Rebecca Agius

Current position

Senior Archaeologist and Heritage Specialist at Curio Projects and Assistant Archaeological Director for field school programs with Monash University.

Where did you study?

Macquarie University - a Bachelor of Archaeology majoring in Biology.

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school and considered a wide variety of interests such as becoming a professional dancer or even veterinary science. I always loved watching history and nature documentaries and particularly loved both ancient history and biology at school. I eventually decided that combining my interests in history and science and studied a degree that combined both!

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

I work both commercially in Sydney and overseas in Italy.

In Sydney there are just too many projects to choose from! But I enjoy working both in Aboriginal and historical archaeology equally.

In Italy I work in conjunction with an Italian archaeological team called Astra Onlus to teach archaeology students from Monash University excavation methodologies. Every year we excavate at a Roman city called Carsulae (almost the size of Pompeii!) in the mountains of Central Italy.

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries

I really love that the definition of an interesting discovery can mean different things to each individual. One of my favourite discoveries has been of the remains of several children and adults from the Medieval period found in the walls of a Roman judicial building from when the city was repurposed after its abandonment.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology

Oh there are too many to tell! But I think the most disastrous was excavating during a period of night works for a project, and after spending all night cleaning, a sewer pipe nearby burst and spread sewerage all over our clean site just as the surveyor arrived to document the area. The smell and the devastation still haunts me...

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

I love that being an archaeologist is not your typical occupation. One of my favourite things is telling people I am an archaeologist, and seeing the look of surprise on their face.

I love how multidisciplinary and how diverse the field is and that it can take you into so many different directions that you didn't think were possible or even related to archaeology.

Follow up reading

It's in Italian, but you can see the amazing Carsulae site here - https://carsulae.site/

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn :) https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-agius-293694164/