2001 TRENCH PC 18 Kate Topper, Field Supervisor Week 5: Kate Topper explains PC 18 during trench tours. We began the week well into the our last pass through stratum four and were ready to beginning excavating stratum five by Tuesday morning. Our first ten-centimeter pass through stratum five, as expected, has yielded more significant pottery than comparable passes through previous strata, but on the whole it has created more questions than it has answered. Specifically, we have found two piles of stones near the northwest corner of the trench; the larger of these piles seems as if it may run along the same line as our hole in Locus 2 and the line of stones running through the corner of Locus 1, but we cannot be certain until we have further defined the stones in Locus 1 and determined whether or not and in what direction they continue. Our second pass through stratum five, which we began this afternoon, should answer a number of questions about the trench, and I expect to have more to report next week.   View of Trench PC 18 from the east with large worked rocks in back left.   View of Trench PC 18 from the west.   Week 6: Left: Kate Topper supervising her crew in Trench PC 18. Right: Assistant Field Supervisor Ashley Bennett excavating a circular area of dark soil in a locus of Trench PC 18 that has yielded ceramic fragments. Although I had hoped by this point to be able provide a more conclusive answer about what we are excavating in PC 18, the past week of excavation has produced as many questions as it has answered. We have found several notable pieces of pottery, but the context in which we are finding them remains unclear. Joshua Moran and Lindsey Fine triangulate points for PC 18 ceramic finds. I am becoming less convinced with every day of excavation that we have the foundations of a building in PC 18. The stones that appeared to run in a straight line when we found them in the southwest corner of Locus 1 at the beginning of the season now seem to be arranged in a more circular fashion; as we continue to define them, we are noticing a number of smaller stones around them that make the idea of a wall less probable. Although the larger stones still seem to be too regularly arranged to be part of a rock spill, I do not believe at this point that we are looking at the foundations of a building. View looking down into Trench PC 18 during the sixth week of excavation. While I am still searching for a convincing explanation for the stones, it is now clear that, for whatever reason, they mark off a section of the trench that is distinct for both the concentration of its artifacts and the color of its soil. Throughout most of the trench, stratum 5 has varied in color and has ultimately disappeared into stratum 6 or bedrock, and with the exception of a few large coarseware vessels that have been coming up in pieces all over the trench; the pottery has been fragmentary and fairly small. Immediately southwest of the stones, however, the soil has remained exceptionally dark, and the pottery is substantial. Since Friday, we have found pieces of what seem to be at least three or four bucchero chalices, some of them decorated. We have also found a blue glass bead, only a few millimeters in size, that is likely to have been set into a larger piece of jewelry. PC 18 from the southwest corner with Ashley Bennet (foreground) inside the curve of stones. View of PC 18 from the north, with conservators and students at work. With only a day left of excavation, I am doubtful that we will find anything this season that will provide a coherent explanation for what we are excavating in PC 18. Although I do not think that we have a building in PC 18, I still believe that there may be one close by, since we have found roof tile and a small amount of what appears to be mud brick. Furthermore, the large quantity of domestic pottery still suggests to me that we are digging close to an area of habitation. However, only with further excavation on this slope of the hill can we begin to form more solid conclusions about what we have begun over the last three seasons here. Ashley Bennett, Marlene Estabrooks, Joshua Moran, Lindsey Fine, and Paige Russell in PC 18. Left: Paige Russell and Lindsey Fine discuss a small find. Right: Paige Russell digging in PC 18. Marlene Estabrooks digging in Trench PC18. Amy Leach shows enthusiasm for the proceedings in Trench PC 18. Two of Kate Topper's drawings of a find from PC 18. Kate Topper's drawings of a ceramic find from three views. Kate Topper constructing a sifter for PC 18.   Week 7: Trench PC 18 Team: Joshua Moran, Kate Topper, Marlene Estabrooks, Lindsey Fine, and Ashley Bennett. Missing in this photo are Paige Russell and Amy Leach. As expected, our final few days of excavation did not yield any solid answers about what we are excavating in PC 18. We found several more pieces of coarseware and bucchero and another bead, as well as a few pieces of tile and mudbrick that allude to the presence of one or more buildings nearby, but nothing that sheds any real light on the history of the precise area of the north slope we are excavating. We have, however, learned that the deposition of stratum 5, our late Orientalizing layer, is more complicated than we initially believed it to be. While we have reached the top of stratum 6 or bedrock everywhere else in the trench, we still have not found the bottom of stratum 5 in parts of Locus 5 (the area bordered by a curved line of stones on the north and east and by a projection of bedrock on the west, in the extreme southwest corner of the trench), even though we have taken some areas of Locus 5 a full forty five centimeters below the level at which we reached stratum 6 in the south end of Locus 4. What we initially believed to be bedrock in Locus 5 actually turned out to be a number of large stones with stratum 5 soil beneath them, so Locus 5 currently seems to be a large hole or pit (approximately two meters wide in some areas) cut into the bedrock and filled with both rubble and larger rocks. At this point, we have no way of knowing how deep the hole is or what purpose it served; these will have to be questions for next season. Overview of Trench PC 18 from the south, with worked bedrock at lower left. At present, a few points are clear. The eastern face of the protruding bedrock, which shows signs of being worked all the way down into stratum 5, indicates that this area was used as a quarry before or during the late Orientalizing period. The quantities of broken coarseware and bucchero we have found suggest either that this area itself was used as a dumping ground for a nearby settlement, or that it received the runoff from a dumping ground slightly further up the hill, since the slight slope of stratum 5 could have allowed for a limited degree of erosion. Less clear is the precise age of the quarry, as well as the relationship of this entire area to the building or settlement in which the pottery, tile, mudbrick, and other material we have found in PC 18 originated. These questions will be answered only by further excavation on the north slope of the hill, specifically to the south and west of the current trench. Overview of Trench PC 18 from the southeast. Despite the numerous questions that remain unanswered, I believe that we have accomplished a good deal this season. After two seasons of grappling with the stratigraphy of PC 18, we have finally established a more solid understanding of the stratigraphy of this part of the hill; this knowledge will, I hope, allow future excavation of this area to proceed more efficiently. We have also, I believe, placed stratum 5 more firmly in the late Orientalizing period, since none of our pottery from this stratum appears to date to a period any later than the late seventh century. Finally, although we did not actually find the building or settlement I had originally hoped to find, the tile and mudbrick in stratum 5 indicate that we cannot be far from one or more buildings. View of Trench PC 18 from the north. At this point, I wish to thank those who have helped excavate PC 18 this season, beginning with my permanent trench crew of Marlene Estabrooks, Lindsey Fine, Amy Leach, and Josh Moran. We were also helped by volunteer Cat Hinds and Masters of Liberal Arts student Paige Russell, and by field supervisors Rob Vander Poppen and Rob Belanger, who excavated with us at the end of last week after finishing their own trenches in the Podere Funghi. Finally, I wish to extend special thanks to my assistant, Ashley Bennett, whose patience, knowledge, and constant hard work this season have been an immense help both to me and the trench as a whole. Kate Topper excavating in a pose that echoes the terrain in her trench. Ashley Bennett and Joshua Moran making final drawing of PC 18 scarps. Kate Topper explains PC 18 during trench tours. Dramatic dip in stratigraphy of Trench PC 18.   Notable finds from Trench PC 18: Orientalizing 7th century B.C. glass paste bead from Trench PC 18.   Openwork chalice from Trench PC 18.   Stamped vessel base from Trench PC 18.   Spindle whorl from Trench PC 18. 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