The Fucino basin in Abruzzo is a wide valley surrounded by mountains, occupied in antiquity by the largest lake of central-southern Italy and today exploited for intensive agriculture. The remediation activities of the territory began with large hydraulic works (a long underground canal, six tunnels and thirty-two wells) during the Roman Empire under the reign of Claudius, but the final land reclamation occurred in the second half of the Nineteenth century at the initiative of the Torlonia family.

Consequently, the agricultural exploitation of this territory has partly enabled the preservation of archeological evidence. The exceptional wealth of sites found in the Marsican area offers scholars the possibility to reconstruct the history of its populations from the Paleolithic to the Modern Age: beyond the now well-researched middle-upper Paleolithic period.  In fact, numerous caves frequented from 16500 years ago until the Roman age, villages of the first Neolithic farmers (6800-5500 years ago), Copper age sites, Bronze age stilt-houses, Iron Age and Italic necropolises and the most famous Roman sites of Alba Fucens, Marruvium, as well as various other necropolises in this area are all well-known and have been well-researched. The first archaeological findings occurred accidentally during the drying operations of the Fucino Lake and following the agricultural work on the land.

We have to wait until the 1950s to witness real systematic research in the area, coordinated and directed by important scholars such as Antonio Radmilli and his successors, with the important contribution of local enthusiasts (…).

The school (SAA) arises from the desire to offer students from all over the world the chance to participate in current research, allowing them to live an important experience of personal and professional growth.

The program offers its participants a diachronic (multi-period) approach to the study of archaeology by giving students the opportunity to learn and work in two different excavations sites (Rio Tana: Neolithic site; Alba Fucens, roman site), where they will gain the skill and a deeper knowledge of the archaeology from the prehistoric to the roman period.