2002 TRENCH PC 23 Robert Vander Poppen, Field Supervisor Josh Moran, Assistant Supervisor Week 7: Robert Vander Poppen drawing profiles for his field notebook. Field School Participants: Tamee Bollinger Michael Glover Lynn Makowsky Sarah Titus Elizabeth Wallace Trench PC 23 exists no more. The final shovel fulls of backfill were reinserted into the ground yesterday afternoon, and now we must spend the next ten months making sense of what was accomplished this season. This year's excavations in PC 23 have helped to begin to move us in a more concrete way toward defining the nature of the building, and the pattern of activity that took place on top of Poggio Colla almost 2500 years ago. At the present moment the trench stands as the largest section of excavated terrain within the inside of the 2nd and 3rd phase foundations, and as such is in a unique position for providing information on the use of the building. PC 23 has been successful in revealing some of the facts associated with this activity. Robert Vander Poppen directs the backfilling of Trench PC 23. Students and staff shovel dirt into buckets and wheelbarrows for the trip from sifter pile to trench. This season we uncovered our first definitive evidence of the Phase 3 floor level beneath our mud brick collapse in Locus 4. This discovery has answered one of the primary questions we had upon entering the season: whether the mud brick feature represented the collapse of a wall, or packing for a floor. The severely burnt patches of dirt in conjunction with the vessels smashed by the mud brick confirm that the spill is indeed wall fall. In addition, we have also uncovered possible evidence of an earlier Phase 2 floor level in the form of a red stain from decomposing mud brick that occurs between Strata 3 and 4. Now with evidence of these two levels of occupation, it is finally possible to begin to associate the other features within the building to specific phases of use. View of Trench PC 23 from the east at the end of the 2002 field season. Locus 4 is in the upper left corner. One of the other questions of the season concerned the function and date of the large blocks in the southeast corner of the trench. It is now clear that the blocks are a Phase 2 feature, which was reused in Phase 3 as part of the floor. However, it is also clear that the activity taking place near the blocks, and forming the deposit of dark soil around them had ceased by the time of the installation of the Phase 3 floor. The function of the blocks is much harder to ascertain than their chronology. Several possibilities for their purpose still exist. A number of large terracotta pieces decorated with plaster were discovered nearby, indicating that the blocks may have been used as a decorated statue base or altar. Another possibility has also been suggested by Patricia Lulof of the University of Amsterdam. She believes that the blocks represent a support for a post that would have aided in bearing the weight of the central ridge beam of the roof. Michael Thomas has also suggested that the blocks may represent the foundations for the corner of a smaller building which would have faced north. Both of these suggestions will only be confirmed or refuted by the further excavation of the remainder of the interior of the building on the hill of Poggio Colla. Large blocks resting on bedrock in Trench PC 23. We also discovered and excavated yet another unexpected feature within Trench PC 23 in the past week. To the north of the large blocks, we discovered a large circular patch of red stained earth. After excavating the north half of the feature in order to examine its internal stratigraphy, it is clear that the feature is an ancient fire pit. I believe it to fit into a period of chronological disuse of the site in the gap between the destruction of Phase 2 and the construction of Phase 3. The pit was incorporated into the packing for the Phase 3 floor and was covered by the Phase 3 floor level. Thus the feature was created during the period contemporary to, or possibly after the use of the Phase 2 building. The one find from within the pit, a broken bucchero rocchetto would seem to argue for an early date for the pit. Luckily the pit contained a number of large pieces of carbon that can be analyzed in order to work out a range of dates for the feature. A well-camouflaged Lynn Makowsky sweeping near the fire pit in PC 23.   Feature 6, the fire pit, in the east end of Trench PC 23. The final mystery we hoped to solve this season concerned the episode of robbery of the site by clandestini in the spring of 2001. Last year Gretchen Meyers, then excavator of PC 23, suggested that the clandestini had disturbed an ancient pit with their own modern one. After another season of exploration it is certain that her conclusion was correct. A pit was installed in the ancient period, most likely before the insertion of the Phase 3 floor, containing a densely included soil. The pit contained fragments of metalworking byproduct such as casting runners, lumps, and partial sheets. Now, having excavated the majority of the ancient pit, it is possible to make some educated guesses about what the clandestini removed from Poggio Colla. It is most likely that they removed a number of the typical finds from the area: lumps, sheets, and runners, possibly in order to use the ancient metal for recasting into counterfeit ancient art objects. Having gained all of the information about the ancient pit disturbed by the looters, we can finally take a sigh of relief due to the fact that we were able to recover at least a majority of the information destroyed by the looter's pit. View of Trench PC 23 from the south at the end of the 2002 field season. The clandestini pit was in the lower left locus in this photograph. PC 23 has been a highly successful trench due to the fact that for the first time we are able to piece together the more extensively excavated exterior portion of the building with the stratigraphy of the interior. Unfortunately, weather and time did not allow for the completion of the trench and it will be opened again next year for further exploration and to again reevaluate the conclusions reached by this year's excavation. Crew of Trench PC 23 making final passes before the close of the season. Left to right: Susan McIntyre, Mike Glover, Lynn Makowsky, Josh Moran, Sarah Titus, and Tamee Bollinger.   Liz Wallace and Mike Glover completing the season's excavation of PC 23.   Tamee Bollinger, Sarah Titus, and Liz Wallaced cleaning PC 24 for final photos.   Liz Wallace drawing scarps and plans in her notebook.   Lynn Makowsky measures strata in scarp for Joshua Moran's final drawings.   Assistant Field Supervisor Joshua Moran drawing profiles for the field notebook.   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, enter the person's last name in the subject heading. Excavation house phone: 055-844-9834, or, when calling from the US: 011-39-55-844-9834. 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