In 2008 excavations continued on the Abbey of Montescudaio, undertaken by the local administration and the University of Pisa. The new campaign aimed at completing the archaeological sequence in the areas where excavation had begun, and the opening of new sectors situated in various parts of the medieval cloister.

In area 2000 the new campaign coincide with reaching the clay cappellaccio in sectors 2000/2100 and 2500/8000, and the continuation of excavations in sector 2400/9000 situated in front of the church’s façade. Here, the intensive use of the area as a cemetery until the early modern period slowed down the stratigraphic and anthropological investigations. Throughout this area, once past the late medieval funerary phases, inhumations were present which not only dated to the moment of the monastery’s foundation (end of the 11th century), but also to the preceding period, in relation to the pre-existing rural church (end of the 10th century). In the earliest phases (end of the 10th-beginning of the 11th century) the burials situated close to the building’s perimeter walls were often delimited by stone elements, whilst others were in earth graves, occasionally with a stone marker near the head and/or feet. An analogous situation emerged in sectors 1500 and 1900.

New trenches were opened along the east and south sides of the cloister (sect. 3200 and 3400) and at the centre of the open space, in correspondence to the well. As regards sectors 3200 and 3400 the most important data is partly linked to the evidence from surviving walls and partly to the earliest medieval occupation phases, exploration of which will be completed in 2009. Excavation of the well (sect. 3800) revealed a stratigraphy typical of this type of archaeological deposit. Below the upper layers relating to agricultural deposits there was 3 m of fill constituted by stone elements of various sizes, going down to the silts and gravels deposited on the bottom (4.00-4.30 m below present ground level). The removal of the fill revealed the period of use (from the 11th to the first decades of the 18th century) and the building technique, as well as recovering numerous almost intact or reconstructable containers used for drawing water (pottery jugs and filters, wooden buckets) and some archaeo-botanical remains, which provide an insight into the landscape around the site.

The trench in sector 4000 provided important information dating the apse construction to the full 12th century and for the connotation of the cemetery area in this zone. However, excavation will continue here in order to define the chronology and typology of other earth graves which appear cut into ground surfaces preceding the foundation of the Romanesque apse. The excavation of sector 4500 was completed and revealed evidence that the northern perimeter predated the 12th century extensions.

On the basis of the data collected in 2008 the preliminary archaeological sequence was revised and plans made for the 2009 excavation.