Norman Sicily Project<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 an ongoing digital archival compilation of Sicilian monuments begun by Hayes and her husband, Joe, who is a software engineer in the private sector.<\/p>\nWhile he will serve as the new project\u2019s chief technical architect, the University\u2019s acting Earth and Environmental Studies Chair Greg Pope is the project\u2019s co-director.<\/p>\n
The one-year grant supports a pilot phase that will produce an online prototype that documents the 147 monasteries known to have been built between 1061 and 1194.\u00a0 The team will provide historical and site-specific data for all of the monasteries, as well as photographic and video documentation and relevant genealogical data for the 52 surviving structures.<\/p>\n
For historian Hayes, the project has special significance. \u201cIt\u2019s important because it calls attention to a special society that was culturally rich \u2013 one where Christians, Muslims and Jews lived side-by-side in relative harmony and where a fascinating cultural fusion occurred over a century or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Hayes, while the project is rooted in medieval history, it also draws on 21st-Century STEM disciplines. \u201cThe Norman Sicily Project represents a society from almost a millennium ago via cutting-edge technologies that will be connected to other data sets on the web,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
It also has a sustainability component that will be guided by Pope. \u201cWe\u2019ll enter information from field visits, seismic data and, whenever possible, results from on-site sustainability assessments of the conditions of the monuments\u2019 stones and the greatest environmental threats to their survival,\u201d Hayes explains.<\/p>\n
Hayes looks forward to beginning work on the project in September. \u201cWe\u2019re not just exploring these monuments as relics of a past age; we\u2019re also assessing their ability to endure climactic, geologic, seismic and \u2013 in some cases \u2013 volcanic threats.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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