This season involved the initiation of two new trenches, both situated in areas outside of the Villa core. The first, measuring 6 by 5 meters (AA012), spanned the area between the shops along the east side of the Via dei Sepolcri and the core of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico, including parts of two rooms located where the southwest corner of the early Villa core met with the later additions of vaulted supporting structures. Excavation produced 31 stratigraphic units and revealed that this part of the structure had not been fully excavated of eruptive material. Removal of layers of lapilli and ash produced extensive information about both the eruption, revealed the final phase condition of these rooms, and uncovered evidence of several phases of development during the latter part of the life of the area. It is clear that during the construction of the shops to the west of the Villa (Phase 4), the zone in between them also received a series of vaulted corridors with adjoining rooms, likely in two stories, which served to raise the elite elements of the Villa on a raised platform. Subsequently, the area was outfitted with a drain and opus signinum catchment designed to evacuate large quantities of liquid from an as yet unidentified source. In a change possibly to be associated with the earthquake(s) of 62 CE, the area was then downgraded and filled with rubbish and a large dolium for water storage. Rooms previously belonging to the Villa became elements of the western shops at this time. The eruption itself first carried elements of domestic material into the area, then caused the vaulting above it to collapse.

The second trench (AA013), measuring roughly 9 by 5 meters, was located against a row of tombs south of the Villas entrances in a triangular space of uncertain function. Here, excavation revealed many levels of deposited soil, the final layers of which were clearly the result of the construction of the tombs themselves. Three of these tombs may now be sequenced as a roughly contemporary. A surprisingly municipal-scale drain was found also to have been constructed in concert with these tombs. A single cremation burial in a pottery urn was recovered from one of the few areas not disturbed by Maiuri’s interventions of 1935. Natural soils and the earliest phases in the area were not encountered owing to the significant depth of deposits, but the final phase clearing and/or rebuilding of the drain was also apparent in the form of a final-phase open trench filled with eruptive material.