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2008 TRENCH PC 36
Field Director & Supervisor: Robert Vander Poppen, Rollins
College
Field Supervisor: Jessica Galeano, B.A., Franklin & Marshall
College
Field Director and PC36
Supervisor Robert Vander Poppen
Opening
Report:
Students: Matt Elverson,
Alexandra Feldman, Jessica Franceschini,
Leu-Jiun Ten, JoAnna Walton, and Jennifer Whinney.
This year we have decided
to open PC36 to explore the eastern end of the courtyard building
present in the 3rd and early 2nd centuries B.C. atop Poggio Colla.
We are excited about this trench for a number of reasons. First
of all, the trench will provide much needed knowledge about the
activities that took place at this end of the courtyard and allow
us to determine whether the same types of activities took place
throughout the whole courtyard, or if there was a spatial patterning
of activity with the western end of the courtyard serving a different
function than the eastern. The trench is also important because
it will allow us to ascertain whether the ritual deposit located
to the west of our monumental altar actually extended farther
to the east. Perhaps most importantly, this season in all of
the trenches we are focusing on working out the sequence of events
that surrounded the final destruction of the last phase of the
building in detail.
So far the students have
all been learning excavation technique (mastering the art of
troweling and working with a hand pick axe) as well as beginning
to recognize artifacts. We have also been working on learning
to take absolute levels and drawing finds and archaeological
plans. So far all of the students have shown a great degree of
talent and the season looks to be a promising one in PC36.
Students
excavating in Trench PC 36 during Week 2
Midseason
Report
Assistant Field Supervisor Crystal Rosenthal and Field Supervisor
Jessica Galeano
Welcome to PC 36 and
week five of excavation at Poggio Colla! My name is Jessica Galeano
and I have continued supervising excavation of this trench in
the absence of Robert Vander Poppen. I was previously working
on the paleoethnobotanical research for the first half of the
season with Lynn Makowsky. I just joined the trench last Tuesday,
July 15th, and a lot has happened since then. First and foremost,
I have a wonderful team of undergraduate students (Jessica Franceschini,
Matt Elverson, and Alex Feldman) and graduate students (Jen Whinney,
JoAnna Walton, and Leu-Jiun Ten). Plus, I have had the pleasure
of working with two great assistants: Megan Burns in week four
and Crystal Rosenthal week five.
PC 36 Trench Team: Jess, Jessica, Matt, Leu-Jiun, Joanna, Megan,
and Jen
So here's what's been
happening in PC 36. When I came last week we began removing the
third layer of soil (Robert Vander Poppen excavated the first
layer which was topsoil and the second layer which was the post-destruction
of the site). This was quite exciting as we had a dark black
stain in the southwest corner of the trench, which we soon found
out was a fire pit. The dark charcoal of the fire pit could clearly
be seen in the vertical wall of the trench. This means that this
is the first point we have encountered Etruscan activity in our
trench! While it is the first time we see Etruscan activity in
our trench, archaeology happens in reverse, meaning the first
layers we excavate are the last layers of activity on our site.
Therefore, this fire pit dates to the last phase of habitation
in our trench at Poggio Colla. We also found lots of pottery
and tile in this layer. Below this in the fourth layer we found
a lot of burned tile that was part of another destruction layer
from an earlier time. The intense heat is indicated by burnt
tile, a reddish layer of soil from the building walls that collapsed,
and even burnt rock. We have had a lot of metal finds in this
layer that also show evidence of extreme heat. We have found
numerous bronze and iron lumps, two iron nails, and some well
preserved pieces of pottery vessels. Our goal is to complete
at least this level throughout the excavated portions of the
trench. As part of this we will be removing the large tiles that
fell during the earlier destructive event in the fourth layer.
View from the south of Trench PC 36 during Week 4
Detail of tile fall (view from north)
I am excited for the
removal of the tile to occur and to see what information we can
glean from this layer and the rest of the trench. With only three
days of excavation left we have a lot to do. Stay tuned for the
final update!
PC 36 team triangulating points in the tile fall
 
Left: Matt Elverson studies a find. Right: Leu-Jiun Ten sweeps
the trench prior to photos
Matt Elverson and Alex Feldman sweeping the trench for photos
Jess Galeano, Leu-Jiun Tem, and JoAnna Walton triangulate points
Crystal Rosenthal writing narrative in the field notebook for
PC 36
Final
Report
Director Michael Thomas and Field Supervisor Jess Galeano
I can't believe how quickly
the season has gone and that we have just completed week six.
I have had such a great experience working with Crystal and the
students in PC 36! Everyone has improved tremendously throughout
the season. Leu-Jiun is very meticulous and has an eye for detail.
