2004 TRENCHES PC 23 & 25 Robert Vander Poppen, Field Supervisor Martha Reichert, Assistant Field Supervisor Week 6: Field Students: Victoria Mead Sarah McCrory Jonathan Mort Olivia Spradlin Standing, left to right : Jon Mort, Sarah McCrory, Robert Vander Poppen, and Martha Reichert. Seated, left to right: Victoria Mead and Olivia Spradlin. This week many of the loose ends from past seasons have begun to come together. Much of our work has concentrated away from the Eastern two loci of PC 23 due to the fact that this portion of the trench will be open again next year. As a result we have focused our excavation in loci 1-4 of the trench (the western loci). We have also begun to work on cleaning up the north and south scarps in preparation for our drawing at the end of the week. We have discovered that Jon Mort, with his abilities as a sculptor, is an excellent scarper. He has the knack of creating a perfect vertical profile at the trench edge, while leaving all of the bits of ceramic and tile sticking out of the wall. While working on this delicate project Jon uncovered a number of beautiful fineware ceramics. Left: Jon Mort works on scarp in PC 23. Right: Victoria Mead. In Locus 2 we have brought the level of the trench down to the top of our 7th stratum, a soil that we believe to be sterile. We will take one more pass in this area in order to confirm our suspicions about that belief. On the opposite side of the wall we believe that we have identical stratigraphy at all levels. After Olivia and Marty have taken passes this week it appears that the situation within our possible structure does indeed match that of the soil outside. This would suggest that our structure is indeed not an actual building, but more a packing of rubble. Since we are not completely convinced about this fact, we will leave in the rubble until next season before pulling it out. Olivia Spradlin taking a pass within the "possible structure" in Trench PC 23. To the south of this area in Locus 3 we have begun to encounter large pieces of bedrock coupled with the remains of a large pit which seems to be composed of a mixture of materials deposited on top of Poggio Colla over the course of almost 400 years. Anthony Tuck, the director of the Etruscan excavation at Poggio Civitate, has dated one sherd of bucchero pottery with a herring bone pattern to 675-650 B.C. This is amazing since we have black glaze pottery from the same context that dates our context to as late as 250 BC. Thus, material from all over the hill was gathered up before the construction of the Phase III building and deposited in a pit in front of the stones we believe to be an altar located in PC 23. View of Trench PC 23 from the southeast. In the two western loci a number of other interesting things are going on. We have now removed the rubble packing associated with the large outcroppings of bedrock and discovered that the packing is man made. That is, it served as a preparation course for the floor of our Phase I occupation level. Once we had removed the packing we discovered a number of pot sherds that will hopefully be able to provide a date for the construction of our Phase I structure. In the same area, we removed a large molded block from the Phase I building and deposited it in the maggazino for further study. Once we had removed the incredibly heavy block it became possible to work in the area of the fissure. Here Marty worked to remove a number of significant finds. She recovered a Phase I mudbrick and a pan tile of similar date. From the same context she was able to extract a number of pieces of diagnostic bucchero pottery. Large worked block of Feature 13 in situ in Trench PC 23 (at center of photograph).   Worked block in Feature 13 of Trench PC 23.   Brad Schneider and Robert Vander Poppen removing block from PC 23.   Marty Reichert digging in the fissure after removal of the large block shown above. Hopefully the next few days will allow us to answer our remaining questions about PC 23. We will spend most of the week pushing to reach a suitable concluding point for the trench. Once we have reached that point we will draw the trench in order to document our progress for the year under the watchful supervision of Dr. Michael Thomas. Robert Vander Poppen drawing in his field notebook.   Assistant Field Supervisor Marty Reichert sifting soil from PC 25.   Sarah McCrory taking a pass in PC 23 in an archaeological yoga posture.   Olivia Spradlin in PC 23.   Victoria Mead excavating east of the fissure in PC 23.   Left: Robert Vander Poppen and Brad Schneider before removing the block. Right: The Dynamic Duo, The Two Robs - Belanger and Vander Poppen take a giant pass in PC 23 during student cookie break.   Left to right, standing on their dirt pile, Olivia Spradlin, Victoria Mead, Sarah McCrory, Robert Vander Poppen, Jon Mort, and Martha Reichert.   Martha "Marty Pants" Reichert and Robert Vander Poppen doing their dance.   "I can't believe the size of my dirt pile."     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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