The aim of the excavations in the Via degli Augustali in 2008 was to increase our knowledge of the supposed fortification of the ‘Altstadt’, which appears in the southern rooms of the House of Ariadne (VII, 4, 51-31). In 2008, below the makeup of the road was encountered the probable internal fill of the defensive wall, with materials of the sixth century B.C.

In the 2009 campaign, the sondage below the street was enlarged towards the west, in front of the taberna of the House of the Reflecting Oven where it was hoped to find evidence for the fortification. In this zone it became clear that the lava substrate that emerged at 50 cm. below ground level had been cut to form a talus running north-south with a flat area on top of it. At its base were found materials of the fifth century B.C., which gives a date before which it was constructed. The narrow area excavated, below the makeup of the road, makes it difficult to determine the extent of the talus which, in any case, could not have extended beyond the area occupied by the road: a sondage on the south side of the road, in the taberna 25, revealed sterile layers immediately below it, demonstrating that the talus did not stretch this far.

In the eastern part of the sandate, the talus was cut along its length for the placement of two blocks of Sarno limestone which continued north under the threshold of the taberna. This, together with other evidence too complicated to go into here, suggests the presence of a possible gate entered by a road which has now disappeared which would coincide with the area occupied by the Houses of the Reflecting Oven and the Grand-duke and which would have continued towards the north, in the Vicus of the Labyrinth and, to the south, in the Vicus of the twelve gods. This interpretation should be considered preliminary.

In the taberna of the macellum mentioned above there is evidence for a probable archaic occupation with wooden structures, over which were installed a wall of blocks of ‘tufo tenero’, typical of the construction of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The line of this wall, north south, is the same as that of the eastern wall of the taberna, whose mortar covered the wall of the samnite period. Around the end of the third. or the beginning of the second century B.C. the defensive wall and the gate were razed, giving way to a public road, probably the junction of the via of Augustales and a road which has now disappeared running north-south. During the second century the zone was transformed into the urban space now visible, with the elimination of the road and the construction of the houses.

We only know of the macellum from the beginning of the first century B.C. when a midden formed containing abundant remains of fish and carbonized seeds. During the first century A.D., on both sides of the street took place productive activities, which go with the distinctive nature of this street.

The last phase of construction, before the eruption, was very intense on the edges of the road, with extensive internal remodelling of the buildings, like a latrine and a little shop, which were covered with lapilli in spite of having been excavated in the nineteenth century.