It is the beginning of the fourth week here in Castiglione del Lago. We have made lots of progress on our dig site, Gioiella-Vaiano, and also gone on some fun field trips. My favorite trip was the one to Lucus Feroniae. Lucus Feroniae was located in ancient Etruria and in modern–day Lazio. In the little town a villa, the villa of the Volusii Saturnini, was discovered in 1961 during construction of the A1 super-highway. I was particularly interested in visiting this place because we are excavating a villa and I was curious to see what one looked like. The villa of Volusii was constructed in the middle of the first century BC and housed a wealthy senatorial family. This villa relates to the one we are excavating with respect to the periods of occupation and the wealth of the owners. Although we do not know as much about our villa as we will when we are finished excavating, we do know that the villa was owned by a wealthy person and produced wheat and possibly other agricultural products. The villa of Volusii was huge, beautiful, and well preserved. I loved seeing the layout of the house and the placement, sizes, and function of the rooms. The most interesting part for me was the mosaics, most of which were beautifully preserved. There were a few black and white ones of different designs but I was really impressed with the one that was in color. I do not know much about mosaics and was not really interested in them until this trip. My interest began while digging in the bathing complex area (trench D2). On the southern end of the trench we uncovered part of a mosaic that was found during last year‘s dig. The mosaic at the Gioiella-Vaiano site is black and white and we cannot see the design of it yet. Seeing the fully excavated one in Lucus Feroniae was amazing. I could not imagine being the archaeologists who uncovered it because you have to be so careful around a mosaic — but also because finding one that large would be so exciting. I get so happy when I find a singular piece of tesserae and finding a full mosaic would be incredible. Seeing a completed mosaic made me hopeful for the Gioiella-Vaiano site because it gave me an idea for the layout of a villa and a mosaic. The mosaic in the villa of Volusii is a geometric pattern made with multiple colors that creates a three dimensional illusion with the shading of different colors. Because our villa was built around the same time as this one, it is most likely also a geometric pattern and probably something to do with the specific room it is in. I am excited to continue digging for the next few weeks. I am also very enthusiastic about the mosaic in trench D2 because of the amount of tesserae we have found.
(The first picture is of trench D2 in the villa of Gioiella-Vaiano; the second two pictures are of the colored mosaic from villa of Volusii Saturnini; the last picture is of the site of Lucus Feroniae, including the villa).
Works cited:
http://www.archeologialazio.beniculturali.it/it/300/la-villa-dei-volusii
TRAP 
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