Tuscany, Summer 2004

About The Excavation - Pictures

I spent five weeks this summer (June 12 through July 17) in the little coastal town of Donoratico in Tuscany. The archaeological dig at the Castello di Donoratico run by Nicola Terrenato of my classics department at UNC involved excavation of an Etruscan settlement beneath late Medieval walls and burials. This site was likely a fortified settlement along the coast controlled by the Etruscan city of Volterra and is important for the incredibly long span of occupation from about the 600s BC though the 1400s AD.

In the first week of excavation, we were cleaning up the area of the Medieval cemetery and came across several additional burials that had not been excavated by the other archaeological team. As their osteologist was not on site that week, I got to excavate and draw the skeletons and gave a brief presentation on site about bioarchaeology. The second week saw me first in Trench 70,000, which was notable for its sheer lack of pottery and hard-packed clay. I was then sent over to Trench 30,000 to help excavate a small area which was revealed when we took down a small late Medieval wall segment in order to better see the stratigraphy of our layers. I worked in Trench 30,000 for the rest of the season, and this trench produced a ton of pottery, metal slag, animal bone, and interesting small finds such as a glass bead and small jar lids. Ultimately, in the last week of excavation, Trench 30,000 revealed part of a drainage system in addition to a very deep cistern.

Where I Lived - Donoratico Landscapes / Villa Scenes

Donoratico is a small town along the ancient Via Aurelia about an hour's train ride south of Pisa. It has a decent tourist business, with a Club Med on the beach. It's a cute little town with several grocery stores and restaurants, but, at the beginning of the summer, only one internet point. The villa in which we lived was large, containing 6 apartments and an adjoining small house. There was a large backyard ringed with nespole trees and rosemary bushes, complete with double grill and a pool opening up onto olive groves.

Travel

Castagneto Carducci - A small hilltop town that overlooks Donoratico, Castagneto is an adorable town with artsy shops, excellent gelati, and a park with the best tube slide ever. The views of Donoratico, the surrounding countryside, and the sea are amazing from here.

Cecina - A 15-minute train ride north from Donoratico, Cecina holds a dear place in my heart because of its inexpensive Chinese restaurant and decent clothing stores.

Florence - I was not a huge fan of Florence, as it was kind of dirty and overly populated with churches. One of my favorite pictures is the clock in Santa Maria del Fiore, however. The Uffizi did not impress me much, as the collections were confusingly laid out. I did manage to check out some Boticelli paintings and more ancient sculptures, but unfortunately they don't allow photographs in there. The archaeological museum in Florence was far more impressive for its large Egyptian collection, including several mummies in various states of undress.

Pisa - My favorite of all the cities I visited, Pisa was easily walkable and had great shops, including a cute artsy pressed flower store whose owner happily tolerated what I'm sure was my painful butchering of his language and talked slow, baby Italian to me. The Leaning Tower just opened up again a couple years ago. The cost to go up to the top is 15 euro, which is a lot, but well worth it. Views of Pisa from up there are incredible, and the unnerving slant as you're walking around is exciting. The Baptistery has amazing acoustics - check out the movie of it to listen to one of the guards singing. Most of my pictures were taken of the Campo Santo, which has been called the most beautiful cemetery in the world. I, of course, enjoyed all the carvings of skeletal parts and the frescoes of the Great Plague in Europe.

Populonia - South of Donoratico is Populonia, long known for its metal smelting, an ancient town that includes both Etruscan tombs and Medieval walls. The variety of tombs at the site was impressive, as was the information that many of them had been buried under hundreds of pounds of metal slag. No artifacts remain at the site, having been moved to the nearby museum after excavation, but photographs of some of the finds can be seen on information plaques near the tombs. After visiting the site, we went to the beach, where we searched through the sand for ancient metal slag that can be found there.

The Flight Home - After working most of the day on site, packing, and cleaning, Hilary and I stayed up all night and started to drive back to Rome around 2:30am on Saturday, as our flight left at 7am from Rome to Paris. After a manic attempt to get gas, which almost got us lost in Rome, we returned the rental car and got on the plane. Although a little late, the flight was uneventful. Our flight from Paris to the US, however, was not so lucky. Just west of Great Britain, as we started to head over the Atlantic Ocean, the pilot came on the PA to say we were having engine trouble and had to turn back to Paris. However, we were too heavy to land on account of all the jet fuel, so we had to circle for over two hours above the English Channel before we could return to Paris. Fortunately, after 16 or 18 hours in the air and in the Paris airport, we managed to get to Cincinnati, although we'd missed the last flight to Raleigh. After spending a night in the airport Holiday Inn and blowing our meal comps on room service, we made it back to Raleigh safely, albeit quite tired.

Movies - Click the link for a few .avi files, two of landscape panoramas, and one of the Baptistery in Pisa.