The excavation revealed a drain of 6th-century BC type on the line of the Via Nova where it runs above the Atrium Vestae, so suggesting that the line of the street in this area may date back to the 6th century BC. The construction of the drain and associated levelling presumed to represent the making of the street followed an earlier phase of activity, which involved the redeposition of substantial deposits of soil and apparent excavation of the ground. Following the correlation of this information with that from nearby geological boreholes, it is tentatively suggested that this might be a rampart and ditch of an early fortification around the Palatine Hill. The later Roman sequence in the area of the excavation was also revealed. (Henry Hurst)