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| Nick Walsh (class of 2012) and Merike Youngs (class of 2014), two of the St. Anselm’s students who discovered a room with artifacts dating to 1000 BCE (Photos courtesy of Dr. David George and St. Anselm College) |
Only such excavation on record anywhere in country
MANCHESTER –
Students from Saint Anselm College have been working on the
first-ever excavation of a series of pyramidal structures underneath the city
of Orvieto, Italy. The existence of these structures carved into the rock of
the tufa plateau on which the city stands were not known until recently. Dr.
David B. George of the Department of Classics at Saint Anselm and Dr. Claudio
Bizzarri of the Parco Archeogico Ambientale dell¹Orvietano are co-directors of
the excavation and the lead archaeologists. At the time of their discovery, the structures had been
largely filled, leaving only the top-most modern layer which had been modified
in modern times and was being used as a wine cellar. Within this upper section,
there was one feature that caught the archaeologists’ eyes: that was a series
of ancient stairs carved into the wall. They were clearly of Etruscan
construction. The Etruscans were the people who had controlled Orvieto from
1000 BCE until the Roman conquest of the city in 264 BCE. It was noted the
walls tapered up in a pyramidal fashion. As intriguing were a series of
tunnels, again of Etruscan construction, that ran underneath the wine cellar,
hinting at the possibility of deeper undiscovered structures below.
The owner of the cellar, Antonio Pagliaccia, was intrigued
by the mystery of what it could be and encouraged its exploration. Working with
the local inspector for the Soprintendenza per I Beni Archeologici dell¹Umbria,
Dr. Paolo Bruschetti, George and Bizzarri helped to obtain a permit to explore
the feature through the Fondazione per il Museo C. Faina.
Excavations commenced on May 21 of this year, at first
digging through a mid 20th century floor and trash layer complete with
old tennis shoes, mid 20th century broken plates, and other early 20th
and late 19th century ephemera. After moving a meter of dirt and
debris, the diggers reached a medieval floor. Immediately beneath this floor
was a layer of fill that, to the surprise of all, contained material and
artifacts, such as Attic red figured pottery from the middle of the 5th
century BCE, to 6th and 5th century Etruscan pottery with
inscriptions, as well as sundry objects that dated to before 1000 BCE. The
excavators were surprised at the leap back in time but explain it as resulting
from the structure being sealed at the middle of the 5th century BCE
and stumbled upon during the Middle Ages and used as a cellar. As excavations continued below this
layer of fill, they came upon 1.5 meters of gray sterile fill intentionally
deposited from a hole in the top of the structure now obliterated by a medieval
ceiling.
“Below that material, there exists a layer of a brown
material that we continue to excavate,” said George in a press release. “The
stone carved stairs which gave the first hints of the structure¹s origins
continue down the wall and turn at one corner, below which it appears like some
sort of wooden structure had been built into the wall to continue the decent
with wooden stairs.”
The material from this level all dates around the middle of
the 5th century BCE, with nothing later. At this level, a tunnel
running to another pyramidal structure was also found. The tunnel dates from
before the 5th century BCE.
To date, the excavators have pushed down three meters and the pyramidal
structure continues. It is now
quite cavernous rising about ten meters from the current point of excavation to
the current ceiling. The lead archaeologists are still perplexed as the
function of the structure
though it is clearly not a cistern. Bizzarri notes that
there is nothing like these structures on record anywhere in Italy or the
Etruscan world. George believes that it could be part of a sanctuary, and calls
attention to the pyramid structures that were described in literary sources as
being part of Lars Porsena¹s tomb. Porsena was an Etruscan king who ruled
Chiusi and Orvieto at the end of the 6th century. Bizzarri cautions
that these parallels are not exact, but intriguing. Both George and Bizarri
agree that the answer waits at the bottom probably four or five (or more)
meters below the current level.
It was the discovery of a lifetime for the Saint Anselm
classics professor and his students. “This is actually a really cool
structure,” George said. “It's underneath the city of Orvieto, and it's a
pyramid.”
The group’s digging continued through August, unearthing
layers of time until they reached the pyramid.
“Right below the medieval floor, we jumped from 1200 A.D. to
400 B.C., nothing in between,” George said.
The structure, which is likely a tomb or some sort of
religious structure, had been sealed for centuries. “I mean, students were
walking on floors that they were the first to step on in two and a half
millennia,” George said.
Tessa Theriault was one of the students who spent six weeks
in Italy on the excavation. Inside, they found ancient artifacts and pottery.
“(We) got to be part of actually finding the artifacts, as well,” said
Theriault, a sophomore at Saint Anselm. She said the experience has been
life-changing.
“This trip has pretty much cemented, in my mind, that this
is what I want to do as a career and made it that much more real for me,”
Theriault said.
It could be some time before it's learned exactly what the
structure was used for. The professor and his students will head back to Italy
to continue their research next spring.
St. Anselm students who worked with Dr. George on the
project are Tessa Theriault, Kiran Ganguly, Merike Youngs, Kristin Harper,
Carlo D'Anselmi, Elizabeth Walston, Alexandra Madsen, Caroline Drennan, Ethan
Lawrence, and Nick Walsh.
