Excavations of the preserved area of Road I Cardo East at the junction with the southern road of the Cryptoporticus basically confirmed the stratigraphic sequence established in 2007-2008, but revealed two important new elements. Firstly, the existence of a system of fistulae which ran under the basalt paved road, of which one supplied a fountain situated at the road crossing. The concrete base of the fountain is still preserved, as are the imprints resulting from the laying out of the external facing, including an open space marked by basalt blocks placed in a vertical position and higher than the road level. The water probably flowed into the great drain situated close by and linked to the road drainage system. The drainage system on the southern side of the southern road of the Cryptoporticus was constructed (together with the building “delle acque”) as early as the Augustan period, while the basalt paved road is of the Tiberian period. This indicates that the water supply system for the town, evidence for which comes from two fistulae laid during the preparation of the road, must also be of these periods, presumably from as early as the Augustan period. The aqueduct and cisterns for the use of the citizens realized by Gaius Fufius Politicus, freedman of Geminus, and placed under the protection of the Nymphs, presumably also existed by the Augustan period. The other important discovery was a series of brick pillars, contemporary with the road axis and arranged in a north-south direction aligned with the internal corner of the road junction. They represent the front of a colonnade which – it is important to note – must have continued on the northern side of the southern road of the cryptoporticus where at least one other pillar has been identified.
At the margins of this excavation the eastern limit of the south temenos of the Temple-Crytoporticus was identified, situated some metres from I Cardine Est: given the plan and its location in relationship to the portico, one must ask what was the nature of the monumental entrance to the stretches of the two roads with porticoes to the area behind the sanctuary complex.

However, the main fact to note is the clear evidence of the continuity of the double curtain wall of the southern side of the temenos which demonstrates a complex organization of the area behind the Temple. This will be the focus of the 2010 field season.
Giovanna M. Fabrini

Area of the Forum

Research in the area of the Forum was aimed at defining the layout of the buildings facing on to it, both from the north and from the west, and understanding their chronological sequence. Although this investigation is still on-going, a first working hypothesis can be proposed as regards the monumental development of this area of the Roman town. In particular the earliest phases, so far documented by layers of collapse, seem to be of the Republican period. Over these levels a sequence of buildings of a monumental character were later built which from the late Republican-Augustan period define the two sides of the Forum piazza and which only took their definitive shape in the second half of the 1st century AD.
Roberto Perna