---
title: From Ashes to Awe
date: 2024-09-06T13:00:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://terp.umd.edu/from-ashes-to-awe"
section: Articles
---
# From Ashes to Awe

*September 6, 2024* — by [Sala Levin ’10](/authors/sala-levin-10)


- *Photo by Jon Dunham*

> Students and Faculty Mark 20 Years of Excavating and Documenting Little-Known Ruins Near Pompeii

*fresco*

Perched above the glittering Bay of Naples, Stabiae was the vacation destination of choice for the who’s who of ancient Roman society. They’d flock to fabulous villas to host intellectual discussions, swim in the sea below and partake plentifully of the local wine, all while enjoying an unimpeded view of Mt. Vesuvius.

The partying came to a sudden end in the year 79, when the volcano erupted, releasing toxic gases and boiling-hot ash that buried the resort area, its neighboring towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and thousands of their inhabitants.

Yet the details on how the Roman elite lived, entertained and decorated their lavish homes have come to light two millennia later through excavations and analysis of the site led by University of Maryland faculty and students. This summer marked the 20th anniversary of their work in Italy, and a new book coming out next year will showcase their progress.


*students write while sitting on ground — For 20 years, UMD students and faculty members have been uncovering gardens and frescoes (above) as they’ve excavated and documented villas destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption in the coastal Italian city of Stabiae. (Photo by Jon Dunham)*


> “We succeeded in getting attention for tourism resources and a research focus to the site that might not have arrived otherwise.”

— —Matthew Bell, *Professor of Architecture*


The roughly 72,000-square-foot site, with its dozen or so villas, had undergone prior excavations: In the 1700s, Swiss architect and engineer Karl Weber and Spanish military engineer Roque Joauín de Alcubierre, who was working for the Spanish king, dug up some of the site and made drawings of it, but the ruins were once again largely forgotten. In the 1950s, local scholar Liberio D’Orsi excavated rooms from the Villa San Marco and Villa Arianna.

In 2004, after several years of talks with Varone and the local government, UMD partnered with the Superintendency of Archaeology of Pompeii and the region of Campania to form the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation (RAS). Through RAS, led on UMD’s end by Professor Emeritus Robert Lindley Vann, students and faculty began traveling to Italy each summer, excavating Villa Arianna and its gardens.

“The Italians were saying, ‘Jeez, if the Americans are interested, maybe we should devote some more resources to this,’” says Matthew Bell, a UMD professor of architecture who serves as vice president of RAS and was Varone’s thesis adviser. “We succeeded in getting attention for tourism resources and a research focus to the site that might not have arrived otherwise.”

Over time, the Terps—and groups from Yale, Columbia, Emory and nearly 80 other universities—revealed more than 100 walls covered in richly colored frescoes of Roman gods, people, geometric designs and gardens, and a more extensive section of the gardens themselves.


*students excavating — In 2008, students excavated lapilli, button-sized droplets of molten lava, from Villa Arianna’s garden. (Photo courtesy of Robert Lindley Vann)*




**Issue:** [Fall 2024](https://terp.umd.edu/editions/fall-2024)


**Types:** [Campus Life](https://terp.umd.edu/category/campus-life)