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Excavation

  • Tusculum
  • Tuscolo
  • Tusculum
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Rome
  • Monte Porzio Catone

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • Forum – South-western sector

    The main aim of the 2009 campaign was to bring to light the ancient monumental access to the town for those who approached from the south, along a basalt paved road which climbed up to Tusculum from the via Latina. In order to undertake this project it was necessary to remove the modern pathway leading to the forum, thus uniting the western and southern sectors of the excavation.

    On the basis of the results from the 2008 excavations (definition of the perimeter of the basilica on the south side of the forum; completion of the excavations on the temple of Mercury; partial excavation of the road running around the south of the basilica), the excavation area was extended towards the south and west, exposing a second stretch of the road leading into the town from the south-west which gave a new perception of the road layout around the forum. The basalt paved road flanked the temple of Mercury to the east and flanked the terrace on which the basilica stood to the west. The walls delimiting the road and some of the structures built alongside it were partially exposed.

    The extension of the excavation to the south confirmed the dating of the wall closing the forum (end of the 4th-beginning of the 3rd century B.C.). The complete plan of the mid Republican building, identified as the first basilica in the forum, was revealed. The building had been enlarged in the Augustan/Julio-Claudian period, when it acquired its final aspect, in coincidence with the larger operation to restructure the forum aimed at creating a new unity between the architecture and urban plan of the town’s monumental centre.

    Excavations continued in the forum’s south-western corner, providing the data for a reconstruction of the pedestrian access to the forum from the south. A new trench (6 × 3 m.) was opened to the west of the 2008 excavation area from which new data emerged confirming the three construction phases (end of the 2nd-beginning of the 1st century B.C.; Julio-Claudian restructuring; first half of the 2nd century A.D.) already documented in the area close to the temple of Mercury.

    Forum – north-eastern sector

    The excavations concentrated on the area of the building in opus incertum, which had been planned in 2008 and is though to be the collegium. The building was restored and the medieval walls standing on Roman floor levels were removed, below which the remains of a medieval necropolis came to light. Continuation of the investigations in this area documented that the stratigraphy was in an advanced state of degradation, caused by 19th century excavations.

    Acropolis

    The opening of a small trench south of the ‘Croce del Tuscolo’ uncovered the substantial remains of walls relating to building phases dating from the Republican period to the middle centuries of the medieval period. In 2009 a survey of the area also began.

  • Valeria Beolchini - Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma (CSIC) 

Director

  • Trinidad Tortosa - EEHAR-CSIC

Team

  • Elena Ruiz - Universidad de Murcia
  • Giuseppina Ghini - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio
  • Josep Antón Remolà - Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona - Universitat Rovira i Virgili
  • Julio Núñez - Universidad del País Vasco
  • Jacinto Sánchez - Codex
  • Oliva Rodríguez - Universidad de Sevilla

Research Body

  • Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma (CSIC)

Funding Body

  • Ambasciata di Spagna
  • Comune di Frascati
  • Comune di Monte Compatri
  • Comune di Monte Porzio Catone
  • Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE)- Ministerio de Cultura; EEHAR-CSIC
  • XI Comunità Montana del Lazio "Castelli Romani e Prenestini"

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