Conclusion

T90 was 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 for the construction of the building.

• 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.

Excavations in 2023 were not successful in meeting these specific goals; however, work in 2023 did further our understanding of specific architectural elements of EPOC4.

Chronology:

Earlier excavations in T90 and in other trenches situated in EPOC4 suggest that EPOC4 was constructed in the early 7th century BCE; materials recovered from atop EPOC4’s floor surface consistently date to the early-to-mid-7th century, while those recovered from deposits underlying EPOC4’s floor surface all seem to date to the early 7th century or even the late 8th century BCE (see Pottery Summary and Conclusion for T90, 2019 and 2022). This season, no securely datable ceramics or other forms of material culture were recovered, but artifact assemblages continue to suggest an early date for the construction and occupation of EPOC4; evidence suggests that the structure was constructed at approximately 700 BCE and was abandoned by the mid-7th century.

Because of a rectangular cutting into EPOC4’s floor surface (Locus 47), in an area where we had planned to section through EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor (Locus 53), we were unable to excavate any deposits underlying and predating EPOC4. However, we did excavate two deposits associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4 (Loci 45 and 52). Within these deposits, we did not recover any securely chronologically diagnostic materials, but the overall material assemblage continues to indicate that EPOC4 was occupied throughout the first half of the 7th century and was abandoned no later than the mid-7th century BCE. Specifically, we recovered an impasto sherd decorated with a conical projecting element (PC20230036) that is typical of late 8th century regional ceramic production. We also recovered a ridged impasto rim (PC20230009), which is nearly vertical in profile; this verticality and ridging also is typical of ceramics of the late 8th and early 7th centuries BCE. In the northern area of the trench, from an equivalent deposit, we recovered a fragment of relief ware (PC20230127) that dates to the first half of the 7th century. The presence of ceramics that appear to date to the late 8th or first half of the 7th century in deposits associated with the abandonment and destruction of EPOC4 does not definitely confirm our dating of the structure, but does further suggest that EPOC4 was built at the start of the 7th century and abandoned by the mid-7th century BCE.

Moreover, we recovered some materials from deposits infilling the rectangular cut into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor that continue to suggest that the building was occupied throughout the first half of the 7th century BCE. The cutting into EPOC4’s floor and the deposits infilling this cut date to the life of EPOC4 and so materials recovered from these deposits can provide chronological clarity. Within these deposits, we did not recover any narrowly chronologically diagnostic ceramics, but we did find an impasto tondo fragment (PC20230054) of a type commonly found in the structures of the Intermediate Phase Complex. Moreover, we recovered a charcoal sample from a deposit infilling the cut (Charcoal Sample #1), along with carbonized seeds and grape pips (PC20230045, PC20230046, PC20230071). Further analysis of these organic materials, such as C14 dating, may provide further evidence for the dates of EPOC4.

Activity and evidence predating EPOC4

When we reopened T90 at the start of the 2023 field season, we had intended to section through an additional meter of EPOC4’s floor; in prior excavation seasons, we sectioned beneath EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor from 106.50-108.00E/45.00-46.00S and had intended to push this section further west, extending it to 105.50E. This is because, at the end of the 2022 field season, we had identified a cut into galestra (Locus 35). This cut was apparently infilled with a heavily compacted olive-brown colored deposit (Locus 31). In the southwest corner of this deposit, we observed an incredibly dense concentration of charcoal, from 106.50-106.80E, that appeared to extend to the west, beneath areas of T90 that had not been excavated. Upon the discovery of this charcoal-rich, highly compacted feature, we hypothesized that the cutting into galestra may be the eastern boundary of a small, countersunk hut underlying and predating EPOC4, and that the charcoal-rich deposit could be the hearth of this possible hut.

Therefore, when we began excavating in T90 in 2023, we concentrated our efforts on the unexcavated area to the west of our prior excavations, from approximately 104.00-106.50E/43.00-47.00S, so that we could more fully reveal EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor and continue sectioning through it, to expose more of this possible hearth. However, we were unable to do so, as EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor was cut into during the life of the building. This cut, which is rectangular in shape, oriented to the cardinal directions, approximately 35cm deep, and with nearly vertical walls, cut into the olive-brown and charcoal-rich deposits underlying EPOC4 that may be associated with an earlier hut.

However, the cut into EPOC4’s floor did effectively create a stratigraphic profile of the deposits underlying EPOC4. Based on the stratigraphy visible along the walls of the cut, we could determine that the charcoal-rich deposit extended over 1 meter to the west, to approximately 105.40E. If this charcoal-rich deposit is in fact the remains of a hearth, that implies that the hearth would have been approximately 1.40 meters in width. Based on what was visible in Locus 31 at the end of the 2022 excavation season, the potential hearth also seems to measure approximately 1.4 meters in length. This hearth may be the heat source used to process and refine metallic ores, resulting in the high quantities of ferric slag, crucible fragments, and tiles and coarseware fragments with adhered slag that were recovered in exceptionally high quantities in deposits underlying EPOC4 during prior excavation seasons.

