HOME   What's New in Patrons What's New in Publications What's New in Research and Student Projects The Mugello Valley Archaeological Project and Poggio Colla Field School center on the excavation of Poggio Colla, an Etruscan settlement site in the Mugello near the modern town of Vicchio, about twenty miles northeast of Florence, Italy. The project is co-directed by Professor P. Gregory Warden, a Classical archaeologist and Associate Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, and by Professor Michael L. Thomas of The University of Texas. Sponsoring institutions include the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, Franklin and Marshall College, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Trenches in the Podere Funghi, overlooking the Mugello Valley, in the 2004 field season. Poggio Colla was first excavated from 1968 to 1972 by Dr. Francesco Nicosia, the former Superintendent for the Archaeology of Tuscany. With Dr. Nicosia's permission and encouragement, the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project continued excavation in 1995. The research design of the project combines stratigraphic excavation with land survey and geophysical prospection to form an interdisciplinary regional landscape analysis of Poggio Colla and the surrounding area. We plan 20 years of field work followed by a series of comprehensive multi-authored reports. Additionally, we have published, and will continue to publish, timely interim reports in scholarly journals. These can be found in both Etruscan Studies and in the Journal of Roman Archaeology. Our Mission The research design of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project and Poggio Colla Field School combines excavation, land survey, and archaeometry as part of an interdisciplinary regional landscape analysis of the Etruscan site of Poggio Colla and the surrounding area. The project seeks to contribute significantly to our understanding of Etruscan culture and to educate through a broad and innovative curriculum a new generation of archaeologists in the practice and theory of settlement archaeology. Through timely publication and a broad program of education and outreach the project will explicate and increase awareness of the ethical management of an endangered cultural heritage. It is our belief that if archaeology is to survive as a discipline into the next century, it will have to develop a broader base of support and will have to change its image from an elite and esoteric discipline understood by only a chosen few. Archaeological sites are becoming endangered by pollution, construction, and human pressures that run the gamut from neglect to outright vandalism. We hope that over the years, through our field school, we will train a large number of individuals, some of whom may go on to become professional archaeologists, but most of whom, no matter what their career, will become advocates of cultural and archaeological preservation. We hope to make our site and our cause known to a greater public through the use of this website (updated several times during the excavation season). The visitor will find non-scholarly reports by field staff, lab staff, students, and the directors. These reports provide insight into our excavation strategy and the changing interpretation of the site. To see the most recent progress of the site, see 2008 Field Season. For information on our partnership with the comunità montana, through which we provide an opportunity for high school students from the area to excavate with us, see Italian High School Student Program. For a full scholarly bibliography see Publications. For Annual Reports from previous field seasons and for field reports from last weeks of previous seasons, see History or Archives. For background information and the history of the site, see History. For examples of research projects (complementing excavation work) by Poggio Colla Field School students see Student Research Projects.   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