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Introduction

In 2014, ten trenches were opened in the southwestern corner of the Piano del Tesoro, approximately 20 meters to the west of the Archaic defensive walls (T57 AJC VI, T58 FGT III, T59 KRK VII, T60 MLL II, T61 EMO VI, T62 AEG VIII, T63 BLE/JSD I, T64 KD/ND I, T65 JWH/KRC I, and T69 EMO VII). These trenches were opened to discover if the non-elite, late 7th century village found in 2012 and 2013 (Tuck, Kreindler, and Huntsman 2013) extended to the east and to search for more evidence of non-elite habitations. No further evidence for non-elite habitation was discovered, but in T57, T58, T59, T60, T65, T66, and T69, we found the remains of robust, parallel foundation walls, running roughly east-west. Excavations in 2015 (T70 MVS I, T74 ASM I, T75 KRC I, T76 KD III, T77 PAM II, T78 KRK IX, T79 MLL III, T80 AJC VIII, and T81 AJC IX) demonstrated that these walls are the foundations for a hitherto undiscovered building.

The plan of this structure is similar to Etruscan chamber tombs of the early 7th century, like the Tomba della Capanna at Cerveteri, and to contemporary houses, like those at San

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Giovenale in the Acropolis and Borgo areas; however, unlike the modest homes found at San Giovenale, the newly found structure measures 20.5 meters long and 8 meters wide. The building is fronted on its eastern end by a deep, open porch, while the rear half of the structure consists of a single room with a cobbling, likely the foundation for a bench, running along the southern wall. Materials recovered from within the building and from beneath its floor also indicate that it dates to the first quarter of the 7th century. For this reason, the building has been named Early Phase Orientalizing Complex 4, or EPOC4 (Tuck, Glennie, Kreindler, and O’Donoghue 2016).

EPOC4 is the earliest of the monumental structures found at Poggio Civitate to date. Its architectural form, recalling contemporary Etruscan houses and chamber tombs, coupled with an assortment of tablewares and weaving equipment found within the structure, indicate that EPOC4 was a domestic space. Given its size and form, we believe EPOC4 to be an elite residence. Some materials found in the interior are contemporary with those found in the Orientalizing Complex buildings, so it is likely that EPOC4 was standing while OC1, OC2, and OC3 were constructed and occupied. However, as no materials found within EPOC4 postdate the second half of the

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7th century, EPOC4 likely was abandoned shortly after construction of the Orientalizing Complex of buildings was completed. After EPOC4’s abandonment, a small, rectilinear hut was built in the space of the front porch by the end of the 7th century.

The building’s dimensions of 20.5 x 8 meters are comparable in scale with OC1/Residence. The length of the building would perfectly accommodate 38 columns of Poggio Civitate’s pan tiles, suggesting that this building bore a tiled roof. Furthermore, its foundation walls are robust, measuring 110cm in width - wider than necessary for light-frame architecture but capable of supporting the weight of a tiled roof.

Beginning in 2016, we began to sound beneath the beaten-earth floors of EPOC4 (T66 KD IV, T90 KRK XII, T90 KRK XIII). In T90 2018 (KRK XIII), soundings through EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor revealed a cobbling of small stones (maximum dimension of 20cm) intermixed with tile, pottery, bone, and plaster. This is EPOC4’s subflooring, probably laid both to create a more level floor surface and to facilitate drainage of the plaster-rich floor. The subflooring overlays a dark gray, charcoal-rich deposit containing high quantities of slag, crucible fragments, and tiles with adhered slag, suggesting

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earlier occupation and metallurgy in this area prior to EPOC4’s construction.

This dark gray deposit infills a cut made into naturally-formed sterile soil; this cut runs NNE-SSW and is situated at the eastern end of EPOC4’s front porch. Moreover, this dark gray deposit rests atop a heavily compacted olive brown deposit. Contained within this olive brown deposit is an intensely charcoal-included, black patch of soil that runs into a balk wall within the trench. We hypothesize that the cutting into sterile soil may have served as the foundation for a structure that predates EPOC4, that the olive brown, compacted deposit may be the earthen floor of this structure, and that the black, charcoal-included area may have been a hearth. Furthermore, this structure could have been the locale for metal production in which the high quantities of ferric slag, crucible fragments, and tiles with adhered slag found in deposits underlying EPOC4 were produced. Therefore, T90 will be re-opened in 2023 in part to determine whether EPOC4 was constructed atop of earlier architecture, and to determine the form and function of that structure.

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Thus far, no datable artifacts have been recovered from deposits underlying EPOC4’s floor and subfloor. This season, we will excavate underlying deposits, in order to recover chronologically distinctive materials that could provide a date for the potential underlying structure and also a terminus post quem for EPOC4’s construction.

T90 will be re-opened in 2023 for the following reasons:

• To clarify EPOC4’s chronology. Specifically, to recover chronologically diagnostic materials from deposits predating EPOC4’s construction, which would provide a terminus post quem.

• To determine if a structure underlies EPOC4. If evidence for such a structure is found, then to determine its approximate form, size, chronology, and function.

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