as of 2015-20 hodges is the principal investigator of a european research council project known as neu-med (no. 670792) with the university of siena entitled ‘the creation of economic and monetary union (7th to 12th centuries): mining, landscapes and political strategies in a mediterranean region’. this project involves excavations at vetricella, a complex 9th- to 11th- century elite site near scarlino, a study of portus scabris on the tyrrhenian sea, environmental and archaeological studies of the pegora valley corridor, and a major analysis of italian early medieval silver coinage with a view to identifying silver extracted from the colline metallifere.