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Excavation

  • Rocca di Parlascio
  • Casciana Terme
  •  
  • Italy
  • Tuscany
  • Pisa
  • Casciana Terme Lari

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • This season, the investigations moved in a N/E direction beginning at the end of the rectangular room present in sector N of the excavation area, proceeding with the excavation of the layers revealed in section 112, which constitutes the fill of the east area of the large rectangular room. In fact, if the entire structure is considered and not just the NW room, the conclusions drawn at the end of the previous campaign remain valid: it seems possible that the layers filling the large rectangular cut US 417, (basically US 376, 385, 439), are the abandonment layers relating to a sunken hut dwelling supported by posts. The latter are attested by the postholes investigated in previous years in the eastern part of the area and now by others positioned towards the west.

    At the east and west ends, the hut floor must have been at a lower level and, given that the bottom of the abandonment layer US 439 has not been reached, the central part of the structure must have been excavated even deeper.. It was not possible to complete the excavation of US 439, given its extension, but the top of the underlying layer was exposed over most of the area. An unusual accumulation of materials suggesting an intentional, perhaps ritual, deposition, was found on top of this layer at -0.89 m below the site benchmark. In fact, US 525 was made up of numerous large fragments of a sizable coarse ware dolium, large parts of which it was possible to reconstruct. Inside, there were some very thin bones, probably from a bird, several artefacts used in weaving (four loom weights and a bucchero spindle whorl with wolf-tooth decoration), a large ceramic acorn-shaped sling-shot and, immediately alongside, a fragment of carbonized wooden beam.

    For several years the excavations have been investigating an imposing underground structure of about two metres in diameter at the head (2.40 mm at the level reached thus far), excavated in the terrain and cut into the bedrock. This season, the excavation of US 514, identified last year, was completed, the US 529, 530, 531, and 535 were excavated reaching the top of US 536 and the considerable depth of -9.20 m from the temporary benchmark. The layers overlay each other directly and all contained a medium concentration of materials (ceramics and bucchero, baked clay, faunal remains, charcoal) and numerous medium-to-large unworked stones. The layers were not horizontal but deeper in the central part and higher towards the north. Unlike the upper layers of fill, these layers were thinner and may be the result of a succession of ritual actions that took place when the well was in use. The materials date to between the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.

  • Giulia Gabanella 

Director

  • Stefano Bruni, Università degli Studi di Ferrara

Team

  • Carolina Ascari Raccagni
  • Giulia Gabanella
  • Giuseppe Monte

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Ferrara

Funding Body

  • Cassa di Risparmio di Volterra
  • Comune di Casciana Terme Lari
  • Gruppo Archeologico “Le Rocche di Casciana”

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