The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) is an interdisciplinary project that targets the archaeological past of San Giuliano, a site located approximately 70 km northwest of Rome within Marturanum Park in Lazio. The 2018 campaign was the project’s third consecutive season of work. SGARP’s goal is to reconstruct the long-term changes in human occupation of the San Giuliano plateau and the surrounding hills. Hundreds of rock-cut Etruscan tombs ring the plateau, while the plateau surface was likely the site of the associated Etruscan town. We seek to investigate the Etruscan occupation and understand the transitions that followed, including incorporation into the Roman Empire, transformations in the medieval settlement pattern, and the site’s final abandonment sometime before AD 1300.

SGARP’s third season of fieldwork focused on four tasks: 1) documentation and registration of the rock-cut Etruscan tombs that ring the plateau, 2) salvage excavation of a selected Etruscan chamber tomb, 3) excavation of a Villanovan/Etruscan tomba a fossa; and 4) excavation atop the San Giuliano plateau. We have documented over 500 previously unmapped tombs with a standardized system of GPS, photography, and registration forms. In the 2016, 2017, and 2018 seasons, SGARP conducted salvage excavation of three Etruscan chamber tombs: Tomb E13-035, found in the Caiolo tomb concentration; and Tomb G13-001, located beneath the Tumolo Cima tumulus, and Tomb G12-060, positioned in the cluster of tombs around Tomba Rosi. All three tombs had been extensively looted and most contexts were disturbed. The exception was an external portion of Tomb G12-060 excavated in 2018, where a cremation urn was found intact and in situ. These salvage excavations of looted tombs show significant promise for recovery of artifacts and human bone.

Atop San Simone hill we located and excavated an intact transitional Villanovan/Etruscan trench tomb (tomba a fossa) from ca. 700 BC that contained the deteriorated skeleton of an adult female with a full suite of accompanying objects, including 14 ceramic vessels (both hand-modeled and wheel-made) and 24 bronze objects (multiple fibulae, two matching arm bands, earrings, and tweezers).
Within the medieval fortified zone at La Rocca, SGARP excavations to the south of the castle tower have revealed a courtyard with at least three storage pits/granaries subsequently used for trash deposition. A strong doorway leads from the courtyard into a long structure that possibly served as a communal hall. Finds including glassware, dice, and ceramic fineware suggest that this was a place where people of substantial means dined (probably the elite or the castle owners’ soldiers), while zooarchaeological analysis indicates the consumption and disposal of meat animals. The 2018 excavation centered primarily on structural modifications that had been added to this communal hall, as well as the excavation of a courtyard area to the north of the hall. This courtyard area had several sub-surface pits, but no structural remains contemporaneous with the hall. The open area likely connected the hall to a probable chapel building that lay further north, as well as to the fortified tower.