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Excavation

  • Nervia, Area mura settentrionali
  • Ventimiglia
  • _Albintimilium_
  • Italy
  • Liguria
  • Province of Imperia
  • Ventimiglia

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • This campaign concentrated on areas 1000 and 1000A, in the eastern part of the excavation.

    In sector 1000, excavation continued in the area of the cardo, delimited by structures US 1009/1015 and US 1010, where several layers datable to the 3rd century A.D. were excavated. They were cut by a series of later holes, whose fill containing 5th-6th century pottery, confirmed the abandonment of this area and its use as a dump in late antiquity.
    The removal of layer US 1092 revealed structure US 1036, on an east-west alignment, which predates the walls delimiting the cardo, partially abutting and partially overlying them. It is suggested that these are the remains of the northern perimeter walls of a pre-existing insula, situated between the cardo and the town gate, which opened in this part of the walls.
    In the corner between structures US 1010 and US 1036, a thick slab of de La Turbie limestone was uncovered. This is interpreted as the remains of a threshold relating to US 1036, obliterated by later interventions on the cardo itself.
    On the southern edge of the same area the remains of a probable road-bed, US 1110, were identified, partially cut by a hole datable to the 5th century A.D. In some stretches this overlay the walls of the cardo US 1009 and US1010. This suggests that the road-bed was widened with respect to the original limits represented by the structures along its sides.
    In the central part of the area, a more or less circular hole was exposed. It contained two fills, the second of which constituted only by ash. The hole was surrounded by a slightly dipping layer of pseudo-annular form, containing fragments of Gaulish sigillata and the remains of burnt brick/tile. This was possibly a small kiln however it was more probably the housing for a large timber post, which had burnt.

    The excavation also continued in area 1000A, in direct contact with the town walls, with the aim of gaining further information about the phases during which they fell into disuse, and their relationship with structure US 1068, discovered in 2010. This structure lay almost parallel to the walls, slightly converging towards them from east to west. Only a stretch of the foundations was preserved, constructed in pudding-stone and sandstone, with large amphora fragments used as wedges. Layer US 1071, possibly a floor level or beaten floor surface, was associated with the structure. A preliminary analysis of the finds dated it to the second half of the 5th century A.D. onwards.

    This chronology thus dates the abandonment and fall into disuse of the walls in this sector of the Roman town, confirming what was documented in the western part of the excavation, where from the same date onwards, a cemetery overlay the abandonment levels of the walls.

  • Daniela Gandolfi - Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri 

Director

  • Carlo Varaldo - Università degli Studi di Genova

Team

  • Luca De Bernardi - Politecnico di Torino, Sezione di Mondovì
  • Viviana Pettirossi - Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri
  • Lorenzo Ansaldo - Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri

Research Body

  • Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri

Funding Body

  • Comune di Ventimiglia

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