Back to Work
Monday we went back to work. After such a long weekend, it took a little while to get back into the swing of things at the dig site. We were able to open our “lab” which consists of a bunch of buckets, toothbrushes, and large brushes for cleaning pottery in an abandoned single-floored hospital. A few people each day will be going up to work on cleaning the pieces that we have pulled out of the site so far. Down at Trench C, we are continuing to excavate a 30 centimeter deep by 2 meter wide trench on the North and West walls, extending the existing trench. We are only doing 30 centimeters or so at a time in order to see what is in different levels as we slowly make our way downward. It’s rough work due to the large amount of rocks and roots from the bracken and thorn bushes we had destroyed last week, so it is slow going. We are still pulling out pottery and tesserae by the handfuls though, and hopefully we’ll be able to start on the fresco at the corner of the North and West Walls by the end of the week. After work, Josh told me that he had met a guy on the Funiculare who had asked him to come help with a show that was going on up in town next weekend. Josh said no, but knew that I was interested in theater, so he said that I might be willing to go up to help with lighting. So I went. It was very interesting to say the least. The show, Laude in Urbis (Praise in the City), is a bunch of scenes from the bible (Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Isaac, The Good Samaritan, The Inferno and Paradise) and a scene from a Morality Play. It moves from church to church along the streets of Orvieto and people follow along and watch as they go. It is run and performed by a mixture of Italians and Americans, and one British woman. Evidently the director, Karin Coonrad, is one of the top directors in NYC today. I’ll update you on Thursday as to how the opening performance goes.
~Nick Quinn
a.k.a. Poncho!
Monday, June 12, 2006