Excavation during the 2008 season focused on two separate areas of Piano del Tesoro on Poggio Civitate. The area immediately south of a structure identified in 1999, OC3/Tripartite, yielded evidence of two circular areas cut into the bedrock shelf upon which the foundations of OC3/Tripartite rest. Given the architectural form of OC3/Tripartite, excavators suspected that they may have preserved evidence of votive activity associated with the adjacent structure. High concentrations of carbon and seeds were recovered from within the cuttings and the floral material is current under study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Biology.

Several meters west of the circular cuttings, excavators revealed the presence of a significant fossa feature, running approximately three meters south of the southern wall of Piano del Tesoro’s Archaic Period Building. This fossa, which was originally excavated to a depth of over three meters, exposed the fissures of bedrock on this portion of the plateau. Resting directly upon the bedrock, excavators recovered a fragmentary element of a lateral sima of the type associated with Poggio Civitate’s Archaic phase, along with numerous other fragments of roofing tiles. However, no material dateable to the site’s Orientalizing phase was recovered from within the fossa. Therefore, we posit the fossa was excavated and exposed while the Archaic Period Building was standing, perhaps to facilitate drainage of water from the area of the building’s southern courtyard.

Additional excavation approximately 70m south of the trenches described above revealed an oval midden, filled with a high concentration of debris associated with manufacturing. The midden was slightly irregular in form, but approximately 5.7m in length and 4.2m in width. Several examples of partially cut bone and antler, similar to specimens recovered in the vicinity of OC2/Workshop, were recovered in the fill of the midden, along with numerous examples of bone preserving indications of butchering. Moreover, fragmentary spindle whorls and rocchetti along with hundreds of fragmentary murex shells were found, all indicating a concern with spinning and dyeing thread. While numerous ceramic sherds were recovered within the fill, only a few were chronologically diagnostic. However, these specimens suggest the midden fill dates to around 650 BCE.

At the base of the midden and on its southern periphery, excavators recovered traces of a post hole. While the remainder of the midden was not excavated, the presence of the post hole indicates that the recessed area was originally the floor surface of a small hut. Therefore, we posit that the hut was abandoned around 650 BCE and the debris fill of the midden thrown into the resulting concavity sometime shortly thereafter.