Buona Domenica!

A day off from digging after a full Wed-Sat trying to make up for the lost time on Monday and Tuesday on account of the rain. Our walls continnue to multiply and grow, we had another small piece of architectonic terracotta (which is exciting, but only in a tantalizing way), and more of the cocciopesto flooring discovered last year was exposed.

Sarah hit Terni (museum, amphitheater and waterfall!) and I got taken out on a great walk in the mountains behind Foligno. Thanks to Dorica, Giovanni, Anna and Ivo!

Recently noted

A short notice of my report on the excavation at the last AIA conference back in January.

Buona Festa della Repubblica!

And a happy June 2nd to everyone outside Italy!

The rain finally stopped late this morning. (It had stopped late yesterday too, but started up again overnight.) The sun even came out. With luck we'll be able to do some work on the site tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, the crew went off to Rome for a couple of days, colleague Sarah Harvey went for today, and I hit Terni this morning, where they have a lovely archaeological museum with finds from the Bronze- and Iron-age cemeteries in and around the city, as well as lots from the Roman period, including a lovely epigraphical collection. Yesterday Sarah and I made it to the wine museum in Torgiano (no samples, alas).

Rain!

And lots of it! No digging for a couple of days and the gang is off to Rome.

Bastardo and other places

Took a little spin in the car Saturday morning and visited a few towns, like Bastardo (yes, it also means what you think it means), Torri and Marcellano. Good thing I didn't wait until today, because it's raining now. (Picture from Torri.)
In other news, excavation in our west trench revealed a fairly large section of cocciopesto floor, which is fairly high up in the stratigraphy (still in the topsoil really), and therefore seems to confirm the theory that there was a later building phase (still Roman).

How long is that wall?

So we took off the upper layers of topsoil above the end of our very long wall, using the geomagnetic survey data from last year as a guide. Answer to the post's question: about 22.5m or 75 Roman feet. The picture shows the end of the wall to the left after the removal of topsoil.

The Gang's All Here!

Start of the second season, and everyone has arrived safely!

Very hot here in Italy, with temperatures in the low 30s (upper 80s and low 90s for those in Fahrenheit-land), but some hope of a break on Wednesday. Of course they are predicting cool weather for the weekend too.

Good news: gas is much cheaper than last year and so is the euro (which has been on the rise in the past few weeks, so let's hope that stops). We also have internet in our office/lab/storeroom in Massa Martana. (Still searching for a title for this workspace; all suggestions gratefully accepted.)

Today we went to the site, shot some points on the handy-dandy Total Station very generously loaned to us by Bryn Mawr – and ably run by Bryn Mawr '10 Sophia Wolfenden. We also have begun to run into various friends we made last year.

Tomorrow, picks hit the ground!