06 LUGLIO 2016  

Area 2000

Nella giornata di oggi è stata conclusa la messa in luce dell’individuo medievale Usk 2722 all’interno della probabile fossa multipla nell’allargamento Ovest. Si tratta di un individuo adulto, di cui non è possibile stabilire il sesso al momento della morte a causa della mal conservazione delle ossa, orientato Ovest Est e la cui decomposizione è avvenuta in parziale spazio vuoto. Si nota una compressione della spalla e del bacino sinistro per la presenza della parete della fossa, le ginocchia molto ravvicinate che fanno ipotizzare la presenza di una veste o una fasciatura al momento della deposizione e il cranio leggermente spostato all’indietro come se fosse stato presente un cuscino ad oggi non preservato.
E’ stata inoltre documentata e rimossa la riduzione US 2729 e iniziata la messa in luce dello scheletro sottostante Usk 2730.

Today in area 2000, all groups continued previous excavations from the prior day, then opened two new sites. Jaidee, Lydia and Vicki (with the help of Cynthia and Deborah) carried forward with exposing reduction 2729 then proceeded to take photos and took points for GIS. After this was completed, they began removing each element, carefully wrapping and labeling each package. Max, Mark, and Cynthia continued working on their excavation in the northwest extension of the 2000 area trench. They fully excavated the skeletal material and took points for the GIS on the grave and the individual skeletal elements. They finalized the skeletal and strategraphic context sheets and made plans for the next day's excavation of the entire skeleton. Courtney and Morgan started and completed an excavation of a hole that appeared to be a hole for a plant due to the presence of carbon darkened soil. Next they moved to a neighboring spot that was cut by the previous excavation and found several disarticulated bone fragments.

Area 3000

Nella porzione centro-settentrionale del Settore B sono stati individuati i limiti del taglio di una fossa sepolcrale di forma ellittica (US – 3706), orientato W-E immediatamente ad Est di US – 3625. La rimozione parziale del riempimento US 3707 sta mettendo in luce, lungo la parete settentrionale della tomba, una serie di lastre di scisto che sembrano ricoprire parte del lato sinistro di un individuo adulto, apparentemente non molto ben conservato. Più ad Ovest, verso la facciata USM 3335, è terminato lo scavo di una buca di forma sub-circolare (US – 3691), che sembra intercettare parte del riempimento di una fossa sepolcrale più antica. Nella porzione centro-meridionale del settore è iniziata la documentazione e la successiva rimozione dei resti scheletrici dell’individuo USK 3701, orientato W-E e deposto supino all’interno della tomba US – 3698. Nell’angolo sud-occidentale continua l’approfondimento delle sepolture infantili USK 3704 e USK 3708.

Ricostruzione fotogrammetrica 3D di USk 3701

• Group 1:  Today we exposed the rest of the unassociated skeletal elements and widened the remaining portion of the grave on the north side.  After cleaning the materials a picture was taken and the coordinate points were taken.  Tomorrow we plan to remove the unassociated elements to expose what is beneath them--this will help to determine whether the remainder of our two main skeletons have more articulated elements.
• Group2: Today we continued excavating our new grave site. There are a few interesting aspects that we have come across as we removed the soil. We discovered 2 sets of skeletal remains within the new grave. They were seperated by large flat piece's of slate that ran the length of the grave. One set of remains were partially covered by the slate, but the others were easily exposed. They seem to both be cut by other graves in certain sections and the original grave may be cut by the bell oven that is at the bottom of the section. We will know more about the orentation of the elements once we are able to expose the rest of the remains.  
• Group 3: Today we continued to extract skeleton 3701. We where able to extract both tibias, fibulas, femurs, carpals and metacarpals. We where also able to extract the right ulna and radius and the right ulna,radius and humerus. An interesting aspect of our burial was the postition of the right arm. The radius and ulna were uncovered beneath the right illium but the hand rested on the right side of the pelvis. We took photographs of the pelvis and hand postion. Tomorrow we will continue to extract the rest of the skeleton.
• Group 4:  The remaining coxae were removed and wrapped in tissue after labelling after maintaining the correct siding.  Once the all the bones were removed, we proceeded to excavate the rest of the filling to determine the limits of the grave and to reach the bottom which we were unable to identify due to the proximity of the filling of another grave position underneath ours.  After exposing the supposed limits, we provided the photographic identification.  
• Group 5: We excavated the rib and found two metacarpals and a vertebra. We finished the pit by finding an articulated knee joint that was missing the patella. We suspect the pit intercepted a grave so tomorrow we will outline the length of the grave and begin excavations. 

Area 5000

On this the eighth day of field school, we were again short a few members due to them being in lab sections. We started the day by cleaning the site prior to saturating sector B to see what we may have uncovered in yesterday's pick axing. After saturating this portion of the site, 13 confirmed holes and two probable holes were revealed. Then more water was added to sector B in an attempt to loosen the dirt so we could then trowel the ridges left by pick axing to level sector B. This was done in an effort to improve the visibility of the previously discovered holes. Throughout the day while cleaning, faunal remains were found on the surface of the northern section of sector B.

Area 6000

Nella giornata di oggi si è provveduto alla rimozione degli individui UUSSkk 6105 e 6100, sul margine settentrionale del settore B dell'area. Nel settore A è iniziato l'allargamento verso ovest all'altezza delle strutture UUSSMM 6004 e 6005, i due muri orientati ovest-est dei quali il secondo taglia il primo il quale, per foggia della fondazione e tecnica costruttiva, sembra essere contemporaneo agli elevati del chiostro camaldolese indagato nell'area 4000.

We began the day with a lecture with Dr. Gino Fornaciari regarding the paleopathology of the Medici tombs. He compared the archival documentation and pathologies that were discovered and used to resolve historical mysteries. Then, we went to the site and finished removing the bones in USK 6105. We also began bone removal of burial 6100. We wrapped the bones in cloth, labeled them, and categorized them by body part.