A crowd in a piazza in Montalto di Castro, Italy
Caitlin Childers and her colleagues presented their work on an archaeological dog site in Vulci to residents of nearby Montalto di Castro.

Duke Diary Dispatch: Presenting in Montalto di Castro

Duke graduate student Caitlin Childers and her colleagues presented their work to local experts in Vulci, Italy

This is the latest diary entry by Caitlin Childers, a Duke graduate student studying digital art history at an archaeological dig site in Vulci, Italy. Read more diary entries in the Duke Today series.

This group had the opportunity to present our work to the community of Montalto di Castro. We included images of our two testing sites, the dig site and the fisherman's domus.

Alongside these images were videos of the eye tracking done there, showing the viewers the step-by-step pattern of the test subject's sight. The heat maps created from these tests were also presented. We included two heat maps from each site. One heat map with the virtual thinking strategies testing and one without.

Some of the participants involved in our eye tracking were also kind enough to make us a meal prior to the presentation! They served us pasta, melon and prosciutto, and all kinds of dessert. This was the second meal provided to us this week by local Vulci supporters.

The night prior to the presentation we had a lovely meal with two journalists and a professor of classical antiquity. They've created a website called Etruscan Times that includes everything from food & banquets to religion to underwater heritage. Their company and knowledge on the topic were a lovely addition to the trip.

Last, but certainly not least, we have been given the opportunity to show our work to all of Italy! TG1, a national Italian television broadcast, filmed us doing our eye-tracking, the archaeologists working on the dig site, and even Dr. Forte's son and his Lego version of the entire project.