I arrived at the University of Missouri in 2015 after research stints at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the Freie Universität Berlin. Since then, my scholarly work has been focusing on the archaeology of first millennium BCE Italy, combining formal architectural study, stratigraphic and archaeometric analysis in the field and lab, and digital techniques of recording and visualization of ancient remains and artifacts. Some of my research threads include Italian urbanism in its broader Mediterranean context, the cultural implications of Rome’s expansion, and especially the complex and ambiguous relationship between the formation of a distinctive Roman material and visual culture, the influence of Greek tradition, and the agency of non-Roman patrons and builders. More recently, I became interested in the spatial organization and economy of ritual.
My first book (The Origins of Concrete Construction in Roman Architecture, Cambridge, 2021) frames the genesis of innovative building processes and techniques within the context of Rome's early expansion. Tracing technological change in monumental construction in central Italy through excavation data from both public monuments and private domestic architecture, the study explores the political motivations and cultural aspirations of the patrons and highlights how they negotiated economic and logistical constraints by drawing from both local resources and long-distance networks.
Other ongoing publication projects are tied to primary fieldwork I co-direct at the site of Gabii, a top-tier Latin center near Rome. To study city formation, town-planning, the emergence of monumental civic architecture, and the development of domestic architecture there, I have received funding from the Loeb Classical Library Foundation in 2015-18. Élite Burial Practices and Processes of Urbanization at Gabii, Italy: the non-adult tombs from Area D of the Gabii Project excavations (JRA Suppl. 108, 2020), which I edited, is a monograph-length study of a group of unusually rich infant burials from an Orientalizing domestic compound, which presents detailed analysis of architecture and stratigraphy, together with anthropological data, grave-good assemblages, and environmental remains.
The Gabii Project is also notable for its use of digital tools to document archeological remains, particularly in the form of 3-dimensional models from photogrammetry. The first volume in the final report series, A Mid-Republican House from Gabii, which I co-edited for Michigan Publishing, addresses the need for effective and innovative ways of publishing and sharing the data as collected, presenting our research in a manner in which analysis, visualization, modeling and narrative are closely intertwined.
At Pompeii, under the auspices of the Archaeological Park, I have launched the Venus Pompeiana Project, a new collaborative enterprise whose aim is to resume the study of one of the most prominent religious complexes at the site, the Temple and Sanctuary of Venus, for which I've been awarded the AIA Cotsen Grant for First Time Directors in 2018, and a SSHRC Insight Grant with Co-PI Ilaria Battiloro.
In addition to architecture and urbanism, I have pursued object-oriented research interests. The CaLC-Rome project, which I co-direct, focuses on the 3D modeling and surface analysis of ceramic vessels from the Esquiline necropolis of Rome in order to reconstruct their manufacturing process and life cycle. This initiative is part of an international cultural agreement between the University of Missouri and the Capitoline Museums known as the Hidden Treasure of Rome, and resulted in the creation of an interactive digital data collection whose metadata comply with the main international standards used for cultural heritage, so that scholars in Italy and elsewhere can finally access what had remained for decades a “dark archive.”
I welcome applications from graduate students interested in doing research in any of my specialty areas, and offer the opportunity to join my fieldwork projects.
Office Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays 12.00 - 1.00 pm or by appointment
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Mediterranean Urbanism (Archaic and Hellenistic periods); Roman Archaeology (especially Italy and the West); Roman Republican architecture; Roman Religion; Archaeological Methods and Digital Humanities.
- 2450/2450H The World of Pompeii
- 2950/7940 Archaeological Methods (Summer/Study Abroad)
- 3410 Roman Art and Archaeology
- 4420/7420 Minor Arts of Antiquity
- 4440/7440 Roman Architecture
- 4460/7460 Roman Sculpture
- 8420 Seminar in Roman Art and Archaeology
- 8440 Ancient Topography (Topography of Rome)
Books
Mogetta, M. 2021. The Origins of Concrete Construction in Roman Architecture: Technology and Society in Republican Italy (Cambridge University Press).
Marks, R. and Mogetta, M. (eds.) 2021. Domitian’s Rome and the Augustan Legacy (University of Michigan Press)
Mogetta, M. (ed.) 2020. Élite Burial Practices and Processes of Urbanization at Gabii, Italy: the non-adult tombs from Area D of the Gabii Project excavations (JRA Suppl. 108).
