Notes from the Field School: August 3rd, 2016
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| The class enjoys a mid-day break at the Poker Bar. |
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| 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.
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| The town plaza full of vendors for the evening's event. |
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| A vocalist sings a beautiful song at the concert. |
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| Musicians perform at the concert in the square. |
Written by Dr. Johnica J. Morrow (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
