During excavation campaigns in February/March 2007-2009, we were able to open several trenches in the southern and south-eastern colonnades of the forum. While the excavated areas had frequently been disturbed through earlier, undocumented trenches (e.g. by A. Maiuri) or several phases of modern electrical cables, our excavations nonetheless produced several new insights with regard to the planning, development and overall spatial conception of the southern part of the forum. There can be no doubt, for example, that the façade of the basilica (the so-called chalcidicum), as well as the old southern delineating wall of the forum itself, were both constructed towards the end of the 2nd century BC. Further south ran an earlier cobbled street, following the extension of the vico di Championnet. The area of the later ‘Civic Buildings’, also described as curiae, was taken up by private houses. Towards the end of the 1st century BC the southern wall of the forum was dismantled and replaced by brick columns, thereby creating the double colonnade that is still visible today. The cobbled road and the earlier domus appear to have been abandoned at the same point in time. The area they occupied was now used to construct the predecessor structures of the still standing ‘civic buildings’. This meant that the public space of the forum was extended significantly towards the south. We were able to identify traces of several structural changes and repairs that appear to date to the period after the AD 62 earthquake. At the time of the city’s destruction in AD 79, a deep ditch ran along the tufa colonnade. This was not covered, as we discovered it filled with lapilli from the volcanic eruption. It appears probable that this ditch was excavated to hold a new water conduit or similar. The area outside the so-called comitium, on the other hand, followed a very different line of development. As outside the Eumachia Building further north, a series of tabernae lay in front of this structure. These were abandoned when the first colonnade was built in this area.

The finds from our excavations will, for the first time, produce secure stratigraphic dates for the different phases of development outlined above. As excavations are ongoing, this will enable us to produce the first overview of the spatial development of the southern part of the forum that is based on concrete archaeological data. This, in turn, will form an ideal basis for a correlation of an architectural and a functional history of this part of the forum of Pompeii.