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Excavation

  • Santuario di Diana Nemorense
  • Valle Giardino
  • Lucus Dianium, Diana Aricina, Diana Nemorensis
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Rome
  • Nemi

Tools

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)

  • Since 1989 the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio has advanced the excavational and restorational campaigns still in progress, on the sanctuary of Diana Aricina. The sanctuary stands on the northern bank of Lake Nemi, on the Alban hills. The cult was born at the end of the 6th century BC, when, according to the testimony of the ancient authors Cato and Festus, a wood was dedicated to Diana in her triple aspects of goddess of the hunt, of the nocturnal light, and of birth. The sanctuary was a federal institution, the seat of the Latin League which dissolved in 338 BC. Some terracottas represent the original form of the temple, which dates back to the 4th century BC and belonged to the Etrusco-Italic type, with wooden structure, dressed in terracotta, open pediment, four columns on the front and spacious cella with side wings. At the end of the 2nd century BC the sanctuary undergo a consistent monumentalization assuming the appearance of other large and contemporary Latin sanctuaries. The new complex is organized on a large platform sustained by substructures, upon which rise chapels for the divinity, rooms for pilgrims and the priests, and a building conventionally considered the temple of Diana. Other scholars, however, believe that the main temple was situated on the upper terrace. In the course of the 1st century BC a large part of the colonnade which was found on the platform is enclosed to form rooms with the probable function of “treasure cellas,” so interpreted for the quantity of statues and ex-votos that were found there. Contemporaneously, a theater and bathing installation is constructed. New restorations are undertaken by representatives of the Julio-Claudian family and by the emperor Hadrian. With the advent of Christianity the sanctuary is abandoned and progressively plundered of all of its furnishings.

Director

  • Giuseppina Ghini - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio

Team

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Perugia

Funding Body

  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio

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