The new podcast series is produced by Videnslyd for the Aarhus University Research Foundation in connection with the AUFF Flagship grant received by Centre Director Professor Rubina Raja in 2019. 'Cæsars Forum' focusses on the Danish-Italian excavations at the Forum of Caesar in central Rome funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Aarhus University Research Foundation. However, the series will also explore the perceptions of Julius Caesar and how ordinary people lived in ancient Rome.

The cultural heritage of Rome from three different perspectives

’Cæsars Forum’ is a podcast series in Danish, and it consists of three episodes that will be made available during June 2020. The first episode is ‘Rejsen til Rom’ (The journey to Rome) and it is already available now. In this episode, you will learn more about the excavations when podcast host Andrew Davidson talks to Centre Director Professor Rubina Raja and Dr. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen about what is referred to as the project of their dreams. Funding from both the Carlsberg Foundation (11 million DKK) and the Aarhus University Research Foundation (10 million DKK) has enabled the two Danish archaeologists and an international team of researchers to launch the archaeological excavation project on the Forum of Caesar.

The following two episodes will be available on 11 and 18 June respectively. The second episode features UrbNet-affiliated Postdoc Trine Arlund Hass and is titled ’Mød Julius Cæsar’ (Meet Julius Caesar). Trine Arlund Hass, who holds HM Queen Margrethe II’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Danish Academy in Rome with the project ‘Our Caesar. Danish receptions of Gajus Julius Caesar’, deals with the perception of Caesar through time. The third and last podcast episode in the series, ‘Fra potteskår til historie’ (From pottery fragments to history), focusses on some of the archaeological material previously excavated on the Forum of Caesar. Postdoc Sine Grove Saxkjær and Centre Director Professor Rubina Raja showcase how ordinary people lived in ancient Rome and how this is reflected in archaeological evidence such as ceramics.

The direction and funding of The Caesar’s Forum Project in brief

Centre Director Professor Rubina Raja from Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet) at Aarhus University and Dr. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen from the Danish Academy in Rome head the excavation project together with director Dr. Claudio Parisi Presicce from Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali – Direzione Musei archeologici e storico-atistico.

The Caesar’s Forum Project was initiated in 2017 with initial funding from the Carlsberg Foundation of 11 million DKK. As part of the initiative ‘AUFF Flagship’, the project received further funding of 10 million DKK in 2019 from the Aarhus University Research Foundation (AUFF). Researchwise the Caesar’s Forum Project is based at Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), Aarhus University. UrbNet is funded as a Centre of Excellence by the Danish National Research Foundation.

Links

• The podcast series (in Danish) can be found through AUFF’s webpage here
• The project webpage: The Caesar’s Forum Project
• Furthermore, see the new article in AUFF’s Annual Report: Excavating the Untouched History of Rome