The study of the Roman town and bishopric of Forum Novum (Vescovio) in the Sabina is an initiative being undertaken as part of the British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project. It uses a range of geophysical techniques (magnetometry, resistivity and georadar) and field survey, combined with the excavation of selected areas, to examine the layout of the centre and its development through time. The project began in 1997 and in the first instance concentrated on geophysical survey of the entire area with the aim of identifying the dimensions and layout of the centre. The survey confirmed that Forum Novum was a small centre, circa 4 hectares in size, composed mainly of public buildings. In addition to the excavated forum complex, the survey identified an amphitheatre, a temple, and possible warehouses, along with buildings of uncertain function. Just outside the centre, to the north east of the forum, the survey revealed a number of structures, including a villa, an associated funerary precinct and a major resistance anomaly which excavations later revealed to be a bath complex. (Helen Patterson, Stephen Kay) From 1998 to 2004 excavations were carried out of the amphitheatre, of the villa and funerary precinct, and the baths. A series of rich Republican tombs identified by the geophysical survey aligning a road into the ancient centre were also excavated. An area behind the church of Santa Maria in Vescovio is also being investigated, revealing a long sequence of occupation from the Republican period through until the Middle Ages. In 2004 a joint collaboration was also established with the University of Perugia under Prof. Filippo Coarelli. Excavation was undertaken of two areas of the forum complex, including a temple identified by the geophysical survey, and the results have shed new light on the earliest Republican phase of the centre. The geophysical research programme is conducted by Dean Goodman (University of Miami), Yasushi Nishimura (Nara Cultural Institute of Japan), Salvatore Piro (CNR-ITABC), Vince Gaffney and Meg Watters (University of Birmingham).