March 13, 2025 - Paolo Visonà (Spartacus' first battlefield)

Behind the Blue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 13, 2025) – Last summer, University of Kentucky archaeologist Paolo Visonà, Ph.D., an adjunct associate professor in the University of Kentucky’s School of Art and Visual Studies, announced a major archaeological discovery in Calabria, Italy.

Visonà and his team discovered Spartacus’ first battlefield in southern Italy and Roman fortification systems built by Crassus to blockade Spartacus’ army.

Through fieldwalking and geophysical and remote sensing techniques, Visonà’s team followed the Roman lines for more than 1.6 miles in a dense forest and collected numerous fragments of broken weapons. Visonà has conclusively identified some of the weapon fragments as originating in the first century B.C. Visonà’s team also found a complete bronze stud inside the wall at a depth consistent with Roman military equipment.

On this episode of Behind the Blue, Visonà discusses the path to his discovery and what it means for the field of archaeology and the University of Kentucky.

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