In the 2023 season the team reopened one trench (OPB 11) and excavated five others: Trench OPB 45 in space 44, OPB 46 in room 1, OPB 47 in 20, OPB 48 in 18bis, OPB 49 in 36, and OPB 50 in space 30. The aim was to clarify the various phases of the complex and to document the pavements of 79 AD.
OPB 11

The team first excavated unit OPB 11 in 2014. By the end of the excavation the unit had revealed a channel running N-S in the eastern quarter of room 22. In 2023 the excavation of the trench ended when the team uncovered a hard volcanic pyroclastic layer belonging to a pervious eruption. Two foundation trenches for the southern and western walls of the room cut through it to reach another pyroclastic flow. Among the finds within the foundation trench was a rim of a Dressel 1c amphora indicating that the room dates to no earlier than the first half of the first century BCE.

OPB 45
The team opened trench OPB 45 on the last large section of uninvestigated area in the southwestern area of space 44. Italian workers had dug a hole for a water collector to drain the site outside of spaces 42 and 43. The team conducting this construction effort found a wall at the time and subsequently moved the collector slightly to the south where our team encountered it in 2021. The team thus sited trench OPB 42 to recover some of the remaining stratigraphy and document the wall.

OPB 46.
Trench OPB 46 had as aim to investigate room one facing the peristyle. The room presented a cocciopesto floor belonging to the final phase before the eruption. In places it displayed holes inside which were fragments of terracotta tiles. These fragments turned out to be roof tiles placed upside down to create an earlier floor in the room. It featured at least forty-four such tiles laid next to each other and covered with a thin patchy layer of lime.

OPB 47
Trench OPB 47 spanned space twenty to meet the thresholds of spaces 12 and 13. The aim was to ascertain if there were multiple phases present in terms of floors. The excavation of the trench ended on a pyroclastic layer. Workers had cut through the layer on the southern and northern sides in antiquity to build the foundations for the southern wall and the northern stylobate.

OPB 48
Trench 48 aimed to investigate the area outside of space two. The unit stretched about 1.5m wide and covered the width of the peristyle. Here too the unit ended on a definite layer of pyroclastic flow as recovered on the south side of the peristyle. The unit presented multiple cuts through the pyroclastic deposit including a foundation trench for the stylobate.

OPB 49
The aim of trench OPB 49 was to explore the area outside of room 8. This space was one of the few areas where previous excavations had not reached the bedrock pyroclastic layer. After recovering two surfaces the trench reached bedrock. A well-head appeared on the southern side of the unit that was sealed off in antiquity.

OPB 50
Trench OPB 50 had as its aim to investigate the development of room 30 on the eastern side of the complex. The unit displayed two earlier surfaces, the earliest of which was composed of rubble