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Excavation

  • S. Gaetano di Vada
  • Rosignano Marittimo
  • Vada Volaterrana
  • Italy
  • Tuscany
  • Province of Livorno
  • Rosignano Marittimo

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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)

  • This season the excavations continued the work begun in 2013-2015. In the southern sector of building I, the walls belonging to a new structure formed by a row of rooms were investigated; the function remains to be defined (Fig. 1).
    The excavation of the westernmost room (8) was completed. A large quantity of pottery fragments was found in a substantial layer with a sandy matrix, situated at the foundation level of the perimeter walls, which confirmed the dating of this eastern part of building I to between the final decades of the 2nd and the early 3rd century A.D.
    To the east of room 8, the extension of the excavation area identified two new rooms (9-10). The first was a large rectangular room (Fig. 2), which had a stone threshold with double pivot sockets (Fig. 3). Inside the room, the stratigraphy was intact and related to at least two different floor levels, which will be excavated in 2017.
    Although only a part of the north and west perimeter walls of room 10 have been uncovered (Fig. 4), which were wider than those of the adjacent room 9 (60 cm), it was possible to identify the presence of a rich decoration of marble slabs on both.
    Excavation of the small necropolis continued, which was created in the period between the late 5th and mid 6th century A.D. in the area east of buildings 8-10. A grave (n. 5, Fig. 5) bordered by a cordon of stones and tile, containing a female individual was excavated. The position of the long bones – in particular the clavicles – confirmed, as already seen in tomb 1, the use of a shroud.

    A building was identified in the south-western sector of the port area of Vada Volaterrana, whose construction technique and the pottery from the foundation trench of the perimeter walls suggest dates to the Augustan period. The structure can be attributed to the same phase in which the horrea were built on the site. The building, defined as “I”, was formed by at least two rooms, one of which set up as a taberna, as attested by two bread ovens inside the first room (Fig. 6 and 7).

    The ovens probably remained in use until the area underwent transformations, in which the Augustan building was incorporated into a new structure – called “L” – built after the 70s A.D. (as attested by a coin of Vespasian found in a wall cavity between building I and building L, Fig. 8).

    In this period, an upper storey was added to building I, evidence for which is the construction of a wall inside the first room that created the housing for a staircase, of which however no trace remained.

    In this phase, an insulated floor was put into the eastern part of the building, its surface of pressed sand and clay overlay a loose foundation made up of numerous pottery fragments (pots and amphorae). At present, the activities that took place here are unknown, probably storage and/or production of goods that needed protection from humidity.

  • F. Bulzomì - Università di Pisa Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere 
  • Stefano Genovesi – Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere 

Director

  • Simonetta Menchelli - Università degli Studi di Pisa Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere.

Team

  • Paolo Sangriso – Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere.

Research Body

  • Università di Pisa Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere

Funding Body

  • Laboratorio Didattico Volterrano
  • Università di Pisa

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