News

The beginning of the week has finally arrived and everyone is so excited to dig through the rest of the collapse at Castellaraccio di Monteverdi! Approximately three weeks have passed since we all arrived at Monteverdi, and during that period, the whole team has made a lot of progress with Area 1000’s contexts. We are amazed by all of the artifacts that have been found, and more than eager to find more before it is finally time to leave. 

Podere Cannicci had a productive day as usual this Thursday. The team working on the site excavated previously in 2018 was split to work on different tasks simultaneously. Some were delegated to articulate the extension of the wall between room I and V and to follow the path of pebbles which could have been once pieces of the wall that collapsed or some other structure. While working on that, the others continued to expose walls of the drain found in previous years in room V. In the process, the team found several bone fragments and pieces of pottery including bases, handles, and rims. 

The team working in Area 1000, also had a great day in the trench. Previously they had extended their trench, and so they spent the day preparing it, and “catching it up” to the rest of the trench. They pick axed and troweled the top soil, removing context 1 to get ready to excavate context 2 which was a burned layer with pieces of reddish clay. In the process they found a sandy layer of soil and several pieces of pottery.

The team at Castellaraccio had a hot day on Friday! With temperatures soaring, the team worked hard to uncover the next context layer in the palace. The new layer contains the tiles from the initial roof collapse of the palace. This next layer is distinguished by its dark brown soil and multitude of roof tiles. The heat of the day challenged the team not only physically, but also made documenting our new layer very difficult. A water mister had to be borrowed from our friends at Podere Cannicci, the water allowed the layer to portray its true colors. A wonderful discovery of a potential wall was made by Marc at the house, which changes what was previously thought about this area of the castle; Marc also continued to recover pottery, nails, and bone! Thanks to site leader Alessandro, the field school students were able to learn how to properly document and record new context layers. The team will continue to excavate, and work hard to understand the past of the castle and the people who lived there. 

On Thursday, we still worked on context 29, the roof collapse, and some of the stratigraphical problems related with the new wall (30), just exposed in Area 1000 and the surrounding contexts. Carlo Alberto and Carolina, Marina and Iacopo’s sons, came to visit the site and help us cleaning a section of the curtain wall corresponding to the new area (2000).

During the evening we received the help of the three anthropologists. With more trowels available we were finally able to spent some time with the total station and place the points to connect area 1000 with area 2000 and 3000 and survey both of them. Madeleine assisted us during all the process.

We finished the day almost ready for the picture of the tiles collapse and the next stage of excavation in Area 1000

The excavation at Podere Cannicci was in full swing this Wednesday, with the team continuing to remove contextual layer 36 in order to further examine Rooms I and V. One set of archaeologists was focused on Room I and articulated a series of pebbles that align with one of the room’s walls. Whilst articulating these rocks, Alyssa uncovered a bronze hairpin; other finds uncovered by this group include pottery, bones, and slag. Another team focused on Room V and worked on further exposing the southern wall. Here, Michael found a fragment of stamped black gloss pottery. In Area 1000, the excavators continued to trowel Context 1 in order to uncover Context 2, and Thuraya discovered a bronze revetment.

Further, Director Professor Sebastiani’s family visited the site today and gifted the workers with food and cold refreshments to help them bear the heat. From here, we hope to continue excavating Context 36 and to further uncover room V’s southern wall as well as to continue to uncover Context 2 in Area 1000.

This Wednesday, we had an exciting day at Castellaraccio. After two weeks of picking away at wall collapse, we were finally able to begin exposing our new context layer of roof collapse. This layer is characterized by dense, dark soil with few rocks and many tiles. Minutes into the day, we decided to take out the metal detector and try our luck. It quickly directed us to a patch in the left corner of the palace (area 1000), and sure enough, we found another beautiful silver coin! This invigorated our spirits and fueled us with the energy we needed to face another long day of work. Additionally, we were lucky enough to be joined by three eager children- Alessandro, Paolo Alberto, and Carolina. While Lilli, Grant, Megan, and big Alessandro dutifully worked away at exposing our new context layer, Madeline supervised the children and involved them in numerous activities. The children learned to use the metal detector, sift through spoil, shovel, trowel, and expose walls. They were enthusiastic, optimistic, and quick learners. By the end of the day, they expertly uncovered a large portion of wall at the house (area 2000). Amidst the energy of our newest archeologists, Marc remained cool and steady in his trash midden (area 3000) just outside of the house, where he uncovered a new context layer and found more bone and pottery fragments. The team back at the palace continued to expose the layer of roof collapse throughout the day in addition to using the total station to take depth measurements of the new context layer. While no more silver coins were found, we did found several bone and pottery fragments.

All in all, we had another wonderful day at Castellaraccio, and we hope our little archeologist friends will be back soon!

Today was a hot one at Cannicci! Our team continued to clean up contextual layer 36 in Room 5, and worked to further expose the walls of the main drain at the back end of the Roman structure. 

While we pick-axed and shoveled through a lot of spoil, we kept a sharp eye out for any diagnostic pottery or small finds, (especially after yesterday’s amazing votive discovery and the massive amount of wild boar bones we came across). 

Looking forward, we hope to find more stones belonging to the drain wall and help identify the borders of this structure as they begin to take shape. 

The team at Castelaraccio started Monday off refreshed and ready to work. The team was joined by forensic anthropology PhD students from Michigan State University. For most of the morning, the team worked to clear the last of the collapse to reach the next context of the palace, and with the extra help, the team was able to get much more work done. After finding the next context, the team spent the rest of the day cleaning the interface between context numbers 10 and 11. The difference in contexts is distinguished by the loose dirt and large stones of the of the collapse on top and the harder packed clay and bricks beneath. While cleaning the interface a structure was exposed within the keep that will require more excavation to determine its purpose, but the prevailing theories are that it is a wall or a floor. Marc continued his excavation outside of the house and had a successful day of finds including pottery, bones, and nails. 

Castelaraccio was visited by a group of middle school students from Paganico who came to learn about Archaeology and the history surrounding Castelaraccio. The kids were energetic and excited to learn about the excavation and asked Dr. Hobart many questions regarding the site. Tomorrow the team plans to excavate the next context and hopefully determine the function of the exposed structure today.

Monday was also the day when a group of young students from Paganico made a visit to Castellaraccio and spent some time learning about the history of the site through Dr. Hobart’s lecture. They enjoyed the visit at the castle, under the loyal supervision of our beloved Candela.