This season the Sangro Valley Project began a new site in San Giovanni (Tornareccio). The sub foundations for a complex of late Roman buildings were uncovered. The current working hypothesis is that these subfoundations were part of a late Roman bath complex later transformed into an early Christian church. The pottery and associated debris date from the 4th – 6th centuries A.D. Excavations will continue on this complex in 2012.

Excavation of trench SG 1000 revealed the sub-foundations of at least two structures. No evidence for superstructures or contemporary ground levels associated with the sub-foundations were preserved due to extensive agricultural use of the land, especially deep ploughing, and perhaps the robbing of reusable building materials in antiquity.

The dating of the subfoundations relies on the evidence of material recovered from the ploughsoil overlying the foundations. The ceramics recovered from the ploughsoil suggest that the most intensive period of activity on site occurred during the 3rd-7th centuries C.E., although the full range of dates indicated suggests local activity from the Roman Republican through the early Medieval periods.

Excavations also revealed a deposit of material dumped at the base of a small hill located to the west of the trench. The full extent of this deposit is unclear as only a portion of it (ca. 4.0 × 6.0 m) was exposed. A large variety of household and production-area materials were recovered from this deposit, including fine and coarseware ceramics, stone and terracotta building materials, faunal remains, glass, and metals. The preservation of the materials recovered indicate that this was a primary deposition. The dating of the ceramics from this deposit are consistent with the material recovered from the ploughsoil. C-14 analyses of two carbon samples taken from this deposit provide a date of Cal AD 260 to 300 (Cal BP 1690 to 1650) and Cal AD 340 to 430 (Cal BP 1610 to 1520).