Day One: The Archeological Museum of Montelupo and the Site

Day one started slowly, easing into five weeks of hot sun and hard work by visiting Montelupo's local archaeology museum to gain a sense of what the area was like and what had been found in the area already. For whatever reason, scientific archaeology started in Montelupo much earlier than most of the surrounding neighbors with the founding of a group of local amateurs dedicated to discovering and preserving the history of their town (the Gruppo Archeologico di Montelupo). One of the earliest groups to conduct excavations in any fashion similar to what we do today, the archeologico groupo is still thriving and boasts our hosts as members. This interest in exploration and discovery led to an unusually high museum and site ratio per capita, with five museums in a 20 km area, and an uncharacteristically broad understanding of life in the area through several of the past centuries.

We were met by our dig directors at the villa and led through town towards the Archaeology Museum. One of the first points of interest was the Ancient Roman Road, which was rediscovered by ICHNOS and is maintained today as a walking path through the city. The path led us to the Ospidale -originally a villa belonging to the most influential family in Tuscany, the Medicis' (Med-ee-cheese). Today, it is repurposed as a mental hospital. This is interesting because the old villa overlooks the local soccer field where local kids battle it out every week. What is so excellent about this set up is that Montelupo children play in front of a captive and exuberant audience who have favorite teams and players and cheer them on while booing the opposition. 

The museum itself is located in the former complex of a Church, San Quirico, which was originally constructed on a roman necropolis (mass burial site) from the eighth century.  

Like so many of Italy’s historical structures, San Quirico is a patchwork of additions and modifications from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Italians have an intense respect for history and tradition, which leads them to repair, modify, repurpose, or even add to an old building rather than build a new one. 

This habit leads to what can most accurately be described as Frankenstein buildings with pieces and parts from different eras, made with different materials and purposes. It only seems fitting that the two main museums are buildings repurposed to this new task.

The Archaeological Museum of Montelupo features finds located in the area around the town dating from the prehistoric era straight through the Middle Ages. We spent the majority of our time in the main, middle room that spans the Etruscans through the end of the Roman era. Of particular interest where some pieces of amphora Sporica (pottery damaged during the firing process and consequently scrapped).

Amphorae are double handled terra cotta jars commonly used for packaging some of the Italians' favorite products: olive oil and wine. The classical amphora doesn't have a flat bottom like any container we use, which baffled me initially, but it's important to consider the life of these goods. Most where traded goods, moving by boat across the Mediterranean. The elongated and pointed bottoms where designed to waste less space in the bottom of a boat, stacking directly against the sides.

The pointed ends enabled them to easily plant the containers in the sand when landed to keep them from breaking or falling.

In addition, the rim and bottom of a large vase was found with grain remnants still within. Without fridges, burying containers and storing things inside of them was the best way to keep foods cool and fresh.

However, the jewel of the museum is a plaque featuring the features of a beautiful young woman in exceptional condition. She was found underneath the floor of a well, carefully buried and surrounded by other, taller stones with the floor carefully set on top of it. This arrangement protected the plaque from being crushed, implying that she was placed there intentionally and as such, carries a certain amount of (possibly religious?) significance. The current theory holds that she may have been a goddess or protectorate buried under the cistern floor to encourage agricultural well-being or luck.

It is not by accident that some of the best finds in the museum were found in wells and cisterns. Wells and cisterns become trash cans after they fall out of use and begin piling the trash of centuries inside in perfectly defined layers, protected from more modern incursions that would disturb their resting place by sturdy stone walls.

Archaeology uses layers to move back in time and understand the world of the past, but layers can sometimes be ruined by modern incursions (farmers tilling the fields, flooding, etc. which pull artifacts out of their original soil). A well is treasured because it remains untouched and protected. And, similar to the forensics of today, trash can be very telling and give great insight into what life must have been like. As a permanent, un-empty-able trash can, wells always have a lot to tell an archaeologist.

After spending the morning learning about the museum from our professor and the co-director of the field school (from our Italian archaeology partner, ICHNOS) lecturing at length, we had lunch before heading out to the site for the first time.

The Villa Romana del Vergigno is a large roman country village inhabited in the first century BC. It was discovered by the farmer who was tilling the fields and incidentally pulled up part of a wall. Initially excavated by our friends at the Gruppo Archeologico di Montelupo between 1989 and 1994, it was then shut down due to funding.

During these seasons a long portico and a series of residential rooms came to light, as well as a mosaic floor, sections of a bath complex, and evidence of agricultural and ceramic production. The agricultural area of the villa still remains to be investigated, which we will excavate during the 2013 season in order to study the scale of agricultural production and the site’s contribution to the regional and Mediterranean economy. We will also investigate the villa’s phases of construction to gain a clearer picture of the site’s status before and after Roman colonization, and survey nearby sites of possible similar importance where the materials of the villa might have been scavenged for use in later buildings.

The reason we have such an interest in Montelupo and the Villa del Vergigno in particular stems from several key factors that make the site particularly desirable historically. The area of Montelupo has been continuously inhabited since the prehistoric era due to its strategic importance at a docking point along the Arno River, and was prosperous during the last centuries BCE, resulting in its Etruscan population being subjected to repeated waves of Roman colonization between 80 and 30 BCE, which is roughly concurrent with the development of the Villa.

The geographical location of this area of northern Etruria (modern Tuscany) is significant due to the fact that it served as the border of Italia proper until the first century C.E. and was the last area in Italy colonized by Rome. Regionally, the area is significant as well, since during antiquity (and today) this was the point at which the Arno River dropped down from the hills and gorges that produced rapids along the more westerly calm river that stretched to Pisa and the coast. Thus, boats traveling upstream from Pisa to Florence would have had to stop, dock, and portage at this location, making the area a natural economic hub and cultural center.