European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                . Students probe Tuscany s Plain of treasure by Roberto Suro new York times very morning us after Dawn a group of american students hike up to a Long Flat Hilltop known in tuscan folklore As ii piano Del Tesoro. He Plain of measure As the Mist Burns of in the valleys and the summer Sun grows stronger they dig away at the Hilltop with picks and shovels trowels and Bare hands whether a Fortune in Gold was Ever buried there no one can say for sure but the students Are convinced that something even More valuable May lie beneath the Pine and Holly Trees for the site is considered the Mosi important excavation of an etruscan settlement anything you dig up could be the key to understanding a whole civilization said Juliette Robbs a senior at Bowdoin College As she carefully sifted a handful of dirt this summer the students have established the dimensions of a workshop about 157 feel Long and 20 feel wide where artisans once produced an array of utensils and Art works made of Terra Cotta. Bronze and Ivory. Digging in and around the workshop began in 1979 and has produced tantalizing indications of the technology Art and Commerce of the etruscan a mysterious people who flourished there in the years before the flowering of the roman Empire for 20 years. American students guided by professional  have patiently worked the 1,000-Yard-Long Hilltop. 12 Miles Southeast of Siena the dig now run by Trinity University in san Antonio. Texas and Bowdoin College in Brunswick. Mehas produced substantial results in iwo Fields education and archaeology. More than 30 Murlo alumni have become full professors in archaeology and related Fields at universities across the United states. Dozens of others have earned degrees or written dissertations after digging and studying at Murlo meanwhile Murlo has regularly produced important contributions to the world s knowledge of the etruscan who built great cities in Central Italy when Rome was a Village of wattled huts. But the finds Are at least As puzzling As the etruscan people. Their language was nol one of the indo european group that includes most european and Many asian languages and it has yet to be fully deciphered. The etruscan system of government is unknown and their origins Are still the subject of debate and speculation. At Murlo the mysteries began developing the very first Day a shovel was put in the ground Here in 1966 that summer the diggers started uncovering the remains of a monumental building whose precise function remains unkown constructed As a series of rooms around a Large open courtyard the upper building As the archaeologists Call it is a Square some 200 feet to a Side by comparison the Lincoln memorial is 257 feet Long and 187 feet wide it is the largest the oldest and the most puzzling etruscan Monument yet discovered the remains indicate that atop the North Wall about 25 feet above the ground were 13 life size Terra Cotta figures that would have been visible for Miles around Only one has been reassembled an enigmatic figure of a horseman nicknamed the Cowboy because of its outsize Broad brimmed hat. Whatever the building s function meeting place Temple or Palace it Only stood for a few decades before someone considered it important enough to ritually destroy it tearing Down Walls painstakingly smashing sculptures and throwing the debris into scattered pits the Home of a wealthy etruscan has also been found on the site beneath the remains of the monumental building the Home had burned Down and most of the household objects it contained have been uncovered the vast majority of etruscan Sites Are tombs. Over centuries of excavation some have produced real treasures in frescoes statuary and jewelry but the great necropolis is Only provide indirect information about etruscan life. Student cataloguing objects recovered from a dig in Murlo Italy. Tombs offer a Quick return said the director of the Murlo dig. Erik Nielsen. You gel lots of Good material last but then you Are left extrapolating and always wondering if you Are  at inhabited Sites you have to work your Way through a lot More dirt and a lot More useless Skull before you find  said Nielsen who is the Dean of arts and humanities at Trinity University but he said the extra work pays a dividend in certainty we find a bit this year and Well find another bit next year the material Speaks for itself so eventually the truth will untold " for example intricately carved objects made of Antler and Ivory have been found in Many bombs. And for decades  have speculated about How and where they were made some experts insisted that the etruscan were not capable of such work thai they grew Rich by exporting metals and then imported these objects from Greece or Asia minor at the Murlo workshop however similar finished objects have been found As Well As Antlers in every stage of preparation. We have to rethink a lot of  Nielsen said. Given the dig s significance it is All the More extraordinary thai the Kalian aul orites have allowed in to be conducted by two american universities As a teaching program we have to maintain a very careful balance Between professional and pedagogical  says Nielsen if the archaeology does not show results we won t be allowed to keep digging. If the leaching does not show results we lose our funding from the iwo colleges. Murlo s importance was evident last year Whon a National committee to celebrate Italy s year of the etruscan organized an encyclopedic series of saturday August 30, 1986 exhibitions in Italy. One exhibition. The houses and palaces of  in Siena Drew two thirds of ils material irom Murlo the teaching program at Murlo has evolved continuously since Kyle Phillips or. Then of Bryn mawr College first started digging ii piano Del Tesoro with a Small group of graduate students and a Crew of italian workmen the Hilltop had been Ide Lilied As a probable etruscan site decades before by italian archaeologists until 1974 the dig primarily served graduate students including Nielsen who first came in the summer of 1970 for the last few years from 15 to 20 undergrad sales from various schools have enrolled Lor an eight week one credit course including excavation and study programs the students gel Luing and hands on experience in All the major aspects of Field  Nielsen said there Are always some people who think they Aie going to open King Tut s Tomb and then realize after about a week that this can be real hard Drudge  said abbe Leix Collins a graduate student at Southern methodist University who has spent five Summers at Murlo they get very bummed out and Start talking about finding a new  but sometimes in is like  she said because you know something is there but you Don t know what except that nobody else has touched in for 2.500 years Nielsen calculates that alter 20 years of excavation Only 2 percent of Iho surface has been explored i have no doubt there is a whole town up  he said Asho walked through the Woods where Hunters stalk wild boar each Winter. We Are not in a hurry though we can t  the stars and stripes Page 17