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Excavation

  • Rudiae
  • Rudiae
  •  
  • Italy
  • Apulia
  • Provincia di Lecce
  • Lecce

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)

  • In 2014, as part of the project for the protection and enhancement of the ancient city of Rudiae, the Laboratory of Ancient Topography and Photogrammetry carried out the second campaign of excavations in the north-western sector of the walls, continuing the work begun in 2011.

    The eastward extension of trench B/C, opened during the previous season, revealed the continuation of the so-called buttress, however the eastern end was not found. The removal of the collapsed blocks showed that the buttress was structurally linked to the ‘inner lining’ of the wall, which it protected; that the western section of the buttress was built in steps, on which a sort of ‘ramp’ rested directly, constituted by several dumps of gravel and soil (Fig. 1). The entire structure can be interpreted as the support for a sloping surface leading up to the wall’s upper walkway.

    Trench E was opened in the north-western sector of the city’s urban perimeter, a short distance from the line of the wall, along a modern dry-stone wall that continued for 700 m on a constant SW-NE alignment, both outside and inside the urban area of Rudiae. This wall constitutes the survival of an intermediate limit of the centuriation in the Salentine peninsula. A road was uncovered in trench E, with kerbs in stone blocks and road surface of pressed tufa chippings. The modern dry-stone wall was built on top of the eastern kerb and occupied part of the road itself (Fig. 2). The western kerb, built of reused blocks probably from the nearby curtain wall, was partially built on the limestone bedrock and contained the road surface. The beaten paving surface was constituted by a make-up of well-compacted small to medium limestone chippings. The total width of the road, including the kerbs, is 3.80 m; the width of the road surface is 2.80 m.
    The discovery of this road is of particular interest as it constitutes archaeological evidence of the Roman centuriation of the Salento (which probably occurred in the Gracchan period), to date only attested by dry-stone walls and modern roads that follow its lines. The fact that the dry-stone wall, and therefore the road, crosses the city walls indicates that the wall circuit lost its importance, the urban area was reduced and much of the city of Rudiae was definitively abandoned.

  • Adriana Valchera- Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF) 
  • Patrizia Gentile- UniSalento 

Director

  • Adriana Valchera- Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)
  • Marcello Guaitoli- Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)

Team

  • Alfio Merico - Dottorando, Dottorato di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Barbara Pezzulla - Dottore di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Claudio Martino- Dottore di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Fabio Fabrizio - Dottorato di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Fiorella De Luca - Ricercatore CNR-IBAM, Lecce
  • Katia Luzio- Dottore di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Michele Sansonetti - Dottorato di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Paola Guacci- Dottorato di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento
  • Patrizia Gentile- Dottore di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", borsista post dottorato ISUFI, UniSalento
  • Veronica Ferrari - Dottore di Ricerca in "Topografia Antica", Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, UniSalento - Archeologa Topografa

Research Body

  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia
  • Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)

Funding Body

  • Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)

Images

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