The 2012 investigations have made an important contribution to knowledge not only of the monuments constituting the Sanctuary of Vesta, both in the early archaic and later periods, but also of those immediately east of the sanctuary. The width of the first building constructed around 750 B.C. is now known thanks to the discovery of a stretch of perimeter wall, and new information on the walls of the subsequent structure, interpreted as the domus Regia has been uncovered. Its back wall, facing onto the ditch between the Palatine and Velia, was faced with baked clay of which a fragment with moulding was recovered.

In the subsequent domus regis sacrorum of mid Republican date, the deepening of the excavation in a room next to the tablinium produced sensational results. This room, perhaps open-air, housed an altar connected to a well from at least from the 4th century B.C. Votive material ( arule ) was found close to the altar. Until at least the late Republican period, the altar and well continued to be rebuilt.

A new excavation area was opened next to the Porta Mugonia of archaic and late Republican date, in an area untouched by G. Boni’s excavations. A cult area, of at least archaic date, with an altar and votive material, was uncovered right in front of the gate, whose orientation it follows. It was accessed from the so-called ‘clivo Palatino A’, which from the via Sacra led to the gate. The cult’s position in front of the gate recalls that of Jupiter Stator. Towards the end of the 2nd century B.C., the cult area may have been incorporated into a building in which a tablinium seemed to be present.