HSABC 2024 : AN OVERVIEW

At HSABC, students read, write, think & dream archeology. Intensive, site-specific exploration and study of Pompeii, Paestum, Rome, and many small Roman and Etruscan cities and monuments near Assisi. Students experience firsthand everything from classical inscriptions and city-planning to temples, houses, mosaics and frescoes. HSABC encourages students to explore, observe and question. They learn to think like archaeologists and discover the spirit of adventure at the heart of archeology. Students have classes in the mornings and set out to explore what they have studied in the afternoons. Students make at least one full day-trip our first two weeks (to Florence and Palestrina, some years to Tarquinia as well); our last week (8 days) we are on the road and visit pretty much all the most amazing archaeological sites in Italy. The smaller-scale sites we see our first two weeks help students to get oriented in /connect to/learn from and truly appreciate the more famous sites we see in our last 8 days of intense traveling (which can sometimes be overwhelming for this age group).

Our home bases are a turn-of-the century schoolhouse in the hills outside Assisi, an elegant, old-style hotel in Naples and two charming villas with lovely grounds in Paestum (10 minutes from a beautiful beach) and outside Rome (with a swimming pool).

Students learn experientially at Humanities Spring. They travel to see some of the best classical art and architecture anywhere. The texts they read before they set out (by archeologists, of course, but also poets, art historians, historians anthropologists and philosophers) are doors into what they see. The small-scale ancient Roman and Etruscan sites we study and experience together during our orientation weeks in Assisi help students to get oriented and connect better to Pompeii, Paestum Rome and Naples (the much larger-scale sites we visit our last week, often overwhelming for this age-group).

Students also experience the rhythm of Italian life at HSABC. Evenings, we often go into Assisi for ice-cream, impromptu concerts, classical and jazz, and the quiet hum of piazza life. Wherever we go, we attend events at summer festivals — sometimes in little squares, sometimes at the archeological sites themselves. Students learn to cook traditional Italian sweets and, during their work-study, can take cooking classes with our lively Italian cook. Reading a wide range of texts and looking at Italian art and architecture with Italian students (from all over the country) makes for a true immersion in Italian culture.

We are a small community (usually about 30 of us between students and staff) and each student is cherished for his or her uniqueness. As a community, we encourage tolerance and the courage to disagree. Our staff includes archeologists, classicists and art historians but also poets, painters.and architects ( a different mix each summer). HSABC fosters the spirit of collaboration. Students work individually for some activities, but also often do projects in groups. Conversation, both inside the classroom and out, at meals and on trips, is at the heart of everything. At HSABC, we all learn together.

 

                                                         HSABC 2024 : The Calendar

August 4th – August 18th: An archeological orientation in our HS home-base, in Assisi, Umbria. Students explore for themselves and get to know well many small Roman cities in Umbria —   their baths, temples, amphitheaters, city-planning, and private villas and houses  — and study individual artifacts in depth, from sarcophagi to statues and from public inscriptions to bath mosaics (most in situ! — in their original locations)  as a way into ancient Roman life and the Roman city.

August 18th–August 25th: Our third week HSABC heads south for a firsthand, in depth travel-study experience of Rome, Pompeii, Paestum and Naples. Knowledge of the small Umbrian ancient Roman and Etruscan sites we have visited together helps students to get oriented at and appreciate these larger (and more famous!) sites. We also tour the beautiful Amalfi Coast with a stop at Amalfi and a tour of the  Roman villa in Minori.

 

                                                                                    Classes at HSABC

Students have a different mix of classes each week, depending on the week’s over-arching theme and where we are. All classes aim to help students acquire an archeological framework and  to connect better to the places we travel to see and experience together. . Each day, all classes explore the theme of the day from different points of view.    All classes have units both in the classroom and on-site.

Myths as Archetypes, Myths as mirrors (week 1) : an introduction to the importance of myth to ancient art, literature and, of course, life!

Public spaces, Private spaces: The Ancient Roman City (week 2): an intro to the component parts of the Roman city and the Roman house spaces and the ancient house, short lecture classes in English, with 5 minutes each day in Italian! Our only lecture and thanks to our two wonderful young Italian archeologists, students love it.


From the archaeological fragment to the whole, a spotlight: (all 3 weeks): These are research and discussion classes in which students study specific monuments, buildings or works of art (both in the HS library and on site) and then share what they have learned with the rest of the group.

The great archeologists and their methods (all 3 weeks): Students read archeologists from the past as a way into places we visit and study. They learn about their different methodologies and the different types of archeological evidence which interested and inspired them. For example, students use Schliemann’s literary approach to archeology as a way into Assisi.

My archaeology (all 3 weeks): Students learn to engage individually and write, paint, sculpt, draw or collage about both what we are studying (a Latin poem we read, for example) as well as what we see on-site.


Survival Italian ( a very short class,  30 minutes a day, all 3 weeks):  Week 1 gives students a very basic introduction to the Italian language (reading, writing and conversation). It’s amazing how helpful French, Spanish, Latin and English itself prove to be! In weeks 2 and 3, Survival Italian becomes archeological. Italian and American students work together reading and translating texts by archaeologists, of course, but also poets, historians, art historians, guide books  and painters about what we are going to see that day. Students help each other in the true spirit of HSABC and have lots of fun in the process.