This season’s excavations at the castle of Monte Copiolo (PU), undertaken by the School of Medieval Archaeology at Urbino ‘Carlo Bo’ University, concentrated on the area outside the curtain wall by the town gate. Excavation continued in the “complesso della Misericordia” constituted by the ruins of a single-nave church (12th-19th century), later abutted by a structure of equal size interpreted as a hospital-hostel for pilgrims and the poor (13th-14th century). The investigation concentrated on the church interior where seven burials and a small ossuary emerged. Archive documents mentioning the church state that it was demolished between 1830-1834; the building materials were reused for a new church of the Madonna della Misericordia, which today is part of the town of Villagrande di Montecopiolo.

All that remains of the ancient church are the tops of the razed walls that form its perimeter. Traces of a fire in the church in the mid 15th century were seen in the stratigraphy, probably relating to the siege of 1448 carried out by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini. In the western zone, parallel to the building’s west wall, seven late medieval burials with modest grave goods (mainly beads) were exposed. The first was in a wooden coffin held together by nails, and the individual had a severe cranial deformity. One earth grave covered by sandstone slabs contained two individuals; one presented signs of an operation on the cranium to remove fragments of the skull following a war wound. Calcification showed the individual had survived but then returned to fight and died following a sword blow to the right parietal lobe. There were two individuals in a single grave bordered by a few sandstone slabs, which were also used to cover the burial. Lastly, there was an individual in a coffin formed by sandstone slabs; it was an elderly female who presented signs of an operation on a molar (removal of decay and subsequent filling?) and was buried with a sack, probably that of a pilgrim, as suggested by the buckle found in her right hand.

A preliminary date between the late 14th and first twenty years of the 15th century is suggested for the burials, based on the stratigraphy and finds.