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Excavation

  • Coriglia
  • Monterubiaglio
  •  

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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)

    • Now in the eighth year, this season’s excavations at Coriglia continued work in the areas of greatest archaeological interest.
      With its extension of 640 m² and the building complex overlooking the Paglia valley, trench C is the largest on the site. Work focused on certain contexts identified in previous campaigns, such as completing the excavation of a late antique kiln and the investigation of the southernmost rooms in the complex.
      The kiln’s baked clay floor was identified and the structure’s plan and construction technique defined. Its central tower was built using a timber formwork inside which the clay was left to harden.

      In another sector of trench C, up against the eastern face of the eastern perimeter wall, work continued on a context identified in 2012, a sub-circular cut in the room’s opus signinum floor. The hole was filled with dark soil, rich in charcoal and animal bone, and was lined with tile and pottery fragments placed edgewise. At the centre of the pit, there was an element made of very friable grey-blue trachyte stone. Funnel-shaped, it was 33 cm in diameter, the upper face sloping down to a central hole. A shell valve was found on the bottom of the pit. The presence of such a particular find suggests an interpretation for the pit. Shells were invested with symbolic values, not only linked to the feminine sex, but also to the aquatic cosmos and water cults. Therefore, this may have been a ritual pit, placed inside a break in the floor, perhaps when the structure was abandoned, in a period yet to be defined.

      In the eastern area of the trench, the northernmost of a series of walls, interpreted as terracing walls, on an east-west alignment was exposed.

      The north-western part of trench F was extended in order to investigate the walled structure identified at the end of the 2012 excavations. This was another tank, situated west of the previously excavated one, used for water collection and whose overall dimensions are unknown, its thick walls faced with opus latericium. A catillus made of Morgantina type leucite was found in situ, perhaps reused to catch water from a small channel situated uphill. A channel with catillus of this type was previously found in trench I.

      Trench A was extended to the south and north in order to uncover a further stretch of the roadbed and ascertain the presence of structures along the sides of the road. An earlier cobbled road of Etruscan date was discovered. The first road, only exposed for 1.08 m and of uncertain date, was visible in the section north of the Hellenistic road and in this year’s north extension. The road was 2.70 m wide and characterised by stone chippings and cobblestones that were smaller and more irregular than in the later roads.

    • Silvia Simonetti  
    • Claudio Bizzarri 

    Director

    • David George, St. Anselm College, NH, USA
    • David George, St. Anselm College, NH, USA

    Team

    • David George, St. Anselm College, NH, USA
    • Eric Thienes
    • Liana Brent
    • Nicola Bruni
    • Serena Bramucci
    • Silvia Simonetti

    Research Body

    • St. Anselm College, NH, USA

    Funding Body

    • Institute for Mediterranean Archaeology, OK, USA
    • St. Anselm College, NH, USA

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