The day started with the teams meeting for a visit to the Castellaraccio, the medieval castle of Monteverdi being excavated by the team leaded by Alessandro Carabia. Professor Hobart showed the students the results of these two weeks of investigations: Cleo, Ryan and Benedetta worked hard to expose new layers of charcoal and ashes that revealed many burned seeds and other interesting materials probably collapsed during a fire. The visit was completed by a quick talk given by Edoardo about the use of total stations as accurate tools for topography and for documenting during the excavation.
The visit left everybody feeling uplifted and inspired. Two students, Leeanna and Nolan asked to join Alessandro’s team to help with the cleaning and documentation of the rampart of Castellaraccio.
The rest of the team returned to Cannicci to continue the excavation of the Area 1. Edoardo organized the team in smaller groups and they all together tackled the raw floors still covering part of the excavation area.
A strange raw of stones was revealed under one of the floors and it is still unclear whether it is a wall or not. Other parts of the puzzle is indicating the presence of at least one previous phase which must have been very different from the students are excavating right now. We can be sure there was a workshop in the latter phase (the one we are digging right now), but we cannot tell what was there before the workshop and why did the workshop start in that place. The most interesting part is that the history of the site is getting way more complex than we imagined.
Interconnected Mobility of People and Economy along the River Ombrone 