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When Riley Holets ‘25 arrived at an archeological site high in the mountains of central Italy this summer, there was little to suggest what lay beneath their feet. 

“There were some stones,” she recalls. “You could tell that they had been cut by humans, but there were no visible foundations until we started excavating.” 

That was when the outline of a centuries-old church began to emerge. 

Among the first major discoveries at the Cardito Vecchio site was an apse – the curved section traditionally found at the back of a chapel. As the excavation continued, the team uncovered tombs, fragments of marble flooring, and pieces of painted frescoes that had survived underground for hundreds of years. One fragment even preserved the face of a woman.

 “It was really impactful, to find these very beautiful, intact frescoes that still had these gorgeous patterns — to think they laid in the soil for hundreds of years, only for us to find them now, and being the first eyes to see them after all that time and change above ground,” Holets said. 

For Holets, who graduated from St. Olaf College this past December with a major in German and a concentration in management studies, these discoveries were the latest chapter in an interest that began unexpectedly on the Hill. 

Holets first tried archaeology after taking a course with Professor of History Tim Howe. Howe leads an archaeological excavation in Turkey each summer, and encouraged students from across academic disciplines to apply. 

“I think he might have even said he would prefer non-history majors to apply,” Holets recounts. “Because when you’ve been in that history mindset for so long, you really become accustomed to that way of thinking, but when you have a variety of people from different backgrounds, it creates a really interesting community that can approach things in diverse ways, and provide a variety of insights. Chemistry majors can hypothesize about how soil conditions might affect the material we were uncovering, and we had someone who did blacksmithing work as a hobby, and he was then able to describe how different metalwork was crafted — it was a real benefit to our research to have so many perspectives.”

Holets, who had always maintained an armchair interest in history and cultural exchange, decided to give archaeology a try — however, they approached it purely as a fun experiment, having been told by others that archaeology wasn’t a practical career path. 

That all changed when she experienced a dig firsthand. 

“The moment I actually got on a site, I was a goner,” Holets says with a laugh. “I fell in love with archaeology, and no one could talk me out of it.”

That initial spark of passion has since taken them to numerous archaeological sites abroad, including Turkey, Ireland, and most recently Italy. 

The excavation Holets joined this summer is in the country’s Lazio region near the border with Molise, or about halfway between Rome to the north and Naples to the south. The team is studying Cardito Vecchio, an abandoned medieval settlement.

“The town has been dated to around the 13th century, and was likely a fortress of some sort, based on its placement above other settlements,” Holets explains. “The discovery of the church gave us a better understanding of the scale of the community, as this would have been a population center large enough to justify the building and maintenance of a religious gathering place.” 

The project is still in its earliest stages. Following a smaller test excavation last year, this summer marked its first major excavation season, but the discoveries are already helping researchers better understand the site. 

Fresco fragments found in the church Holets helped excavate — some of which fell in patterns that could potentially be pieced back together — helped researchers date the structure to around the 13th century. The team also uncovered two tombs containing human remains, and a feature that may yet prove to be a crypt. 

Getting to the site of these discoveries was an adventure in itself. 

Each morning, the team drove about an hour to the base of the Apennines mountain range, before switching to a four-wheel-drive vehicle for the rough trip up the slope. When the terrain became too steep to continue driving, they hiked the remaining distance to the 3,380 ft altitude site carrying their equipment and lunches. 

Once there, the remote location offered sweeping vistas, along with rapidly changing and unpredictable weather conditions. 

“The views across the mountains were fantastic, and it was so quiet — the most common sound you heard was the bells of the cows who spend their summers in these sort of alpine pastures – but then there’d just be a big, dark wall of storm clouds that would gather on the peaks, and suddenly you’d have to rush to gather your things and get off the mountain.”

The landscape helped Holets to imagine Cardito Vecchio not simply as a dig site, but as a once flourishing community. The site director Michele Raddi, associate professor of archaeology at the University of Udayana di Bali, pointed out medieval towns nestled in the surrounding valleys that remain inhabited today. They offered a glimpse of what the probable fortress village might have looked like had its people never left. 

