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2007 TRENCH PC 31
Field Supervisor: Martin Perron, Université de Montréal
Field Supervisor Martin Perron
Opening
Report:
Trench PC 31 is located
at the western central end of the Poggio Colla's acropolis (the
"Arx"). This trench was placed here in order to document
this area of the settlement as well as the western part of a
large Phase III building that was uncovered during the last few
excavation campaigns. This building would have been associated
with a greater religious complex composed of an open-air court
and an altar. Many bronze objects, a hoard of a hundred coins,
as well as a load of fine black-glazed pottery have been unearthed
in the surrounding trenches, especially in Trench PC 19. Thus
we want to collect information regarding the architecture of
the building (describing walls, floors, roofing, etc.) and the
function of the different rooms of the "temple," and
also provide information concerning the relation of the building
with the western edge of the acropolis.
In addition, Poggio Colla's
2007 field season has a greater objective, which is to train
16 undergraduate and 9 graduate students in the rudiments of
field archaeology. Surveying, tool manipulation, on-site drawings,
altimetry and topometry skills, stratigraphy readings, soils
description, and recording finds are a few of the tasks that
they will be asked to learn and master. We are thus looking forward
to providing high quality education in order to provide them
with all of the necessary basic skills to become accomplished
archaeologists.
View from
the northwest of PC 31 in Week 3
Anne Duray in PC 31
Tracey Drayer in PC 31
Octaviano Rangel in PC 31
Italian high school student Elisa Giovannini in Trench PC 31
Italian high school student Claudio Chicchi in Trench PC 31
View of Trench PC 31 from the south during Week 4
Italian high school student Sonia Rocchi working in Trench PC
31
Michael Arnold in Trench PC 31
Emma Johnson working in Trench PC 31
Becky Rolph in Trench PC 31
Jack Carlson uses Munsell chart to identify soil color
View of Trench PC 31 at the end of Week 4
Fiammetta Calosi and Martin Perron discuss developments in PC
31
Dana Rowland, Mat Ferron, Jocelyn Cooper, and Martin Perron
Italian high school student Margherita Fallani in PC 31
Dana Rowland studies a find in Trench PC 31
Dana Rowland and Mat Ferron in PC 31
View from the north of Trench PC 31 during Week 5
 
Left: Jocelyn Cooper and Sarah Hartman. Right: Margherita Fallani
and Dana Rowland.
Tile found in Trench PC 31 during Week 5
Rachel Dorfman and Betsy
Mahoney taking a level in PC 31
Rachel Dorfman digs between
two walls in PC 31
Jess Galloway surveys stones
while the team digs in PC 31
Octaviano Rangel, Megan Burns,
Martin Perron,
Betsy Mahoney, and Jack Carlson in PC 31 during Week 6
Above and below: Octaviano
Rangel, Jack Carlson, and Megan Burns
Martin Perron prepares the
chalkboard for trench photography
Final
Report - Martin Perron
Trench PC 31 was excavated
on the western end of the Poggio Colla's acropolis in order to
answer specific questions relating to the religious complex built
and used by the Etruscans during the Hellenistic period. Fortunately
for us, the 2007 season was a very successful one, especially
in terms of our discovery of architectural remains and our clearer
understanding of stratigraphical deposits. During the season,
we indeed uncovered several walls dating from the 4th to 2nd
centuries B.C. as well as the floor levels associated with them.
Two of these walls were defining a large room (partially uncovered,
2.5 meters x 5 meters) in which we concentrated most of our energy
throughout the season. We mostly wanted to excavate the interior
of this structure in order to document its function and in order
to verify if it is related to the rear room of the Hellenistic
Etruscan "temple". Our work there gave us a lot of
information on the different phases of occupation, destruction,
and abandonment of the building as well as important elements
concerning the building techniques used by the Etruscan during
this period. We have also collected evidence that these walls
are connecting with some others uncovered during the previous
excavation seasons. Thus, this gave us important information
on the religious complex itself and on site occupation. In 2007,
we dug approximately one meter deep in this area. The walls were
uncovered at 0.80 m, but more can be revealed in future seasons.
View of Trench PC 31 from
the northwest during Week 6
As previously stated, the
2007 season allowed us to partially understand the different
phases of occupation, destruction and abandonment of the settlement.
In between these two walls, five different archaeological layers
were excavated: the first one being the top soil or the organic
humus formation deposit; the second, a thick pale yellowish brown
deposit corresponding to the abandonment layer of the site after
its destruction in the early second century B.C.; the third,
a destruction layer mostly composed of a dark brown/black soil,
containing ashes, charcoals, rock rubble (from the walls collapsing),
roof tiles, mud-brick fragments as well as big pieces of broken
pottery crushed in situ; the fourth, a probable floor level corresponding
to the Phase III occupation of the site; and fifth a thick packing
and levelling deposit above which was the floor level was placed.
This antique fill is very dark and compact, containing rocks,
tiles, and a lot of pottery and bones fragments (mostly teeth).
Unfortunately, our work was a little bit slowed down by the destruction
and the packing layers in which we have found several diagnostic
finds.
Packing in Trench PC 31 during
Week 5
PC 31 has, in fact, delivered
a huge quantity of ceramic vases, a few bronze and lead objects,
spindle whorls (weaving material), worked stones, and bone fragments.
Concerning the pottery finds, we discovered a great amount of
4th and 3rd century B.C. black glaze drinking vessels, some of
which were nicely decorated with rouletting and stamped floral
motifs. These are definitely luxury vessels used for feasting
(symposium) and/or as votive offerings. Further studies will
be made on them during the current year in order to more precisely
determine their dating, their provenance and the way they were
made.
In short, even though we
did not reach all of our campaign's objectives, the 2007 excavation
at Poggio Colla was very successful. We were able to document
the western part of the settlement, to make architectural relationships
between other trenches (especially with PC 30, and PC 19), and
to refine chronological issues brought up by previous excavation
campaigns.
Besides, I had a wonderful
time this season working with all of the students. They were
exposed to a variety of archaeological techniques and have mastered
them in the few short weeks we had together in the 2007 excavation
season. I am sure that most of them will soon become great archaeologists.
Detail of scarp in Trench
PC 31
Detail of wall in Trench
PC 31
Martin Perron and Becky Rolph
measuring and drawing scarps in Trench PC 31
2007: Trench PC 31 viewed from the south at season's end
2007: Trench PC 30 viewed from the east at season's end
Co-Directors: Gregory
Warden gwarden@mail.smu.edu and Michael Thomas
mlthomas@mail.utexas.edu
Excavation house phone during the
field season: (011-39) 055-844-9834
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