Opitz, R., Mogetta, M., and Terrenato, N. (eds.) 2016. A Mid-Republican House from Gabii (University of Michigan Press)
Book chapters
Mogetta, M. and Battiloro, I. forthcoming. “Public Religion.” In R. Benefiel and J.T. Berry (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Pompeii and Environs (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Mogetta, M. forthcoming. “Roman hellenism and Republican architecture: the genesis of the Corinthian order.” In B. Dufallo and R. Faber, Comparing Roman Hellenisms in Italy (University of Michigan Press)
Battiloro I., and Mogetta, M. 2022. “Il culto di Venere a Pompei.” In M. Cantone and G. Zuchtriegel (eds.), Arte e sensualità nelle case di Pompei, Exhibition Catalogue (Pompeii, May 2022 – January 2023). Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Battiloro, I. and Mogetta, M. 2021. “Il Santuario di Venere: Scavi 2017-2019.” In M. Osanna (ed.), Scoperte e Ricerche a Pompei. In Ricordo di Enzo Lippolis. (Studi e Ricerche del Parco Archeologico di Pompei , 45), 35-56. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider.
Mogetta, M. 2019. “Monumentality, Technological Innovation, and Identity Construction in Roman Republican Architecture: The Remaking of Cosa, post-197 BCE.” In F. Buccellati, S. Hageneuer, S. van der Heyden, and F. Levenson (eds.), Size Matters - Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations, 241-68. Bielefeld: Transcript
Banducci, L. M., Opitz, R., and Mogetta, M. 2018. “Measuring use wear on black gloss pottery from Rome through 3D surface analysis.” In P. Allison and M. Pitts (eds.), Big Data on the Roman Table. Internet Archaeology 50. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.50.12
Mogetta, M. 2014. “From Latin Planned Urbanism to Roman Colonial Layouts: the Town-planning of Gabii and its Cultural Implications.” In E. Robinson (ed.), Papers on Italian Urbanism in the First Millennium B.C. (Journal of Roman Archaeology, Suppl. 97): 145-74. Portsmouth, R.I.: Journal of Roman Archaeology
Peer-reviewed articles
Johnston, A. C. and Mogetta, M. 2020. “Debating Early Republican urbanism in Latium Vetus: the town planning of Gabii, between archaeology and history.” Journal of Roman Studies 110 (available on First View).
Mogetta, M., Johnston, A. C., Naglak, M. and D’Acri, M. 2019. “The Street System of Gabii: New Evidence on the Republican Phases.” Fastionline Documents & Research 438: 1-33. DOI: http://www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2019-438.pdf
Battiloro, I. and Mogetta, M., with contributions by Barretta, M., D’Esposito, L., Diffendale, D. P., Harder, M. C., Pardini, G., Pignataro, M., Russo, A., and Varriale, I. 2018. “New Investigations at the Sanctuary of Venus in Pompeii: Interim Report on the 2017 Season of the Venus Pompeiana Project.” Fastionline Documents & Research 425: 1-37. DOI: www.fastionline.org/docs/FOLDER-it-2018-425.pdf
Johnston, A. C., Mogetta, M., Banducci, L., Opitz, R., Gallone, A., Farr, J, Casagrande Cicci, E., and N. Terrenato 2018. “A Monumental Mid-Republican Building Complex at Gabii.” Papers of the British School at Rome 86: 1-35 (DOI: 10.1017/S0068246217000423)
Mogetta, M., Banducci, L., and Opitz, R. 2017 “Roman Black Gloss Pottery from the Capitoline Museum: A New 3D Scanning Endeavor at the University of Missouri.” Muse. Annual of the Museum of Art and Archaeology. University of Missouri 50 (2016) [2017]: 33-44
Mogetta, M. 2016. “The Early Development of Concrete in the Domestic Architecture of Pre-Roman Pompeii.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 29: 43-72
Mogetta, M. 2015. “A New Date for Concrete in Rome.” Journal of Roman Studies 105: 1-40
Mogetta, M. and Becker, J. A. 2014. “Archaeological Research at Gabii, Italy: The Gabii Project Excavations 2009-2011.” American Journal of Archaeology 118: 171-88
Digital Data Collections
Banducci, L., Opitz, R., Mogetta, M. and Boyer, J. 2017. Hidden Treasure of Rome (collection of 3D models and morphological analyses available at http://digital.lib.usf.edu/htr).
Opitz, R., Mogetta, M., and Terrenato, N. 2017. The Gabii Project: Excavations at the ancient Latin city of Gabii, a neighboring and rival city-state to Rome in the 1st Millennium BCE. Open Context. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6078/M7N014GK.