The site of Piana S. Marco is situated within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga Park, in an area characterised by a continuity of occupation attested by the Italic settlement of Colle della Battaglia, the necropolis of Monte Pisatro, the remains of an imperial villa and evidence of substantial Byzantine restructuring.
This season’s excavations aimed to answer some questions of crucial importance for the relative and absolute chronologies of the site, first among them the dating of the present chapel of San Marco, which were not clarified during the previous campaigns (2003-2012). A new excavation area (area 7) was opened in correspondence with the north-eastern corner of the chapel, 2 × 3 m on the north side and 4 × 1.5 m on the east side (façade). The stratigraphy dated to between the present day and the full medieval period. Areas of activity relating to the abandonment, use, and construction of the modern churchyard around the chapel of San Marco, as were traces of the building site for the present façade and the north wall of the modern-Renaissance church, and finds attesting medieval occupation.

Further investigations were made in the area at the south-east end of the site (area 8), which was extended in correspondence with a space last used as an ossuary. This rectangular room, on a north-south alignment, was identified during previous campaigns but not fully excavated. The area was extended in order to remove the layers of abandonment material thrown into a limekiln dating to the 16th-17th century, identified to the south of a first limekiln excavated in previous seasons.

Lastly, area 9 was opened, where the NE-SW continuation of a wall enclosing the entire monastic complex on the south side was identified. The wall in question, of which 15 m were uncovered, presented various construction phases, the earliest reusing limestone column drums. These were part of a classical temple that was partially investigated during previous campaigns. Fabio Redi, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila Valeria Amoretti, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila Daniela Lallone, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila Roberto Montagnetti, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila Paolo Rosati, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila