2004 TRENCHES PC 19, 22, & 27 Caitlin Vacanti, Field Supervisor Jessica Galeano, Assistant Field Supervisor Week 6: Field Students: Elizabeth Bair Rachael Henry Benjamin Luley Left to right: Liz Bair, Jessica Galeano, Caitlin Vacanti, Rachael Henry, and Ben Luley. Excavation during week six has revealed many findings. At the beginning of the week Liz worked in the southwest corner of PC 27, which probably occupies the same space as the storage rooms in the western loci of PC 19 and 22. While defining a foundation wall extending west, she discovered ancient chisel marks on a rectangular stone. We now think this worked stone may be from the second phase of construction, and reused when they built the Phase Three structure. Interestingly, she also defined what appears to be to be a full mudbrick (of which the wall would have been comprised) in the same locus. We noticed that the mudbrick and stone seemed to be similar in shape and size, so we compared their dimensions. We found that the stone was only about a centimeter longer and wider than the brick, suggesting that the two might have been constructed with definite dimensions in mind. In this locus Rachael also found a rim fragment of a Volterran painted skyphos, which has a black glaze with palmette design painted in red. Just a few days later Liz found another piece of the rim, and we discovered in the conservation lab that the two join! Our resident black glaze expert Ann Steiner was very pleased and anxious to see the two conserved fragments together next season. Caitlin Vacanti watches Liz Bair fill out a find tag for her black glaze rim fragment. We also excavated a feature in PC 27, located toward the north and consisting of a dark grayish soil with large fragments of roof tile and ceramic debris. This area was thick with pottery sherds including pythos rims and black glaze fragments. This suggests the debris was placed here during a later phase of occupation, but we need to excavate further next season in order to determine what this definite patch of debris could be. Ben Luley in Trench PC 27.   View from the south of Trenches PC 19 and 22. Last but certainly not least, we have worked extensively in PC 19 and 22, trying to wrap up excavation here and close them for the time being. While taking out the sixth stratum in PC 22, Ben discovered yet another opening to our fissure, which probably connects to the aperture in PC 23. It looked as though several stones were placed above the fissure as fill while preparing for a level dirt floor during construction of the second phase of the building. We were very excited to remove these stones and see if anything had been placed inside the fissure before it was covered up, however, upon removal we peered in with a flashlight to see only the flat walls of a natural fissure. While dense with votive pits consisting of animal remains above, it now seems we do not have any substantial deposits within the fissure itself. Jess spent much of the week in these trenches as well, and we all owe her a debt of gratitude for completing excavation here this season. Recently discovered opening to the fissure in Trench PC 22. At this point, we only have a couple days of excavation remaining. Most of our time will consist of cleaning up--making sure profiles are straight and removing any dirt that should not cover the floor of the trench. Starting Monday we will draw our final plans and begin to backfill all the dirt. I have had a really fun time with our team and appreciate all the work they have done. It's always difficult to put the dirt back into the trenches we have worked so hard to excavate, but I am confident we collected all the information this area has to yield and that it will greatly contribute to our understanding of the site. At center, wall in PC 22 where it adjoins PC 23 (PC 23 scarp at right)   Rachael Henry and Ben Luley.   Liz Bair inside the "Monkey Wall."   Tiger Woman (Caitlin Vacanti, left) and Amphibian Woman (Jessica Galeano, right).   Jessica Galeano: Amphibian Woman.     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. 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