2004 CONSERVATION Gretchen Meyers, Rollins University, Director of Materials Ann Steiner, Franklin and Marshall College, Director of Research Chris White, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Head Conservator Esther H. Chao, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Conservator Bridget Marx, Southern Methodist University, Senior Curator Sue Bird, Illustrator Lilly Albritton, SMU, Lab Assistant Week 5 - Gretchen Meyers: This week our lab has benefited a great deal from the assistance of students. Again, the efforts of our student assistant, Lilly Albritton, have resulted in the completion of a monumental task--our inventory of boxes of non-catalogued finds and ceramic bags from the 2000-2003 excavation seasons. This inventory has allowed us to better organize all of our material, including our new finds, and to understand the important information that we have gathered over the years of excavation. Thanks to Lily's time and patience all ceramic bags and non-catalogued finds in our storage facility are now entered into a searchable database. Lab Assistant Lilly Albritton. A similar project that looks at our material from earlier excavation seasons is the tile reassessment project. This effort is concentrated on inventorying and re-evaluating the value of tile fragments preserved in the early years of the excavation. Student assistants, under my supervision, have been considering tile saved from our earliest trenches. This process of re-looking at tile from the past, has resulted in important information, including the discovering of important rare tile pieces that may elucidate the structure of our roof. Sanda Heinz and Director of Materials Gretchen Meyers assessing roof tile. Other students have been working on the cleaning and preserving of bucchero fragments from PC 20. Because of their efforts several new stamped and incised bucchero fragments have been found. These pieces have aided us in reconstructing several full profiles of bucchero vessels, in particular a bucchero chalice, a wing-handled cup and a large bowl. In addition, students and lab staff, have been working at organizing and studying the bucchero sherds from PC 20. As we have become more familiar with the texture and designs of the different fabrics, we have been able to make a number of joins and associations. Liz Bair assists Head Conservator in cleaning bucchero from Trench PC 20. Students working in the lab also include the students from Franklin and Marshall College, who rotate into the lab each work day. Their project, supervised by Ann Steiner, is coming along, as they continue to refine their typology of fineware from the midden of Podere Funghi. We eagerly look forward to their results! Kamissa Mort and Ann Steiner look for joins in ceramic finds. Our tireless lab staff, including myself and the conservators, Chris and Esther, continue to process the numerous finds uncovered in our six trenches. Chris and Esther have been working on cleaning and conserving a number of full profiles and nearly intact vessels, including a very interesting "cereal" bowl from PC 26 which Ann Steiner has suggested is perhaps a local version of a common black glaze shape, a bucchero chalice with two different stamped decorations and a nearly complete fineware vessel from PC 20. In addition we have many other interesting finds already catalogued from this season-at this point nearly 105 new catalogued pieces! Conservator Esther Chao conserving bucchero finds.   Field Supervisor Ivo van der Graaff bagging one of many bucchero finds from PC 20.   Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 - Final Report   Director, Gregory Warden gwarden@mail.smu.edu Director, Michael Thomas michael.thomas@tufts.edu While the team is in Italy during the summer field season, send e-mail to: mvap3@dada.it To email an individual on the team, put that person's name in the subject heading. Excavation house phone: 055-844-9834, or, when calling from the US: 011-39-55-844-9834. Introduction | 2004 Field Season | Poggio Colla Field School | What’s New | Staff | Students Site History | Directors' Diaries | Student Diaries | Excavation Friends | Facilities | Conservation | Surveys Robert Belanger | Katherine Blanchard | Josh Moran | Caitlin Vacanti | Ivo van der Graaff | Robert Vander Poppen QuickTime VR | Site Set-Up | Dig Daily Life | Excavation Process | Field Manual | Lectures | Season's End Archives | Finds | Research Projects | Publications | Bibliography | Mugello Area | Home