On April 10, Instagram featured @Saverome as a showcased photoset, and featured photo in Instagram’s gallery.  Thanks to Instagram, Darius’s photos and cultural heritage message have reached over 22 million Instagram users worldwide, achieving over 200,000 likes and several hundred comments.

Modern Rome is built atop a layer of ancient ruins, many of which are still standing and accessible today. Having worked in Rome as a preservationist and teacher for the last 15 years, archaeologist Darius Arya (@saverome) has a keen knowledge of the city’s rich structural history. Through Instagram, he takes followers along for an up-close, educational look at Rome’s ruins. “I love being able to reveal a lot of information on a well-known structure like the Pantheon or discuss a structure or issue in the shadow of something so well known, like the barely-known Saepta Julia resting against the Pantheon,” he says. “Instagram has helped me focus my message and deliver a variety of styles, from a simple photo to intensely dense informative material.”

In his self-proclaimed quest to make #culturalheritage cool, Darius has opened up a global dialogue about the Roman ruins on Instagram. “I find the feedback from people is great. People are learning, hungry for more. I really enjoy being able to get into the conversation and spur on interest.”

To get your daily dose of Rome’s #culturalheritage, and to follow along as Darius embarks on a 3-year excavation in Ostia Antica this June and July, be sure to follow him on Instagram @saverome!

With smart phones and even smarter people, everything has changed.  A whole world of archaeology and cultural heritage preservation has unfolded and opened so that archaeology and cultural heritage are now more than ever present and available for anyone to explore– without or without the degree.   And it’s a lot of fun!  Over the past year or so that I jumped into the world of social media, I’ve seen some amazing things (forgotten archaeology in Iran, an #emptymet, where photographers are exploring an empty Metropolitan Museum of Art and sharing).  And I’m able to see and make connections between heritage issues throughout the world, particularly the difficulties we face in archaeology and the preservation of heritage in new, dynamic formats that weren’t even thinkable two years ago.

The stereotypical classics conference is anything but… discussions bring in contemporary themes in ancient issues and conferences are accessible anywhere via live stream or simply by following a hashtag or twitter account like the Classical Association’s recent conference.  So many of the great conversations and discussions, interactions and friendships have been building up online– and not just with academics, but also conservators and non profits and NGOs, bloggers, photographers, and anyone out there that is just interested in learning about the past. I’ve particularly enjoyed seeing people’s perspectives on history, heritage, archaeology and art when they have entirely different backgrounds from mine.  It’s really opened up my mind– and leaves me hungry for more.

Cultural heritage and social media have a similar purpose: to connect people together for discussion/preservation of an idea.  With that in mind, I thought it would be great to theme the AIRC’s 2013 Unlisted conference  “Conversation for Conservation” where we discuss the role of social media in cultural heritage. We’ve invited some great people including photographers Sam Horine and Nicolee Drake, and documentary filmmaker Brent Huffman.  We want everyone to come, so if you are in Rome on April 18, join us– and if you can’t be here but still want to participate, please tune in at 4pm Rome (10 am EST) on April 18 for our conversation. For more details, please follow this Unlisted link.

Finally. The promised restoration project of the Augustan period Pyramid of Cestius has begun, with private Japanese funds. It took 330 days to construct the tomb, says the in situ inscription. Let’s see how long it takes to complete the project.

I will be posting photos of the progress on my Instagram account @Saverome, and periodically adding photos to the slideshow below. (Click on each photo to see it in a larger size.)

Update March 21:  Yagi Tsusho Limited has finally placed its name on the pyramid.

Update April 9: Il Lato Segreto della Piramide (the secret side of the pyramid), new sign on pyramid

In 2008, on the Via Flaminia in the northern part of contemporary Rome, archaeologist found an impressive marble mausoleum, among other noteworthy tombs, along a well-preserved section of ancient road.  The press was quick to call this particular tomb “Tomb of the Gladiator” since the tomb itself was commissioned by and for Marcus Nonius Macrinus, an prominent general under the reign of Marcus Aurelius.  Macrinus’  life was paralleled in the Oscar-winning film Gladiator (2000, Ridley Scott) with the general-then-gladiator character Maximus magnificently played by Russell Crowe. Upon its discovery and nickname,  the  world responded enthusiastically because of its relationship with the larger-than-life Maximus, who represented so much of Rome and created such enthusiasm for ancient Roman culture, as well as the overwhelmingly important historic, architectural, and epigraphical qualities of the site itself.

Over the past decade and a half of living and working in Rome, I have been fortunate to visit the site on numerous occasions, and I am constantly struck by the enormity of the site.  It is beautiful– both historically and physically.  I think anyone that comes to the site cannot help but have an immediate connection to the past.  I am also in awe of the amount of mud that buried site thus preserving it (45 feet in height)- it gives you an idea of both what the archaeologists had to overcome but also how much lucky they were to even find it.

The superintendency’s recent (and almost abrupt) decision to rebury the site for preservation is laudable in that they want to preserve the site.  However, the historical importance of the site merits further attention and excavation, not simply covering up. We have too much to lose here. If we have to pick and choose, this is one worth fighting for.  Please join me in signing and sharing this iPetition now.