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2007 TRENCH PC 30
Field Supervisor: Ivo van der Graaff, The University of Texas
at Austin
Field Supervisor Ivo van
der Graaff
Opening
Report:
Trench PC 30 is one
of three new trenches on our site this season. Located on the
western portion of the hilltop, it has been placed here to answer
specific questions regarding the last phase of habitation on
Poggio Colla. After many seasons of excavation a suspicion has
grown that this area seems to be the most eligible to harbor
the remains of an Etruscan temple. This idea is invigorated by
the rich votive deposits of gold, silver coins, statue bases
and bronze which have all been found in this portion of the hill.
Furthermore, the hill's topography suggests that the spatial
area and terrain here are the most suitable to accommodate such
a structure. My aim for this season, therefore, is to investigate
what kind of archaeological remains are present in this unit
and how they fit into the larger picture of the site.
The trench itself was
covered by many large trees when we arrived this year, giving
us some very hard clearing work to do before we could start excavating.
As this is a new trench, we have spent the past few weeks clearing
the top layers of soil which have accumulated on the area since
it was abandoned in antiquity. As week three begins, we have
reached the layers of archaeological significance and the first
architectural remains are starting to be uncovered. Curiously,
the northern portion of the trench has already revealed a pit
in the form of a dark brown round stain in the soil. This feature
may be the remains of an ancient hearth or could hold far more
exciting finds, considering where we are digging this year and
the finds mentioned previously.
We have also uncovered
the foundations of an ancient wall in the southern portion of
the trench. This structure seems to be the continuation of a
wall lining the large open-air courtyard found in the middle
of the site. The adjacent trenches, PC 31 and PC 22, have revealed
two walls running perpendicular to ours, suggesting that we are
probably digging inside a room. The artifacts uncovered in PC
22, particularly a crushed storage jar with burnt seeds in it,
point to this room being a storage area. However, PC 22 also
held a votive deposit of 100 silver roman coins and this in turn
indicates that this room may have been part of a religious structure.
Throughout Etruria in fact, many cases have been documented where
the spaces in front of temples also functioned as storage areas
for essential products such as grain. Now that the season has
entered into full swing and the students have adapted to the
steep learning curve related to the first few weeks of excavation,
I am confident that we will reach our goals of understanding
this section of the hill by the end of the field season.
View from
the east of PC 30 in Week 3
Marlene
Gray in PC 30
Jack Carlson in PC 30
Betsy Mahoney in PC 30
Stefano Santocchini Gerg in PC 30
Rachel Dorfman in PC 30
Italian high school student Simone Poggi in PC 30
Team working in Trench PC 30 during Week 4
Wall along the south side of Trench PC 30
Stefano Santocchini Gerg excavating the wall on the west side
of PC 30
Ivo van der Graaff enters data in his field notebook
Stefano Santocchini Gerg in PC 30 during Week 4
Hilary Serra takes a pass in Trench PC 30
Italian high school student Alice Bettini in Trench PC 30
Tracey Drayer in PC 30
At left, site from which a wood feature was removed from PC 30
Andrea Summers working in the north locus of PC 30
Week 5: Lucy Van Essen-Fishman and Olivia Ybarra in PC 30
Lucy Van Essen-Fishman taking a pass in Trench PC 30
Italian high school student Julia Di Pise in Trench PC 30
Olivia Ybarra excavating on the south side of a wall in PC 30
Final
Report
We started off the season
this year with one of three new trenches on top of the hill.
As we went down and cleared the strata related to the abandonment
of the site in antiquity we started to encounter some substantial
architectural remains. At first we came down upon two walls running,
roughly, east-west and north-south. We also came upon an ancient
fire pit which, judging from its stratigraphic relation to the
uncovered architectural remains, had clearly been dug into a
floor level. This level had been covered by what appeared to
be a roof tile fall, which further confirmed the hypothesis of
us having come upon an ancient floor level.
Students working in Trench
PC 30 at the end of Week 4
As we proceeded with
the excavation of the trench, we started coming upon a fill layer
which had been thrown into the area to create a level surface
for the architecture and floor mentioned above. This fill partially
covered a layer of burnt mud brick which seems to have been deposited
in the trench during a collapse. Mud brick was a basic construction
material in the ancient world that consisted of mud being pressed
into regular brick shapes which were then left to dry in the
sun. Generally, these bricks decay rapidly over time and not
much of them survives over the ages. In the event of a heavy
fire, however, mud brick can be fired on the spot and be conserved
over a period of many centuries. This seems to have been the
case in my trench and once we were through this layer we came
across the floor level of an earlier phase that had been buried
underneath it.
The team working with Ivo van der Graaff in PC 30 during Week
6
On the basis of results
produced by other trenches in the past, we had always assumed
this mud brick collapse to be the representation of the last
phase (Phase III) of activity on our site. However the fact that
the two walls mentioned above were built on top of this mud brick
has forced us to reconsider the chronology of the site. We are
therefore either dealing with a fourth phase in the trench, or
the floor level beneath the mud brick represents our Phase II
occupation level. As we were digging through this stratum we
also uncovered two further foundation walls which probably supported
the structure related to this floor prior to its collapse. The
floor level itself held a few surprises for us in the form a
completely crushed vessel in situ and two beautifully preserved
iron axe heads.
The results we have achieved
have seem to significantly alter many aspects of the site's chronology.
They are also the result of the hard work of all the students,
whom I would like to thank for their positive attitude and high
sense of team spirit throughout the season.
View from the east of Trench PC 30 during Week 5
Axe head found in Trench PC 30 being cleaned in conservation
Mat Ferron and Ivo Vander Graaff digging in PC 30 in Week 6
Emma Johnson, Mat Ferron, Marlene Gray, and Jennifer Staggs
Marlene Gray in Trench PC 30
Emma Johnson and Jennifer Staggs dig along a wall in PC 30 in
Week 6
Megan Burns measures and Ivo van der Graaff draws scarps in PC
30
Ivo van der Graaff drawing scarps in PC 30
Jess Galloway's drawing underway of walls in PC 30: hand drawing
over AutoCad plan
2007: Trench PC 30 viewed from the west at season's end
2007: Trench PC 30 viewed from the south at season's end
Ivo van der Graaff and Jess Galloway
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