JoAnna has a great eye and is very good at following changes
in stratigraphy. Matt (Iron Man) is the fastest double-broom
sweeper and can excavate a locus in record time. Alex also has
a great eye for detail and is fantastic at making a level pass.
Jessica is our scarping genius who can also move dirt quickly
and is the site's best trench dancer. Jen is the trench MVP;
she can move dirt quickly, scarp, find and follow stratigraphy,
and perform excellent detail work. Crystal has been so amazing
the past two weeks that I have viewed her not as an assistant,
but as a co-supervisor. I am grateful to all of the students
and Crystal for their hard work and dedication to PC 36. Additionally,
they have made our work in and out of the trench a joy and have
been a lot of fun!
Since the mid-point of
the season we have had some interesting discoveries. For starters,
PC 36 does not have any architecture since we are located in
the interior courtyard of the site. Since we do not have any
walls, it makes out trench difficult to date. Therefore, we have
relied heavily on the stratigraphy in our trench to guide our
interpretations of how the site was used over time and neighboring
trenches previously excavated. While we often joked that we had
a box for a trench, or a dig in a box due to the lack of architecture,
we gleaned a lot of information from our depositional events,
or strata, alone. Reading each of the strata, we have been able
to piece together the history of our trench more thoroughly from
the middle of the season.
Like all of the other
trenches, our first stratum consisted of the modern humus, or
dead leaves and organic matter, which accumulated over time.
Our second stratum also correlates to the rest of the site, as
it is the post-destruction layer, all of the sediment that was
deposited since the site was last abandoned. Currently, we are
not sure how this stratum formed, as multiple events could have
produced it over time. Probable theories include decay of the
mud brick building on the site and sands brought in from strong
winds. We had an interesting stratum three, which has evidence
for a potential fourth phase of habitation at Poggio Colla. An
ancient fire pit was found cut into stratum three and a coin
was found next to the fire pit. This marks the last time ancient
activity occurred on Poggio Colla in our trench. We are not sure
when this fire pit was created, but we are certain it was after
the Phase III destruction. We know this is the Phase III destruction
since there is a wall slightly north of our trench running from
east to west in PC 15 that is composed of Phase III architecture.
Since the tile and the wall are at the same level, we can attribute
them to the same phase. Stratum four consisted of intense burning
and a lot of tile and rubble from the Phase III building's roof
collapse and destruction.
The tile pile provided
the most evidence for the destructive event of the Phase III
building in our trench and helped us to describe the other phases
as well. The soil around the tile was stained reddish due to
the burnt and decaying mud brick. We believe a fire occurred,
thus compromising the integrity of the Phase III building. As
the fire burned the walls of the building, the mud brick began
melting and spreading onto the surrounding soil. The fire must
have reached extreme temperatures, which is evidenced by the
tile. Once the wall became too unstable to support the roof,
the tile slid off of the roof into a pile. The pieces that fell
first landed on the bottom and received the most heat energy
from the fire. These pieces of tile became vitrified - meaning
the heat from the fire was so strong that it caused the tile
to expand and turn gray. Tiles that fell on top of the vitrified
tiles were burned, but not vitrified. Tile falling on top of
the burnt tiles were relatively unharmed from heat, albeit broken
from the fall. The tile fall was not constant throughout the
north end of the trench, which may be attributed to the theory
that after the destruction of Poggio Colla by the Romans, the
defeated Etruscans came back to take any usable tiles not damaged
by the heat to reuse on a new building located somewhere else
in the valley. The destructive event was so intense it masked
the habitation level of Phase III. Only two small patches of
the Phase III habitation level were found below the destruction,
one located below the tile pile, and the other along the middle
of the west scarp.
Stratum five was full
of sandstone and did not have many artifacts in it. This appeared
to be a fill created to level off the site for the Phase III
floor level after the destruction of the Phase II building. A
bronze pit was found in the southwest of our trench cut into
stratum five. Perhaps, this was left as an offering after the
Phase II destruction and in preparation for the Phase III building.
Due to time restrictions, we were not able to excavate the bronze
pit this season, much to the dismay of my students. Additionally,
we were only able to excavate stratum five in the northeast portion
of the trench. Below this, we were able to expose, but not excavate
stratum six which may be the floor level for the Phase II building.
The stratigraphy in our
trench has proven insightful and has helped to reconstruct the
events on Poggio Colla. I'm hopeful that PC 36 will be reopened
in the future in order to excavate the bronze pit and excavate
the entire trench to bedrock in order to receive a comprehensive
look at all of the phases of habitation in this area. Again I
would like to thank my trench for such a wonderful season and
wish them the best in the future!
Leu-Jiun Ten in Trench PC 33
Alex Feldman and Jessica Franceschini complete a pass in PC 36
View from the south of Trench PC 36 at the end of the 2008 field
season
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