Forum sector of the Temple-Cryptoporticus

The archaeological deposit relating to rooms 8 and 9 were investigated, at the inner corner of the crossroads between the I Cardo East and South Road of the cryptoporticus. The trench (denominated P.I.S) revealed the access to the area on the front of the eastern gallery of the cryptoporticus, through a corridor denominated “eastern” which ran between the perimeter of the eastern temenos and the western side of I Cardo East. The portico was formed by three pillars in opus testaceum, attested on the eastern front of room 9: together with another pillar situated on the south front, they constituted a covered space providing access to the north, through an opening flanked by two pillars, to a corridor which both to the north and south led into the vestibule opening onto the semi-interred floor of the cryptoporticus. This space, which had an entrance with two columns leading into the eastern gallery of the cryptoporticus, had this function during the monument’s first phase, in the Tiberian period. This function was lost when the vestibule fell out of use, substituted in a second phase, by parallel openings created in two of the rooms facing onto the western corridor of the complex. Therefore, a new monumental entrance was created on the eastern side, linked to the upper floor of the porticoes by the creation of a raised terrace, accessed by a stairway and supported on two rows of pillars linked by rounded archivolts built along the sides of the I Cardo East which became, in correspondence with the eastern front of the temple-cryptoporticus, a via tecta. The porticus went out of use in the 2nd century A.D. when the second phase restructuring of the western front was undertaken. The stratigraphy investigated in rooms 8 and 9 clearly showed, starting from the earliest excavated levels, the presence of destruction and robbing layers (beginning-mid 4th century), followed by an alluvial event which affected the entire area (second half of the 4th century). This was followed by wall collapses and further robbing, and the formation of further, even later abandonment layers. These were cut by pits that have produced both medieval and modern materials.

During the summer 2010 restoration work was also carried out with the aim of securing, consolidating and conserving two floors in opus signinum and mosaic, found between 2004 and 2006 in the so-called building “delle acque”. This intervention financed by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Macerata and undertaken by the Ditta Sforzini e Mantella Restauratori Associati di Tivoli, also foresaw the creation of a wooden roof as part of a project to open the site to the public. Giovanna M. Fabrini

Forum Area

The investigations in the forum of Urbs Salvia aimed to investigate the earliest development phases in its north-western sector, in order to integrate the evidence and further define the working hypothesis regarding the monumental evolution of this area of the Roman town.

In particular, the first traces of occupation in the area seemed to be linked to the construction, in the Republican period, of a vast trapezoidal room, paved with wooden planks. Following the partial abandonment of this room and its subsequent destruction, in the Republican-Augustan period, a sequence of buildings developed which partially respected the earlier alignments. The layout remained thus until its definitive re-organisation and monumentalisation which, in the mid 1st century A.D. gave the area its final structure. Roberto Perna