The Project management brought technical equipment from Sweden by car, through Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy and arrived safely to Salemi, Sicily the 29th of May. The foot soldiers were brought in by air, Monday 31st. We started organizing our headquarters, which we share with a group from University of Chicago Northern Illinois (USA). We count 14 heads but people will come and go along the way. We took a tour on the site Tuesday and began preparing for excavation.

Touring the site after arriving. This is the inspection of what the italian team has achieved since april

The weather was cold for the season, the temperature was around 20 degrees and the mountain was covered with clouds most of the week.

During our first week we had backup from The National Heritage Board of Sweden. Kennet Stark (on the right) helped us getting started with the total stations and the documentation system, INTRASIS, which we have been using since 2001.

In 2003 we removed most of the destruction layers with topsoil, debris from the walls and layers with charcoal and burnt clay. Already the first day of excavation this year we reached the in-situ find layer. This layer is the final layer and it is interesting since it has been intact since the collapse of the structure. This gives us unique opportunities to study a frozen situation in time, 2500 years old.

Some of the ceramics will be examined by Torbjörn and Pia from the ceramic laboratory at the University of Lund. Their study will hopefully shed light over the interaction between the inhabitants on Monte Polizzo, other indigenous settlements, Phoenicians and Greeks on Sicily.