit of everything sat patiently on the table as we filed in for a well-earned supper. Afterward, most of us walked down to the square to see the folklore festival already underway. The streets were lit in bright colors of celebration and people were on stage dancing to Sicilian music in traditional dress. We enjoyed the festivities with our coffees and granitas before walking back up to the convent so that we could get some sleep before the events of the coming day.

  Yummy dinner after our trip to Palermo.

View of the square from the convent.

Children sing and dance in traditional dress at the folklore festival.

Adult dancers also performed traditional dances for the festival.

View of the castle from the square framed by festive lights.

Written by  Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)