Author: Alessandro Sebastiani

The second day of excavation. The entire team went up to the castle in the morning, focusing their energy on digging the remains of the collapse from the northern room of Area 1000. Unfortunately, Area 2000 is still too wet to properly work with due to constant evening showers (more are forecast for tonight). Michelle’s student went down to Paganico after the morning break to study the curtain walls of the medieval settlement. We kept working at the castle, removing most of the upper level of collapse from the room. After lunch, we received the visit of Prof. Camporeale and his team from the University of Siena, with whom we discussed the construction phases of Area 1000.

Today, old and new friends of the IMPERO Archaeological Project gathered at Podere Cannicci to begin another season of research. The project’s director, Professor Alessandro Sebastiani, began the morning’s activities with an introduction to the site and its excavation history for all members of the project, after which the team split into two, with a group headed to Castellaraccio and the others remaining in Cannicci’s valley. 

Under the direction of Professor Edoardo Vanni, the laborers at Cannicci were first briefed by site supervisors Michael McCabe and Betsy Woldeyohannes on the principles of stratigraphy, data recording, and equipment use before we turned our efforts toward cleaning Area 1. Michael and Betsy first led the team in clearing the area of water retained from recent heavy rains as well as the tarps protecting the northern half of the site; after this, we were able to begin weeding, troweling, and sweeping the drier zones of the complex starting from the eastern end of the site. Although afternoon showers prevented us from completing our cleaning efforts, the participants’ eagerness to engage in the work has made us hopeful that we will achieve our goal of finishing excavations for Area 1, begun in 2017, and the area’s final documentation. While this group labored, Edo and site supervisor Marta De Pari, assisted by Cesare with the digger, reinitiated investigation around the necropolis, which was first uncovered in 2020. After only the first day, these two tasks in tandem have inspired excitement in the students and staff about the discoveries ahead! 

Another year has passed and the Castellaraccio’s team is back to work at the castle. This is a special year since, after the long Covid forced brake, we are thrilled to have finally back with us Mike and Marc, our Australian team and of course, Ryan, who drove here from Ireland. Alan and Caroline also joined the team.
The first day, as usual, was a slow start. Students went to visit Cannicci the rest of the team (me, Cleo, and Benedetta) at the castle. After an introduction to the history and archaeology of Castellaraccio a small group started to clean Area 2000 to make it ready for the excavation, while the rest of the team worked on removing the remnants of the collapse from the northern room of Area 1000.
Michelle brought here three students, who are conducting a specific field school on GIS and building archaeology to visit, before moving to survey the supposed church of San Giorgio near the collapsed Medieval bridge on the Ombrone River.
The day ended up with a summer storm which forced us to leave slightly earlier than expected.

On Sunday, our 2023 Archaeological Field School at Monteverdi has officially begun! Starting this afternoon, you will receive daily updates on our activities. Stay tuned!

A new publication regarding the discovery of a late Etruscan burial at Podere Cannicci is now available (ahead of print) for the Journal of Etruscan and Italic Studies.

Here is the link to a preview: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361771041_A_Late_Etruscan_Burial_at_Podere_Cannicci_Civitella_Paganico_-_Grosseto

Here the link to the Journal page (access required): https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/etst-2022-0007/html

Eventually, the last day of this amazing excavation campaign in Podere Cannicci has arrived. With sadness and excitement the Cannicci team checked and completed the last bits of documentation work before laying down the tarp on the exposed contexts, in order to preserve them from the elements. But this is not a goodbye. Much has been unearthed of the workshop area in Podere Cannicci and much more is still to be discovered! For many students this year has just been the beginning of a new path of formation, the first step of a jurney into the core of the archaeological work and thinking. The Impero Project want to say thank you to all the students who made this possible, once again.
They had the chance to practice their skill with material culture by taking part to all the stages of management of findings from the field.
They proved themself to be able to successfully apply stratigraphy, take part to the actual excavation work and documentation, mastering the many different tools of the archaeologist.
For those of them that will decide to continue their path into archaeology, the new phase unearthed in Podere cannicci will be waiting for their passion.

Though the excavation has come to an end, the work does not stop here. The new materials and the records from the excavations have to be processed into information. The Impero Project team will start immediately.

Last day of work at Castellaraccio for the 2022 campaign. Very early in the morning, Federico and Marta came to take the last pictures with the drone and some final points to have the perfect light. During normal working hours, our small team dedicated their time to completing any possible missing documentation (context sheets, photographs, journal), bringing back the tools, and covering the excavated areas to protect them until our next campaign.

This has been an exciting campaign. Our small, specialized group was 100% focused on Area 2000 to excavate as much as possible of that room and obtain a complete picture of the stratigraphy of one of the castle’s buildings. The objective was only partially achieved. We still have some contexts to excavate before reaching the bedrock, but at least we have all the room exposed with the contexts all in phase. We underestimated the extent of the collapse and roots that we still needed to remove to reach the northern edge of the area, which delayed some work.
Nonetheless, the results are fascinating. We confirmed the extension of context 37 to the whole room and exposed a second fireplace/burned beam in the north-western corner of the room. We revealed the rest of context 55 in the northern part of the room. We explored the series of grey yellowish circular or semi-circular cuts. We hoped they could represent sealed granaries, but we yet have found no proof. We also started excavating the series of cuts identified in the old west-east wall 84 to better understand the stratigraphy there. Still, there was no time to fully explore this option.

The campaign was also rich in finds with the recovery of two rings, two knife blades, an arrowhead, and many new potteries for our Benedetta to study. We also recovered an incredible amount of environmental finds (seeds), which will be analysed by our specialist (an archaeobotanist).

This combination of finds poses further questions, especially for the oldest phases. The presence of charred seeds and a possible working surface (the big stone 97) make us think of a storage room of some sort. However, the presence of jewellery (even if in copper-alloy) and of the arrowhead may point in another direction or suggest a more complex picture which will be hopefully clear when the room is fully excavated.

As always, it is hard to leave the site and the people, we would all love to stay just for another week, continuing our work and enjoying the wonderful atmosphere and hospitality of Monteverdi and Paganico. Still, all things need to end at some point. The site will be there waiting for us next year and Monteverdi will be ready to welcome any students that will eventually decide to come back.

See you the next season!

It may happen that while finishing the documentation of the excavation season, the diligent work in the material culture lab can provide some extra surprises.

During the removal and sampling of the soil from one black gloss vessel from Podere Cannicci, a second vessel was found inside. After the proper study and analysis of the object, we will provide more information about it!

This morning Benedetta proceeded with the removal of the soil inside the cut 71, with a high quantity of charred seeds. The other members of the team started cleaning the whole area in preparation for the closure of the excavation tomorrow.
In the afternoon we proceeded and finished the cleaning of the Areas 2000 and 3000; tomorrow we aim at producing photo documentation of the building and prepare the areas for the necessary covering for the winter.

The season almost ends!

As the field school is coming to an end, today part of the team was able to visit our friends and colleagues at the Castle of Potentino. Here, a team directed by Prof. Gregory Warden is working on reconstructing the environment of the valley, its cultural heritage, and the historical occupation of one of the most suggestive places in Tuscany.

Ours students were able to have a first look at their research and to exchange different approaches to archaeology.