We have realized that we were lucky with the weather the first week, the second week offered days with a medium temperature around 28 degrees which is quite normal for the season, but it does nevertheless make it much more difficult to work. Especially for most of us from the far north which are used to more moderate temperatures.

The daily life goes on as normal at our base camp. We work around 8 hours, Monday to Friday, comes home, takes a shower and around 8 PM it is time for dinner, which during weekdays, are made by our Sicilian cooks. One advantage with the Sicilian cuisine, except of course that it is marvellous in its simplicity, is that it is full of garlic, when consumed in considerable quantities it keeps the ticks away (could perhaps be a slight problem for people looking for a romance).

The excavation runs smoothly already after one week and that is a good sign for the coming three weeks. The work is organised with each and everyone responsible for one or several specific tasks. Several field leaders or trench master’s runs the daily work and documentation under supervision of the field director. Two persons are responsible for the on-site documentation and for processing them accordingly to the specifications needed for INTRASIS. They also assist the crew from the Sopraintendizia of Trapani with measurements.

Pontus and Marco mapping with a totalstation

One person is in charge of the photo documentation of in-situ finds, layers, structures etc. Others are responsible for drawing structures, layers and specific situations where this type of documentation is needed. Our Danish house elf manages the economy, and the daily maintenance at the dig house, major cuts in our budget is up ahead.

This week the find bearing layers have been exposed and partly excavated. The finds ranges from bone, metals, terracotta artefacts and of course ceramics of many classes. The ceramics found this week are mainly medium –and fine ware. This group consists of vessels for

preparation and dining of food and drinks. We are dealing with imported wares from Greece and other sites on Sicily.

Local pottery with denta di Lupo decoration

We also deal with one category of finds that probably were made at our site, this group is generally known as MP-grey ware and we find it in considerable numbers. The most common shapes are bowls and jugs, but the variety is impressive. Other artefacts found are loom weights and sherds from large storage vessels, Pithos. We have two persons that are responsible for processing all the finds in our pottery lab.

Our plans for the next week is to expand our trenches further down the slope.