On June 11, 2021, Florida State University students Jamie Fontana and Nina Perdomo cut the ribbon to open the exhibition they designed and curated, “Coins, Pots and a Castle at Cetamura del Chianti,” to inaugurate the Galleria Belle Arti (Fine Arts Gallery) in the newly renovated Palazzo Bagnesi, home to Florida State University International Programs in Florence, Italy.  Jamie and Nina, undergraduate students in Classics at FSU, were supervised by Dr. Nancy de Grummond, FSU professor and director of excavations at Cetamura, and their work was sponsored by scholarships from Dr. Rodney Reeves, an FSU alumnus and retiree.

The show was planned to highlight innovative photographs of 194 Roman Republican silver coins discovered at Cetamura in 2015.  Research by Dr. Lora Holland Goldthwaite of the University of North Carolina at Asheville supports the theory that the coins were deposited by a Roman soldier who had fought in the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, when Octavian (Augustus) defeated Antony and Cleopatra.  A concurrent exhibition of the actual coins, “Treasure of Chianti: Silver Coinage of the Roman Republic from Cetamura del Chianti,” was placed on view on May 29 at the museum of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena.

Included in the Gallery were 3-D printed replicas of bronze, ceramic and glass pots from Cetamura, of Etruscan, Roman and Medieval date, and a 3-D laser scanned wooden model of the hill of Cetamura. The model was made at the Innovation Hub on the FSU Tallahassee campus by Classics grad students Lucy Crenshaw, Hebe Clarke and Wyatt Haywood in 2019.   Miniature 3-D reconstruction models of a Medieval castle made by Zackery Peterson were also featured. A special addition to the show were the 3-D replicas of tiny Etruscan and Roman grape seeds found waterlogged in a well at Cetamura. These were photographed by wine researcher Dr. Laurent Bouby of the Université Montpellier and printed by Matthew Hunter, Digital Scholarship Librarian of the Tallahassee campus of FSU. Dr. de Grummond donated a 3-D printer to the library of the Florence campus so that students may continue to learn how to use this technology.

Jamie and Nina gave tours for the students and faculty of FSU-Florence. Present were Frank Nero, director of the Florence program and Lucia Cossari, associate director, along with Florence faculty member Nicole Cuddeback, who had consulted with Jamie and Nina in planning the show, and Nóra Marosi, head of conservation for artifacts from Cetamura.  Professor Marosi had supervised the cleaning and photography of the silver coins.

The show was scheduled to stay on view through the month of October. For opening ceremonies, see https://fb.watch/7QT6cnd0SW/ 

For a podcast interview of Jamie Fontana and Nina Perdomo with International Programs click on Spotify – SE04 EP08: Curating Ancient Treasures – Noles Abroad | Podcast on Spotify