Scope and Contents of the Papers
This collection documents the excavation of two suburban Roman villas and a late antique granary-barn 14 kilometers directly east from the center of Rome along the Via Gabina, an ancient Roman road. The goal of this research, directed by Walter Widrig and Philip Oliver-Smith, was to shed light on the economic and social changes which took place from the Republic through the Imperial era in the immediate area of the Via Gabina. The collection consists of 30.5 linear feet (31 boxes) of notebooks, catalogues, plans and drawings covering the years 1967-2004. Copies of many of these items are also kept in the Library of the British School at Rome. The license for digging was issued as a private concession to the directors of the excavations by the Italian Government as overseen by and in association with the Soprintendenza alle AntichitĂ di Roma. This collection is organized into a series of six catagories.
Series I. Administration: is composed of a variety of papers, letters, articles and publications from Walter M. Widrig’s personal files. Also included are grant proposals, end of season reports, miscellaneous materials from sites 10 and 11 (photographs, survey records, negatives and contact prints, personnel lists, and correspondence between Philip Oliver-Smith and Walter M. Widrig).
Series II. Site 10: This series is composed of miscellaneous materials from the Via Gabina excavation at Site 10. Included are site notebooks and diaries, small find type series sheets, small finds and pottery layer sheets, and stucco and pottery qualifications.
Series III. Sites 11 and 13: This series is composed of miscellaneous materials from the Via Gabina excavation at Sites 11 and 13. All files are from Site 11 unless otherwise noted. Included are site notebooks, diaries, pottery, layer sheets and more.
Series IV: Finds: This series is composed of miscellaneous finds, including a variety of pictures, paperwork, pottery draws, and notes and summaries by Joann Freed (organized by Site 10 and 11).
Series V. Plans and Drawings: This series is composed of two sub-series: sub-series plans and sub-series drawings, each of which is further organized into site 10 and site 11. Sub-series plans contains a variety of drafted plans, reconstruction outlines of certain parts of the site and stone by stone plans of different portions of the sites. Sub-series drawings contains a variety of pottery, mosaic fragments, and elevation drawings. Within these two sections there are oversized works within larger boxes and within the map drawers 94-98. (Note: This series is divided into 6 boxes and 5 map drawers. Overall, Series V is organized by site and therefore, for each given site, the subseries plans and drawings are together.)
Series VI: Slides: This series is composed of slides of the Via Gabina excavations. The slides primarily regard Sites 10 and 11, although the collection also contains miscellaneous slides related to Via Gabina.
Restrictions on Use
Permission to publish from the Walter Widrig papers on the excavation of Via Gabina Villas must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
Biography of Walter Widrig
Walter Widrig is professor emeritus of Art and Art History specializing in archaeology at Rice University where he has pursued his scholarly activities since 1969. Among other duties, he served as chair of the department of art and art history from 1982 to 1985. He also taught at Rutgers, Wellesley College, the University of St. Thomas in Houston and the Women's Institute of Houston. He served as a curator of art galleries at Rutgers and the University of St. Thomas. He has directed, co-directed, or worked at archaeology sites in Italy, Libya, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, the Balkans, Turkey, and Tunisia.
Widrig taught a variety of classes in the architecture and art history disciplines. Widrig was co-director of the expeditions, along with Philip Oliver-Smith who died in 2002, to the Via Gabina sites in Latium in Italy.
