Fasti Online Home | Switch To Fasti Archaeological Conservation | Survey
logo

Excavation

  • Via Sepolcri
  • Torre Annunziata
  • Oplontis
  • Italy
  • Campania
  • Naples
  • Torre Annunziata

Tools

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)

  • The operation carried out in the two week 2015 season aimed to investigate the phasing and the development of the complex. As a result we concentrated our efforts in three main areas: The houses on the north side, the rooms around the peristyle, and the barrel vaulted rooms on the south.

    On the north side the situation is different to the rest of the complex because the rooms here are independent housing units that lined a roman street. A simple visual survey in room 46 indicated that an original doorway into the room was walled up in antiquity. At the same time a wall to the adjacent room 47 was opened indicating that the two independent housing units were merged into one. In order to better understand the sequence and date the structure we opened OPB 16 in room 46.

    A major factor to understanding the complex is to identify any previous phasing in the rooms around the peristyle. To this end we targeted a few areas that would give us a better insight. Starting on the northern wing we opened OPB 17 to straddle the demolished wall that once separated rooms 2 and 3. On the southwestern side a visual survey highlighted how the division walls between rooms 21, 39 and 18 were demolished in antiquity. Room 18 in particular, preserves a walled up door on its northern end. For these reasons we opened unit 18 to investigate any phasing in the area. A similar situation exists on the eastern side of the peristyle where a door walled up in antiquity once opened directly onto the peristyle. In order to get a better sense of these rooms and their relationship with the courtyard we excavated OPB 18 in room 18 and trench OPB 19 in room 16.


    The southern side of the complex constituted our third main area of investigation. In particular, a visual survey of room 49 (10bis on the old plan) indicated the presence of various phases in the walls including evidence that the barrel vault of the room represented the latest addition of the area. We decided to sink OPB 15 here to understand its sequence and retrieve datable evidence from the wall foundations. Outside of the rooms we reopened trench OPB 6 to gain a better understanding of the complex of drains, surfaces, and wall features we recovered at the end of the season in 2013.

    Though the findings and materials from the 2015 campaign are still under study, the initial results point to several different phases—up to four—in the complex. A full report of the findings will follow.

  • Ivo van der Graaff- Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art 

Director

  • John R. Clarke University of Texas at Austin
  • Michael L. Thomas, University of Texas at Austin

Team

  • Jess Galloway- Principal, Booziotis & Company Architects
  • Paul Wilkinson- Swale and Thames, UK
  • Ivo van der Graaff- Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art

Research Body

  • Center for the Study of Ancient Italy
  • The University of Texas at Austin

Funding Body

  • The University of Texas at Austin

Images

  • No files have been added yet