In March 2016, research was carried out in the Stabian Baths in order to investigate the following hypotheses, outlined in previous scholarship (unpublished research by H. Sulze in 1940/41; monographs by H. Eschebach 1970, 1979): the development of the entire lot in 7 phases, including an Archaic fortification wall with ditch around the “Altstadt” (6th c BC) and several other Archaic features (street, tomb etc.), and a Greek-type balaneion with palaestra from the 5th c BC onwards that was gradually developed into a Roman-type bath building; the latter believed partially ot have coexisted with an atrium-peristyle house.

Two different methods were chosen for a reassessment of the history of the building: stratigraphic excavation; and an intensive architectural survey in order to reassess the typology and relationship of walls, as well as the typology and chronology of pavements and stucco decorations.

The following areas were excavated:
1.Rooms N1 and N2, the presumed cells with bathtubs of the Greek balaneion: reexcavation of N1 and complete new excavation of N2 did not yield any evidence of bathtubs; the entire complex of cells was only built in the 2nd c BC, most likely together with the eastern section of the Stabian Baths.

2.Room S: the existence of a lithostroton pavement that belonged to a room of the atrium-peristyle house could be confirmed, but no earlier, presumably Archaic levels and structures were found.

3.Praefurnium VIII: since no precise date had ever been proposed for the complex with 3 cauldrons, a trench was dug along its NW-corner; so far, no original levels have been reached although no previous soundings are known for this area.

4.Palaestra: two trenches in the NW-corner (8 m x 6.2 m) and in the western central part (c. 10 m 4.5 m) revealed no traces of an Archaic fortification or ditch; walls and pavements of the atrium-peristyle-house, structures pertaining to the palaestra, and a large drainage channel that had already been explored by Maiuri, were identified. The precise chronological sequence of these features remains to be determined.

The combination of architectural survey and excavation showed that the developmental model proposed by Eschebach requires significant revision. No coherent building can be reconstructed before the 2nd c BC when the bath building and the atrium-peristyle house were built. The bath building saw at least three major remodeling phases (shortly after 80 BC and twice in the 1st c AD).