Area II

Excavation within Area II investigated stratigraphy dating to between the 4th century B.C. and the modern era. The first chronological horizon showed the radical transformation of the occupation levels of the sanctuary of the Curiae Veteres. Throughout the 4th century B.C., a series of earth dumps containing abundant pottery raised the previous floor levels. Earlier finds (end of the 6th-5th century B.C.) appeared within this stratigraphy, certainly belonging to the sacred area: large painted vats made of augitic terracotta, one of which decorated with the head of a young man that was preserved intact (470-460 B.C.), red impasto dolia, fragmented but almost complete. A drain built in cappellaccio datable to the 4th century B.C. indicated the level of the mid Republican floor levels. In addition to identifying the southern sidewalk of the road leading from the Forum valley in the 3rd century B.C. phase, part of the Augustan sewer below this road was uncovered together with part of the late Republican (Caesarian) network of foundations reached from the cut in the slope undertaken during the Neronian period after the fire of 64 A.D. The network was formed by walls running north-south, enclosing the internal spaces of the sanctuary in a system not unlike the later Neronian constructions that partially reused them.

Area III

In the northern part of Area III, facing onto the present day Piazza del Colosseo, a series of vaulted structures was investigated below the room paved in opus signinum decorated with basalt crustae dating to the early years of the 1st century A.D. In the southern part of the area, the excavation of several modern robber trenches revealed a succession of walls dating from between the Republican and late antique periods. The north-western corner of the presumed temple restored by Claudius within the Curiae Veteres appeared below a network of late imperial and Severan foundations and the travertine floor of the pillared Neronian corridor that was part of the Domus Aurea. The presence of a piaculum close to this structure seems to suggest that the cult site was also part of the restructuring dating to the beginning of the 1st century B.C., documented during the excavation of the Meta Sudans.

Area IV (so-called Baths of Helagabalus)

In the area occupied by the Severan monument known as the “Baths of Helagabalus”, the excavations revealed the foundations of a Julio-Claudian insula situated immediately east of the “temple of Jupiter Stator” which, cut by the Neronian porticoed street, continued towards the north-east in the area of the present Via Sacra. The western structures of the complex and their alignment are indicated in Lanciani, F.U.R., tav. 29. In the western part of the Severan courtyard the late antique floor make up was preserved in several places. Constituted by marble and travertine fragments, it indicated the original presence of the floor of large white marble tesserae, found in other parts of the same courtyard. The foundation of a wall that reused a considerable quantity of late antique sculpture fragments. Among the reused sculptures were a double herm of Hermes (only the half with the young Hermes is preserved), a portrait of Septimius Severus, and the portrait of a young girl of Severan date. The abandonment phase (5th-7th century A.D.) was attested by an amphora burial (Samos cistern type).