Constructing a Microchronology for the Rural Minor Center at Podere Marzuolo: 2022 and 2023 Results of the Marzuolo Archaeological Project (20 min)

Presenters

Rhodora G. Vennarucci, University of Arkansas; Astrid Van Oyen, Radboud University; and Gijs W. Tol, University of Melbourne

Abstract

The minor center at Podere Marzuolo occupies an alluvial plateau overlooking the Orcia River in rural southcentral Tuscany (IT). Previous work by the Marzuolo Archaeological Project (MAP; 2017–2019) uncovered the remains of an opus reticulatum complex built in the Augustan period with evidence for wine production and, in a later phase, blacksmithing and warehousing. The complex was destroyed by a violent fire in the mid-first century C.E. The results of MAP’s 2022 and 2023 field seasons, summarized in this presentation, add nuance to our understanding of the site’s phasing and development between the first century B.C.E. and first century C.E. Work in 2022 revealed a long trench of uncertain function predating the opus reticulatum complex’s construction and a drain and opus spicatum pavement postdating the fire. The latter features date to the second half of the first century C.E., indicating that parts of the complex were reoccupied shortly after the disaster.

New areas were opened in 2022 and 2023 to investigate another large masonry structure identified in a magnetometry survey conducted in 2019. This striprow building was initially constructed in a regional dry-stone technique and one of its rooms contained a well. At some point, the rooms in this structure were filled with a midden deposit containing large quantities of bone, metal artifacts, and ceramics dating from the late first century B.C.E. to the early first century C.E., and the walls were rebuilt with mortar. This new evidence is helping MAP construct a detailed microchronology for the late republic and early empire, a period of intense activity on site and in the region. The ability to trace a relative chronology at such a high resolution is extraordinary, especially for a rural minor center, and these results will help us situate Marzuolo in larger regional trends and developments.