2007 DIRECTORS' DIARIES P. Gregory Warden, Southern Methodist University Michael Thomas, The University of Texas   Directors Greg Warden (left) and Michael Thomas (right).  Opening Report  Final Report Opening Report - Michael Thomas: The drive along the winding road that follows the Arno and then Sieve River into the Mugello Valley has become a yearly ritual of sorts, marking the annual approach to the sleepy town of Vicchio, our home away from home for 7 weeks of the summer. We owe a great deal to the people of Vicchio and the surrounding towns who make our yearly stay a pleasure. This year we have decided to give back to the local communities. Through a partnership with the comunità montana, we will provide an opportunity for local high school students from the area to excavate with us, while learning the basics of archaeological field methods. Along with our group of Italian students, we welcome a great new group of undergraduate and graduate students to Poggio Colla as we begin our 13th season of fieldwork. Please see the page dedicated to this partnership, and return for photos of the students who will participate later in the season: Italian High School Student Project. Fiametta Colosi instructs Italian high school students on field techniques This year's work on the hill will continue to explore the form and function of our monumental building on the Poggio Colla acropolis. Two trenches-PC 30 and 31-will investigate the most promising area for new architecture, the western edge of the plateau. PC 32 will study evidence for activity on the southern edge of the acropolis. We will also reopen and study PC 9, a trench originally excavated in 1997. This year we will also initiate a coring survey which will help map settlement patterns around the acropolis. Students remove tree stumps and open trenches on Poggio Colla We are fortunate to welcome several new additions to the Poggio Colla family. Professor Phil Perkins of Open University has joined our team to study our bucchero. He also will help Jenifer Neils with the student research project, which will focus on the bucchero found on the north side of the acropolis. Phil Perkins and Jenifer Neils discuss a bucchero sherd   Left: Wendy Walker. Right: Martin Perron with Michael Thomas Joining us as a Trench Supervisor is Martin Perron, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Montreal who brings with him extensive excavation experience. Wendy Walker from the Metropolitan Museum of Art will work with us as a conservator. She, along with long time conservator Chris White will oversee the work of our two new Kress conservation interns Allison Lewis and Josiah Wagener. We are very lucky to have a visit by linguist Rex Wallace of UMass, who will lecture to our students about Etruscan inscriptions. Finally, we welcome our new Coring Survey Consultant, Thijs Nales, and GIS Consultant, Jon van Tol, to our staff. Thijs Nales, Jon van Tol, and the Coring Survey team Working with us this season is Stefano Santocchini Gerg, a doctoral candidate studying Etruscan decorations at the University of Bologna. Stefano has excavated at Etruscan and Phoenician sites in Tunisia and Italy (Marzabotta in Tuscany and sites on Sardinia and Ustica). Stefano Santocchini Gerg in PC 30   Fiammetta Calosi and Greg Warden show Vicchio school children and their teachers around Poggio Colla in 2007.   Another Italian important to our project is archaeologist Fiammetta Calosi, who earned her M.A. in Greek Archaeology at the Universita degli Studi di Firenze in 2005. Her thesis on the Asklepieion at Corinth was based on two months of research at the ASCSA in Corinth. Ms. Calosi has worked for six months in the conservation lab at the Chiusi Museum and two weeks in the conservation lab at Corinth. She was part of the Montalcino excavation at Poggio Civitella for 5 years, first as a student and then as staff. In 2004, she participated in the Roman underwater excavation in Punta Ala in Tuscany, and in 2006, she worked on the Oplontis Project. Fiammetta began excavating at Poggio Colla in 2001, and during the 2006 and 2007 field seasons she worked with illustrator Anne Hooton in the lab. This year, Fiammetta is coordinating our partnership with the comunità montana, through the Liceo Scientifico di Borgo San Lorenzo. She presented lectures on archaeology, fieldwork methods, and the history of Poggio Colla to the 15 Italian high school students, and also provided instruction as they worked in the trenches. Please keep up with our progress by following our weekly photo journals and student diaries. I am confident you will witness the evolution of a productive field season. View from the west of Trench PC 31 during Week 4   Visitors gather around Aaron Bartels as he explains Trench PC 32   Ann Steiner, Michael Thomas, and Rob Sternberg with visitors Rosaria Munson (Swarthmore College) and Carolyn Dewald (Bard College)   Greg Warden (right) checks progress in Trench PC 30   Martin Perron, Michael Thomas, and Jess Galloway surveying finds from Trench PC 31 in Week 5   Archaeological Consultant Fiammetta Calosi with school children from Vicchio   Above and below: Fiammetta Calosi teaches Vicchio children to sift for finds   Martin Perron explains finds from his trench to children from Vicchio   Final Report Jess Galloway, Greg Warden, and Ann Steiner: morning meeting   Ann Steiner and Gretchen Meyers (foreground), Daphne and Matt Coonan (background): morning meeting   Robert Vander Poppen, Michael Thomas, and Aaron Bartels discuss the season's discoveries in PC 32   Jess Galloway, Ivo van der Graaff, and Michael Thomas: Final Drawings   Left to right: Luca Fedeli, Mugello Archaeological Inspecto, Dr. Fulvia Lo Schiavo, Superintendent for the Bene Archeologici della Toscana, Director Greg Warden, Kathleen Loyd Lambert, and Aaron Bartels on Poggio Colla   Luigi Guidi, Prof. Maurizio Gualtieri, and Greg Warden, examine pedestals found in 2006   Aaron Bartels, Ivo van der Graaff, Robert Vander Poppen and Greg Warden take final photos   Rob Sternberg and Erin Bradley using magnetic geoprospection. Jess Galloway using survey equipment to collect data for the site plan.   2007 Poggio Colla Site Plan   Michael, Estelle, and Biscuit Thomas with Poggio Colla in the background       Special Page