During 2002 the excavation of the market area of the ancient settlement of Musarna brought to light a space in whose south-west corner there were two pits connected by small channels which allowed their contents to be drained into a sewer. This feature dates to the earliest occupation phase of the space and attests its original use as a courtyard or storage area. A hearth built of tile fragments, visible below a corner of the tank situated north-west of the area, can be dated to a later phase. Two trenches were dug in the area of the south-east gate: the first inside the gate uncovered a level dating to the 4th century B.C., immediately preceding the gate’s construction, cart tracks along the north side of the cut and various make ups for roads of later date which remained in use until the late antique period. The second trench was dug outside the gate in order to look at the road network. It brought to light the road exit which made it possible to move along the area between the two defensive walls, along the eastern side of the site. Also uncovered were the northern end of the defensive system and a votive deposit, comprising a layer of earth rich in anatomical votives, statues of ornated, coins and late antique pottery. The votives found outside the gate are not in situ, but a long way from their primary deposit which must have been on the summit of the agger, south of the south gate, near a large building which was probably a temple dating to the city’s foundation. Investigations undertaken in the Imperial necropolis provided a clearer picture of the cemetery’s topography. Divided into two sectors by a central road it housed burials in earthen graves and “a cappuccina” tombs. (MiBAC)

The plateau occupied by the Etrusco-Romano town of Mursana extends over an area of circa 5 hectares. Intensive excavations were carried out on the town during the second half of the 19th century. In 1982, the chance find of a mosaic with etruscan script lead to the start of an extensive excavation programme, based around four main research objectives. The study of the urban centre has allowed the complete reconstruction of the site's orthogonal plan, dating back to the 4th century B.C., which was divided into twelve housing blocks. Three sectors were the object of open-area excavation: a Hellenistic bath-building, in use until the reign of Tiberius, a domus occupied between the 1st century B.C. and the 5th century A.D., and part of the eastern side of the central square, with a temple perhaps dedicated to Hercules and a complex of shops similar to a market. Investigation of the town walls has revealed a complex and imposing defensive system. The entire site is surrounded by a wall. To the east, the weakest side of the plateau, this had been reinforced, internally, with a bank of earth. Externally, the main wall was protected by a second wall with a wide, deep ditch in front of it. To the east of the site, some areas of the Hellenistic necropolis (aristocratic underground tombs and -a cassone- tombs), and a large group of fossa tombs of Imperial date were investigated. The agrarian landscape has been examined using excavation, and topographical and geophysical survey. This research has enabled the reconstruction of a part of the road system and some aspects of land use around the site (vine trenches), as well as the system of defence along the eastern boundary with the territory of Tarquinia, which was composed of a chain of small forts. (Vincent Jolivet)

During the study of the data from the excavations at Musarna carried out by the École Française de Rome, between 1983 and 2003, research undertaken by Giuseppina Cinque (Dept. of Engineering, University of Tor Vergata, Rome) led to the formation of a hypothesis regarding the site of the point at which the urbanisation of the ancient town, founded in about 320 B.C., began. This point, designated in archaeological literature as the _mundus_ or _locus_ _inaugurationis_, could be marked by sacrificial remains, by a ritual cavity, or, as at Marzabotto, by a large cobblestone bearing a _decussis_. In 2018, a 2 m trench excavated in this exact point, at the far end of the forum, and at the centre of the _cardo_ (Fig. 1), revealed a posthole cut into the tufa bedrock. It was 29 cm in diameter and reinforced with stones and tile fragments. The posthole contained charcoal fragments (Fig. 2), and was sealed by a layer of imperial date. This could be the place where the gnomon was positioned that was used at the beginning of operations to determine the layout of the town’s principal road axes. However, the charcoal fragments found in the hole have been dated by C14 analysis to between 138 and 339 A.D., therefore apparently incompatible with such hypothesis. In 2019, it was decided to check for the possible presence of a similar feature at another important crossroads, that between the north-south _cardo_ and the _decumanus_ separating _insulae_ A-B to the south from _insulae_ C-D to the north, which led east to one of the town’s gates. The trench (Fig.1) was positioned in order to cover all possible theories (position at the centre of the crossroads; aligned with the north wall of _insulae_ A-B; aligned with the south wall of _insulae_ C-D). The excavation revealed the complete destruction of the stratigraphy in this zone, caused by agricultural activity. The tufa bedrock, exposed across the entire trench, in contact with the layer of ploughed soil, presented only a few small channels converging towards a drain (Fig. 3).