Friday June 14th

We arose and headed directly to the Sant'Imbenia site after a breakfast provided by the  hotel in Alghero, Sardinia. The teams from yesterday were rearranged in order to give everyone a chance to work on all aspects of the excavation and conservation of the site. Some people worked on continuing to excavate and clean the mosaic in situ, for the time being only removing loose tesserae (the small cubic-cut pieces of stone that make up a mosaic).

Trowels, scalpels, and brushes of various sizes were used to clean the pieces of mosaic in situ and the dirt that was removed from the mosaic was sifted before being discarded to make sure no tesserae were lost. Other people worked with scalpels, tooth brushes, and water to clean the loose tesserae. Still others continued cleaning the large crack in the vault. And finally, the last group used small sledge hammers to smash bricks (original Roman bricks from  the site)  into powder to eventually be made into mortar to stabilize the crack in the vault.

We wrapped up our work at the site around 6:00pm and, as with yesterday, changed into our bathing suits to go swimming. Roberto showed us a different beach than the  one from  yesterday; this one had a Nuraghe watch tower on a hill on the far side of the bay where we swam. After swimming we drove back for a quick shower and change of clothes before dinner, followed by a walk around Alghero.