Excavations at Stancija Blek (Tar) in 2016 – establishing the earliest phases of the complex

Archaeological excavations at Stancija Blek (Tar, Tar – Vabriga municipality) in 2016 covered the areas of, as previously defined, Room 8 and Room 1. In fact, research was carried out to define the western perimeter of the cistern, the area to the east of it, and to review the presence of archaeological stratiphication within the "tower", where previous clearings have taken away part of the infill. In the western part of R8 a more complex stratigraphy has been determined, providing a better understanding of the layers excavated in the previous years. A phase, to which burnt layers and white mortar features can be linked, laid above a reddish layer into which a posthole had been dug. Below this features, upon removal of the wall SU 059, layers of destruction were excavated showing the presence of two walls belonging, probably, to the earliest phases of the complex. As the destruction layers yielded mostly 5th-6th c. materials, the burnt layers, the mortar features but also the oven, must be dated later. One of the newly established walls (SU 161) creates a channel-like feature along the western wall of the cistern, on whose bottom a layer of floor preparation has been established. The function of the other newly established wall, SU 143, is at this point still unclear. In the eastern part of P8, excavations showed that the eastern wall of the cistern, though built in a tripartite way, presents a much thicker external wall (SU 142). SU 115, a drywall structure partly build on the cistern's infill (SU 113) and partly on the other two section of the cistern's eastern wall (SU 054–055), leans onto this wall. A complex situation has been noted in the northern part of the cistern as well. Here, two structures are laid above SU 054/058 (the cistern wall onto which the wall of P1 was later built), closing a gap between the walls of P1 and SU 142. By removing part of the cistern's infill, a larger section of the hydraulic mortar applied on SU 058 is now visible, with a gap corresponding to the supposed location of a ceiling's supporting pilaster. This year excavation was extended to P1, the inner space of the tower. As this area has been subjected to debris clearing through a long period of time, almost all stratigraphy is lost. Nevertheless, a structure built along (and perhaps underneath) SU 058 has been established, as well as layers of floor preparation in the central area of this space. In the SE corner layers are better preserved though in small sections, thus hindering their interpretation. This area yielded materials datable to the mid-1st c. AD, confirming an early Roman phase of the complex. Literatura