The 15th campaign at Urvinum Hortense was characterised by excavation, survey and the consolidation and restoration of floor levels and standing structures. At the same time, the geophysical survey of the urban area was completed.

In trench A (eastern side of the town), a new survey was made of the visible structures following extensive clearing of the area (the vegetation had not been removed for several decades). This was undertaken with the aim, as in the past, of checking the reliability of the site plans made at the time of Giovanni Bizzozzero’s excavations around the large summit temple between 1932 and 1938. Therefore, in 2012 excavations again concentrated on the large temple podium on the plateau summit, and above all on the later and adjacent complex of the so-called “basilichetta”, situated at a right angle to the main road crossing the town.

Excavations were only undertaken in trench B (western side of the town), again on the large atrium of the terraced domus which extends along the steep slope overlooking the Sambro valley. The opus signinum floor was almost completely exposed, continuing the complex operations of removing the substantial accumulations of roofing materials and collapsed walls, which began in 2008. The plan of this room was also defined as sections of the perimeter walls were gradually exposed. The sandstone column bases and residual tile and stucco column drums were also fully exposed. The six bases seem to document a progressive transformation of the room’s plan as part of the architectural and spatial redefinition of the complex. Lastly, excavation showed that all the stone elements of the impluvium had been removed. The only exception, which appears to be deliberate, was the slab into which the circular well mouth was cut. This opening was partially reduced by the forced insertion of a catillus (the cone-shaped upper part of a millstone) to make drawing water from the well easier and safer.

The newly exposed floor surfaces, the column bases and drums in the atrium were consolidated and restored.