Italian Lecture Week

Welcome back! The end of the 3-month program is in sight. This week was the last week where we learned things. This post is going to be a little short, since we didn't really do much this week. Next week we have a few fun tours and then give our final presentations. One more blog post before the practicum starts, but I will also make new posts during my practicum. I will continue writing for as long as I'm in Israel, so you won't miss a week!

This week was pretty uneventful. Saturday there was a parade of church groups playing instruments that went down the road outside our apartment. It was neat watching them go by from our balcony. Other than that we got back to work Sunday morning. This week the International Conservation Center was hosting an Italian professor from Rome who was giving a seminar about the history of conservation in Europe since the Renaissance, and we attended the lectures. The lectures were very long and sometimes my attention drifted, but the information was generally interesting. He separated the lectures by country, talking about different approaches to conservation and reconstruction in Italy, France, Germany, and England. He spent a long time talking about individuals who had opinions about conservation and reconstruction, and read lengthy quotes by them about the subject. This part was a little boring for me. He also talked about different styles of conservation since the Second World War, what the reasoning and methods behind them were, and a few case studies of conservation projects. These talks were more interesting. These lectures were given Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Tuesday we also had individual meetings with the staff to discuss more details about our practicum projects. I will be starting the practicum working at the W Hotel in Jaffa for two weeks. Then, depending on external factors, I might work with a team going to Banias and work there for another three weeks or so. After that project I will be joining the conservation team that does maintenance work at the archaeological site in Beit She'an for the remainder of the practicum. If all goes well, I should be doing some very interesting work! I hope everything works out.

The rest of the week was devoted to working on creating our final presentations. Each of us chose a location that we worked at and will present on the conservation methods that we learned and used at the site. My presentation will be about the methods used to conserve mosaics, plaster, and marble that we did at Caesarea and Beit She'an.

That's all we did this week. Stay tuned next week to read about the last days of the project!