Vicus vBlog 5 (courtesy of RAI 3)

Blast from the past: last year's press conference coverage from RAI's TG3.

Second Session Ends!

Another three weeks have gone by, another couple of visitors in the trenches, a whole bunch of soil excavated, a mess of coins and a few other very interesting finds. It's just me left in Massa Martana now, as Sarah and the students have gone down to Rome (Scott should be on the plane as I write this).
Lots of work to do to close up the site and get the finds catalogued and stored until next year, so more soon! At right the official (for what that's worth) end-of-session photo.

XIII

The dolium turned out to have the number 13 scratched into its shoulder before firing (in Roman numerals of course). Here's a shot of Sarah and Federico holding up their find after the press conference—for which we left the dolium beautifully in situ—at the end of our official "day after the last day," with a close-up of the number from another photo as inset.

Conferenza Stampa

Reports of the now traditional end-of-season press conference (updated as I get them):

• Il Tamtam
• Spoleto City

Last Day!

As is traditional, during yesterday, the official "Last Day" of the season, a lovely find turned up: at least half of a large dolium (storage vessel) resting virtually on top of the lovely cocciopesto floor Sarah has been excavating for a few days now. Some may prefer the 17 coins that were found just to the north in this same area yesterday, but the dolium has its charms. More tomorrow.

Seen in Cordigliano

On the way home from dinner at Carlo's last week.

Finally!

Five weeks into the dig, I finally found a reasonably priced version of the tent I wanted to get from the start. Officially it's a "gazebo" here in Italy, and it needs some sheets or something on the sides to keep the sun out when it isn't overhead, but still, an improvement.