In October 2007 a new excavation campaign was undertaken in insula 7 of Regio IX which concentrated on various sectors of the insula.

A trench was dug in shop IX, 7, 18, where the existence was hypothesised of a road separating insula 7 into two sectors, that was obliterated by the shop’s construction. This is the only rectangular insula inserted into a group of square insulae. Excavation revealed a complete stratigraphic sequence which excluded the presence of the hypothetical road. The trench reached the levels present below the shop floor, which was shown not to be in use at the time of the eruption. The opus signinum floor was badly preserved, in fact in the last phase it was cut by a square hole in the north-west corner and along the west side, in correspondence with the sidewalk kerb. The cuts were filled with lapilli from the eruption of 79 A.D., still in situ, and are perhaps related to the re-organisation undertaken following the earthquake of 62 A.D.

Below the shop’s pavement a wall of limestone blocks, plastered on both sides, came to light. There were no elements providing a precise date. The excavation of the holes revealed the preceding stratigraphic sequence in its entirety, consisting of levels of alluvial accumulation reaching a depth of circa 0.90 m below street level. The presence of the alluvial layers at a height above that of the paved road surface in Vicolo di Tesmo and Vicolo di Balbo, together with the absence of layers that were clearly associated with beaten road surfaces, seems to exclude the presence of an earlier road that was then obliterated by the construction of the shop. The shop does however appear to belong to the last construction phase of house IX, 7, 18-19.