Today began with our usual morning trip to the site of the Sant'Imbenia villa. We jumped right into work, splitting into several different teams. One group continued to smash bricks into dust and small pieces. These materials, along with sand, hydraulic lime, slaked lime, and water were mixed with a large electric mixer to create mortar for consolidating the crack in the structure of one of the villa's vaults. Some brave volunteers took turns using the electric mixer, which required a fair amount of upper body strength.
Once the mortar was prepared, Roberto Nardi showed us the proper technique for consolidating the crack. He first wet the area in order to simulate the humid conditions that mortar needs to dry and set properly. With our help, he began to slowly fill the crack with the mortar, adding chunks of broken ceramic to help stabilize the material. This consolidation method is most effective because it is similar to the way the original vault was built. Unfortunately, we did not prepare enough mortar, so the crack will need to be finished on Monday.
Meanwhile, a second group was working on the mosaic itself. We cleaned several new sections of the mosaic and applied velatura with a mixture of wheat paste and Primal (a member of the PVA family) to several intact pieces for ease of lifting. Using a crowbar and some wooden boards, we were able to successfully lift several major sections of the mosaic from the ground. A separate group worked on cleaning these pieces and removing some of the heavy back layer to decrease their weight for transportation.
Work on the mosaic is still continuing. There are many more pieces to be cleaned and lifted, and it seems for every piece we uncover, we find two more new ones. We have also begun to find other Roman artifacts, such as bone, glass, small chunks of wall fresco, and a column capitol. Another important discovery was made when we uncovered a second, beautifully preserved mosaic present underneath the Medusa: this was originally the ground floor of the villa. Sadly, we had to cover the second mosaic and leave it for future excavations.
After work, we took a trip to the same beach we went to on Friday for a quick swim before dinner. We certainly have our work cut out for us in the next few days, but we enjoy every second of it.
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