The excavations at Piano della Civita di Artena (RM) were undertaken by students from Temple University Rome, directed by Cécile Brouillard (INRAP) and Jan Gadeyne (Temple University Rome),with volunteers from Artena, and the assistance of ceramic specialist Simon Dienst (Liegi University).
Excavation continued in the area immediately west of the villa (sectors 65-68) and in the area to the south-east, where during the excavation of the villa and the tufa building (2002 and 2004) traces of more rooms (sector 52) appeared that were investigated for the first time in 2015.
A production complex was identified in sectors 65 and 67. This comprised an _opus caementicium work surface for the functioning of a torcular (excavated in 2015), a vat for collecting the liquid and a storeroom. The vat walls were faced with opus signinum. Two steps led down to the vat floor, which sloped down towards the hole at the centre. The material from the vat fill included coarse ware pottery, fragments of a 6th century A.D. glass goblet and a bronze coin of Justinian I.
A storeroom (_doliarium_) was identified south of the vat in sector 65. The square vat and container investigated in 2014-2015 were also a part of it. This season’s excavations uncovered two dolia housings and a dolium inserted directly into the ground. The entire production installation (_torcula_, vat, storeroom) was abandoned in the last quarter of the 6th century A.D.

In sector 68, there was a limestone wall with a threshold situated west of the torcular surface. So far, an eight-metre length of the wall has been uncovered. At present, it is not possible to suggest the nature of this wall, which is on a different alignment to the those of the villa and the post-villa structures.

Lastly, in sector 66 an infant burial was excavated, partially preserved, and placed in a container formed by three fragments of one amphora. No grave goods were present. The burial was aligned north-east/south-west and was a short distance away from two more infant burials found in 2012.

Work also took place on the opposite side of the villa, in the area of the tufa building of Republican date, excavated in 2002 and 2004. In addition to the continuation of the villa’s water pipe, the burial of a juvenile individual was discovered. This was a grave cutting into the abandonment layers of the terrace’s Republican phase. The remains were not well-preserved and the body had been placed on top of two tiles with the head to the north. There were no grave goods. Other human bones were found in the layers of abandonment post-dating the destruction of the Republican buildings. This suggests there were other burials in the vicinity. The burial may date to the late antique period, but this remains to be proven.