The sixth season of excavation of the baths at Carsulae took place in a six-week program from June 12 to July 23, 2011, under the direction of Prof. Jane K. Whitehead of Valdosta State University (Georgia, USA). Grants received over the previous winter from both private and public Italian sources were sufficient to fund the construction of a roof over the ancient structures, which have lain exposed since their first excavation in the 1950s. The goal of this season\‘s excavation was to dig twelve 2×2-meter units to accommodate footings for the foundation plinths, which were to be arranged parallel to the ancient structure of the baths, six along the north side and six along the south. A systematic excavation of these squares was needed in order to determine whether any significant ancient structures might lie beneath the positions of the plinths. Two squares on the south side, S4 and S6, did yield walls, but the placement of the plinths could be adjusted so as not to require their disturbance or removal. Although this season\‘s excavation was calculated to avoid finding significant remains, it nonetheless was surprisingly productive and useful for the perspective it offered on the phases and functioning of the baths.
The architectural features exposed by these squares were fortunately few, but enlightening. The well-built wall of opus vittatum that emerged in square S6 runs NE directly toward the Imperial-period cistern, and must have functioned as part of the water supply or drainage system for the baths. A less sturdy wall turned up at the southern end of square S4; it had much yellowish clay associated with it, and its fall may have extended into square S3, where clumps of clay were found in a rubble layer. The clay resembles that found in two places in the 2010 season: one extending from the SW edge of the bath structure and the other associated with an apparent wall a graticcio connecting the opus quadratum wall with the cistern in opus caementicum. This gives further support to our theory that there was a phase to the baths datable to the Republic.

The object finds also provided valuable insights. Numerous coins were found this year, especially in the squares on the south side. Many were legible and most of those dated to the mid-3rd to mid-4th c. AD. This dating confirms the results of the pottery analysis, in which several secure contexts were identified; these contexts date to the mid-4th century and may thus give us a date for the abandonment of the site. The squares along the southeast also yielded an astonishing number of bone hairpins. These, along with several colored glass beads and a decorative pendant, suggest an overwhelming, perhaps exclusive, feminine presence in the baths. They give further credence to our theory, based on the finds of previous seasons, that the baths were dedicated to women\‘s health.