At the beginning of the last century Thomas Ashby had already noted the cistern and, close by, the remains of walls, part of a peristyle and a well connected to an underground water system, probably belonging to a villa rustica. Subsequently, G.M. De Rossi marked these remains on his archaeological map, placing them further SSE than they really were. This topographical error was recently corrected by S. Aglietti and D. Rose.

A rescue excavation involving the cistern area, led to a more precise definition of the cistern’s plan, and the digging of a trench in correspondence with one of the short sides.

The single space, cut from the tufa, measured 9.80 × 3.15 m. The impost for the barrel vault, the spring of which was preserved on the long sides almost to the voussoir blocks, stood to a height of 2 m from the cistern’s floor. The floor probably sloped down towards the side that was examined, as attested by the presence of a drainage hole. It is likely that the hole in the long NE side can be attributed to the robbing of the metal fistula belonging to an overflow pipe.

Water was collected through a hole in the SW side of the vault, which was probably connected to an opus signinum floor for the collection of surface water. Another hole, at the height of the voussoir, was perhaps part of a pump which drew the water contained within the structure.

As in the case of the so-called villa dei Centroni, at the IX mile of the via Latina, the construction technique is typical of the early Augustan period. The stratigraphy revealed that the cistern was soon abandoned, perhaps following some geological instability, and the site was reused or occupied in some form between the 15th-16th century.