2004 TRENCH PC 20 Ivo van der Graaff, Field Supervisor Sarah Titus, Assistant Field Supervisor Week 6: Field Students: Nicole (CoCo) Berastequi Jeff Edwards Lindsey Lindley Left to right: Ivo van der Graaff, Sarah Titus stand-in Brad Schneider, Jeff Edwards, Nicole Berastequi, and Lindsey Lindley.   Assistant Field Supervisor Sarah Titus. This week has sadly seen the departure of my assistant Sarah back to America in order to attend a wedding. In response to the help we desperately needed Bradley Schneider joined us from the FOD, as the trench run by my colleague Base was completed early and therefore needed less manpower to complete the remaining details associated with its closure. Ivo van der Graaff and Brad Schneider standing in for Sarah Titus. In Locus 3 we had reached bedrock and after we had drawn the scarp in we proceeded to move east into Locus Six in order to get a head start on the excavation we intend to carry out in the same section next season. We cleared the top accumulation layers in a matter of days and before we knew it we were back into the destruction layer associated with the earliest phases of our site. A first pass into this stratum soon revealed an interesting discovery, namely, another Phase One block directly in line with the others already discovered in Locus Three. In order to keep up with the traditions of the site, its excavator Nicole amicably baptized the block, Saint Clifford. The block indeed caused much excitement and I look forward to exploring it more as we continue our excavation of the locus. Phase I block in Locus 6 of Trench PC 20. A second pass through the area which we started today revealed even more good news as our newest member Bradley immediately discovered an iron spearhead in the pass. It is the first of its kind ever found on the site. Even though it survived in a badly corroded state, the fact that it was discovered in the displaced debris layer surely will give us new insights to the events which took place surrounding the destruction of the first phase of the site. Bradley Schneider and his iron spearhead.   Ivo van der Graaff supervising work in his trench. Other work in the trench has focused primarily in Locus Four in between the two walls. The confusing stratigraphical matrix we encountered here only gave way to our understanding early this week. As often occurs in archaeology, it is only when we reach the deeper layers of the stratigraphy that we truly can get a grasp of what is occurring above. In any case our assumption that the debris accumulation layer continued throughout the locus proved wrong as the so-called 'black layer' petered out on top of what we now call Stratum Six. It in fact seems that the latter was dug into the former to create a sort of foundation trench for the construction of our southern wall, with the black layer being dumped into it, again functioning as a fill; however, it is still to early to ascertain that assumption with complete certainty and further excavation will be needed to confirm this theory. An area in Locus 4 in PC 20 turning up interesting ceramic finds. In the meantime after a brief respite offered by the excavation of the relatively 'empty' accumulation layers, the trench has again started to turn out large amounts of interesting finds. The hard work therefore continues well into these last phases of the excavation at full speed. The routine acquired by the crew however seems to compensate the renewed increase in pace making me confident that the end of the season will proceed without a hitch. View of Trench PC 20 from the northwest. Conserved bucchero finds from Trench PC 20.   PC 20 stone carved with channel.   Left: Lindsey Lindley holds the prism pole to survey points of finds in PC 20. Right: Nicole Berastequi excavating in the northern locus of PC 20.   Jeff Edwards shows two fragments of a ceramic vessel he found in Trench PC 20.   Nicole Berastequi examines a sherd she found in PC 20.   Left to right: Ivo van der Graaff, Sarah Titus stand-in Brad Schneider, Jeff Edwards, Nicole Berastequi, and Lindsey Lindley.   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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