Architectural elements and features of EPOC4

The rectangular cutting into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor surface sheds new light on the architecture of the building and also can help to clarify findings from earlier excavation seasons and other trenches situated in different areas of EPOC4.

In our efforts to more fully reveal EPOC4’s floor surface in the southwestern quadrant of the trench, so that we could section through the floor surface, we discovered that EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor surface terminated approximately 5 meters into the interior of the building. The end of the plaster-rich floor surface was linear and ran perpendicularly to the foundation walls, indicating that its termination was clearly intentional. To the west of the plaster-rich floor surface at the entrance of the building, occupants created a compacted, beaten-earth floor, omitting the inclusion of plaster as they got deeper into the building. The reasons for different construction methods of EPOC4’s floor is not clear; perhaps a screen or partition was set up to distinguish between these two spaces, one closer to the entrance and more public and accessible, the other deeper in the structure and more private and inaccessible. However, this is just speculation, as no direct evidence for such a screen or partition has been recovered.

The rectangular cutting into EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor surface aligned with the western-edge of EPOC4’s plaster-rich floor. The western wall of the rectangular cut was made along the western edge of the plaster-rich floor deposit. This also seems intentional and indicates that whatever purpose the rectangular cut served, its placement was significant and perhaps meant to be more accessible and visible to those occupying the front space of EPOC4.

EPOC4 is oriented roughly on an east-west access, but the rectangular cut into EPOC4’s floor is perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions. As a result, while the cut was situated near EPOC4’s southern foundation wall, it did not actually run parallel to EPOC4’s foundations. Instead, a small wedge of plaster-rich floor surface was preserved between the cutting and EPOC4’s southern foundation wall. The orientation of the cut also seems to be intentional and significant, although the reasons for the cut and its orientation remain unclear. The cut could have been made to contain another object; given that no traces of such an object remain, it may have been made of ephemeral materials. Moreover, the presence of charcoal in a contained area at the bottom of the cut is perplexing. Given the orientation of the cut, the presence of charcoal at its base and its position within the entryway of EPOC4’s front porch, it is inviting to speculate that the cut may have originally contained a shrine or something else ritualistic in nature. If this were true, it may even represent an early precedent to the construction of lararia in the atria of elite central Italian homes. However, this is highly speculative and no direct evidence for such a shrine has been recovered from the rectangular cut.

The cut into the floor could shed light on another perplexing aspect of EPOC4. In 2014, in T58, excavators discovered a cutting into galestra, situated in the northwestern corner of EPOC4, beneath the building’s back room. They recovered three nearly intact vessels from this cutting; two are of impasto, appear to be hand-made, and are consistent with ceramics produced during the late 8th century BCE (PC20140143, PC20150056). The third vessel is more problematic. It is a fineware oinochoe of indeterminate typology and chronology (PC20140093). Some have dated this vessel to the early 7th century BCE, while others claim that it cannot predate the final quarter of the 7th century BCE. The discovery of this oinochoe in a deposit underlying EPOC4 has prompted much debate regarding the building’s chronology; some assert that EPOC4 had to have been constructed at the end of the 7th century, while we still believe that EPOC4 was constructed sometime around 700 BCE.

One of the problems of analyzing this vessel, along with the other two that it was found with, is that it is unclear whether they were deposited into the T58 galestra cut prior to the building’s construction or whether EPOC4’s earthen floor was cut into at a later date, following the building’s construction. The area of T58 was heavily forested and a large oak tree still stands in the northernmost meter of T58. The roots from this tree, and the others that were removed in order to excavate T58, intruded into the trench and destroyed any portions of EPOC4’s earthen floor surface that may have been preserved in the area. Therefore, it was impossible to determine whether EPOC4’s earthen floor surface was cut or whether the floor was laid over the cutting into galestra.

Findings in T90 in 2023 can serve as an informative comparison for the T58 cut. The rectangular cutting found in T90 indicates that occupants of EPOC4 did cut into the floor surface at least once. While there still is no direct evidence that they cut into the floor surface in the rear room of EPOC4, in the area of T58, the presence of the T90 rectangular cutting indicates that this certainly is a possibility. Therefore, the presence of the aforementioned oinochoe from T58 does not contradict or problematize our dating of EPOC4 to the start of the 7th century BCE.

Conclusions

During the 2023 field season, T90 was excavated to its fullest extent. The floor surface of EPOC4 was exposed across all areas of the trench and sections through the floor have been conducted in all places where it was responsible and sensible to do so. Therefore, this season likely marks the conclusion of excavations in T90. In the future, additional trenches may be opened in other areas of EPOC4, in order to more thoroughly expose and investigate the floor of the building, but such work may not be necessary or even responsible.

The conclusion of excavations in T90 may mark the end of excavations in all of EPOC4. In future seasons, we will work to prepare data and findings from EPOC4 for final publication.