Thursday June 13th

Today was our first day at the Roman villa at the Sant'Imbenia site in Sardinia, although we first visited the site of the Nuraghe di Sant'Imbenia. This site was where the large, free-standing, warrior sculptures we saw yesterday afternoon were found. We were shown around the site and told about the excavation and theories regarding the origins and creation of the Nuraghe by Marco Rendeli, a colleague of  Roberto's and a profesor at a local university.

We then arrived at the Roman villa at the Sant'Imbenia site to eat a picnic lunch, Italian style with fresh fruit and vegetables and olive oil, and to discuss how to proceed. We divided into three groups: one to work in the room with the mosaic, removing the sand backfill left to protect it in 2005 (when the Medusa center piece was recovered) and begining to excavate the remaining mosaic; one to work in the main room, cleaning the room and then backfilling it with sand to protect it; and one to work at the vault, removing debris and cleaning a large crack.

We worked until around 6:00pm, at which time we were tired but very satisfied, having found much more mosaic then Roberto had expected. Roberto then decided to take us to a "secret beach" to go swimming in the Mediterranean, which was just as amazing and refreshing as he promised. The  day ended with another fantastic dinner at the same authentic Sardinian restaurant as last night and more gelato, along with a walk along the coast.