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Excavation

  • Altilia
  • Altilia
  • Saepinum
  • Italy
  • Molise
  • Province of Campobasso
  • Sepino

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)

  • For the 2015 season, work was planned in several distinct areas.
    The first area was an ecclesiastical complex widely documented in the written record but never excavated, the so-called Chiesa dell’Annunziata situated inside the walls of Sepino. Here, the difficult environmental situation required a preliminary, demanding, and prolonged intervention of land reclamation. Due to the substantial nature of the layers covering the structures, it was decided to carry out an initial investigation of their depth, which was carried out by Studio Archeofides di Frosolone. Therefore, excavation in this area was postponed until 2016.

    The areas in front of the Porta Boiano and Porta Benevento were reopened in order to continue the excavation of the cemeteries. In both cases, a fundamental contribution was made by the 2015 Survey and 3D Modelling Summer School organised by the IUAV University of Venice and the University of Perugia, in addition to the Studio Archeofides. Topographical and photogrammetric surveys were made, the latter also involving the use of UAVs. The standing funerary structures still in situ (including the monumental tombs of the Numisii and of C. Ennio Marso) were laser scanned. The surrounding visible residual structures although not part of the cemeteries, were also scanned as tangible evidence of the reoccupation and changes in use of these areas.

    Outside the Porta Boiano, a series of inhumation burials were excavated. The graves were cut into sterile gravelly, rough terrain that required the creation of a floor surface and tile linings. In some cases mortar was used between the tiles, mainly sesquipedales, or tile parts. Lateral lining or lining at the head end, sometimes formed by two flanking vertically-set tiles, was often common to two adjacent burials. The coverings were generally “a Cappuccina”, but flat coverings were also present, sometimes formed by alternating layers of lime and tiles. Robbed elements were present but only reused as inert materials to fill in gaps. The deceased were predominantly adults, lying on the grave floor with the head to the east. Most graves presented a modest tomb group of ceramic vessels, mainly closed forms, found intact by the feet or to the side of the deceased: a coin had been placed inside them. The tombs date to between the later part of the early imperial and the mid imperial periods.

    The excavations outside the Porta Benevento, a short distance from the funerary monument of C. Ennio Marso, concentrated on two funerary enclosures. The use of opus reticulatum for the facings suggests that these structures were slightly later than the preceding tombs. However, it was not possible to complete the excavation of the enclosures.

  • Valeria Scocca- Università di Verona e di Venezia Ca’ Foscari/IUAV 

Director

Team

  • Maurizio Matteini Chiari- Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Lettere-Lingue, Letterature e Civiltà antiche e moderne, Cattedra di Topografia Antica
  • Mauro Vassena
  • Michela D’Alessandro

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Lettere-Lingue, Letterature e Civiltà antiche e moderne, Cattedra di Topografia Antica / Associazione Saipinaz Onlus.

Funding Body

  • Associazione Saipinaz Onlus
  • Comune di Sepino
  • Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Lettere-Lingue, Letterature e Civiltà antiche e moderne, Cattedra di Topografia Antica

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