“In some respects, Cardito Vecchio only differs from those settlements because people stopped living there,” Holets says. “We don’t know why or when people moved to the other nearby settlements, or larger communities like Cardito or Vallerotonda — it’s a puzzle we’re still working on.”

Despite not being an inhabited community for centuries, the site still has traces of much more recent history. During World War II, the area sat along the Gustav Line, a major German defensive position during the Allied campaign through Italy. The excavation team encountered shrapnel from the conflict, though fortunately no unexploded ordnance. 

Working at a site carved by centuries of human activity — from medieval settlement to WWII battlefield — reinforced for Holets just how many layers there can be to understanding a space. It’s a lesson that echoes one of the most important things they took from their St. Olaf education: learning to approach people, places, and problems from multiple perspectives. 

Holets says that her St. Olaf education prepared her for the excavation less through any single course than through the breadth of experiences she encountered across disciplines. German courses required them to examine history and culture while simultaneously developing their understanding of another language. History courses encouraged them to challenge assumptions and consider different interpretations. Management courses offered another message: people don’t all approach problems in the same way. 

“The diversity of classes, the ability to consistently face different ways of thinking, is probably what helped the most,” Holets says. “There are multiple ways to do something, and it’s not just about doing one thing right the first time — it’s about learning that there are 10 different ways you can do one thing right.”

That flexibility proved especially important in Italy. Holets has previously participated in more structured and controlled excavations, and initially found it a challenge to adapt to a different working style and the logistical realities of conducting research on a remote mountain site. 

“It was very hard for me to get used to an Italian mindset,” Holets confesses. “Growing up in the U.S., I think we have very rigid expectations when it comes to work, in terms of timeliness and perceived effort, and that was carried into both of my previous digs. That is not what I encountered on this excavation. In Italy, I think the work culture is much more relaxed, and perhaps more interested in balance and versatility, and we were just in a more remote region, so we had less direct access to support in the event we didn’t have the proper equipment or research material.” 

By the end of the experience, however, Holets says she had become more comfortable adapting when things don’t go according to plan. 

“I think I came out of it more independent, and I’m much more adaptable to change because of it,” they say. “Like, if something goes weird or wonky now, I’m much more inclined to say ‘Okay, I can handle this, let’s troubleshoot.’ It’s not the end of the world, and it won’t ruin my day anymore.”

Throughout their growing involvement in archaeology, Holets has continued turning to mentors at St. Olaf. Howe remains a key advisor in their archaeological work, and they regularly update him on their experiences and discoveries. Professor of German Amanda Randall has also provided support as Holets has explored what’s next. 

This fall, they will teach English at the Martin Luther Schule in Rimbach, Germany, through the Martin Luther Schule Teacher Award program hosted by the St. Olaf German department. Holets hopes working with students ages 13 to 15 will help them better understand what captures young people’s attention — knowledge they ultimately hope to bring back to archeology, to make history compelling for a new generation. 

“I really want to see through being a teacher what is most engaging for students, and especially for this generation – how do we package history in a way that’s compelling for kids that are so accustomed to instant gratification from the newest thing,” Holets says. “Hopefully, that will help me translate my archaeological work into engaging exhibits in museums or documentaries.”  

For Holets, archaeology is ultimately about more than uncovering objects from the distant past. It’s a way to tangibly encounter people and communities whose lives and circumstances differed dramatically from ours today, and explore an entirely novel context.

“What makes archaeology important to me is that the communities of the past offer a whole new perspective to learn about and from. You can’t put your modern-day expectations on them, because they are living in an entirely different world from you – they have different values, different understandings, and different circumstances. I think studying history offers you a unique opportunity to practice empathy for those unlike yourself, in a way that can then be extended to other facets of time, place, and culture,” Holets says. “At the same time, you can see the way in which the local contemporary community connects to the work and the legacy you are uncovering — it is their history, their ancestors, their heritage, and they feel deeply connected to it. I think archaeology is all about connections.”