Index for 2020
- 492 - Caitlín Barrett - Kathryn Gleason - Annalisa Marzano - with additional contributions on palynology by Dafna Langgut . 2020. The Casa della Regina Carolina (CRC) Project, Pompeii: Preliminary Report on 2018 and 2019 Field Seasons . Questo articolo presenta i risultati delle prime due campagne di scavo (2018-2019) condotte nel giardino della “Casa del-la Regina Carolina’ a Pompei (VIII.3.14) nell’ambito di un progetto scientifico multidisciplinare che investiga la relazione tra cultura materiale, ruoli sociali e cambiamenti storici. La domus oggetto di studio fu scavata nel XIX secolo, ma il giardino, tra i più ampi giardini domestici di Pompei, non fu investigato e questo ha consentito di effettuare vari saggi stratigrafici mirati, da un lato, ad individuare la superficie coltivata in antico e dall’altro a chiarire come lo spazio fosse utilizzato e vis-suto da parte dei vari ‘utenti’ dal diverso ceto sociale (ad es. il padrone di casa, lo schiavo-giardiniere, etc.). Lo scavo ha restituito non solo dati interessanti sulla natura del giardino distrutto nel 79 d.C., ma ha anche rivelato i resti monumentali di una domus a peristilio di età sannitica. Il diverso orientamento di questa domus che, date le dimensioni e vicinanza al foro probabilmente apparteneva ad un membro di spicco della Pompei repubblicana, indica che l’intera insula subì un drastico rimaneggiamento. I dati attualmente a nostra disposizione suggeriscono che tale rimaneggiamento risalga al pe-riodo successivo al terremoto del 62 d.C. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 491 - Alessandro Sebastiani - Edoardo Vanni - Massimo Brando - Elisabeth Woldeyohannes and Michael D. McCabe III . 2020. The third archaeological season at Podere Cannicci (Civitella Paganico – Grosseto) . This paper illustrates the results of the third archaeological season that took place at the late Etruscan and Republican site of Podere Cannicci in the territory of Civitella Paganico (Grosseto, Italy). Excavations revealed new features of the settlement, allowing researchers to consolidate the idea that Podere Cannicci was a Roman vicus gravitating around a sanctuary area; the latter was focused on fertility cults as a number of votive offerings were collected during the previ-ous investigations. The research concentrated on two different areas: the first one showed the existence of other rooms belonging to the original Republican building while, as the excavation areas were enlarged, a second rural com-plex was discovered, with a possible wine cellar still preserving dolia in situ. Trial trenches were also opened in the surroundings of the main site to better understand the nature of the site and its possible developments into the Imperial period. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 490 - Roberta Pinna - Marco Cabras - Maurizio Cattani - Riccardo Cicilloni. 2020. La capanna 18 del villaggio protostorico di Bruncu ‘e s’Omu – Villa Verde (OR) . This work aims to provide information related to a small cross-section of daily life inside a Bronze Age settlement, using the context of the “Hut 18” of the nuragic village of Bruncu 'e S'Omu - Villa Verde (OR) as a model. The built-up area is a context of extreme interest and provides essential data relating to the daily life of the aforementioned period in this area of central-western Sardinia. The study, following a brief historical-geographical introduction of the territory in which the village is located, begins with the description of the general characteristics of the building and continues with the delineation of the stratigraphic sequence; we continue with a typological and chronological proposal of the finds and, finally, with the analyses carried out in the GIS environment, useful for better estimation of the dispersive trends of the materials. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 489 - Francesca Radina - Michele Cuccovillo - Ginevra Panzarino. 2020. Le tombe di via Sparano nel suburbio meridionale di Barium. In the heart of the city of Bari (Puglia, Italy), at the beginning of 2018, during the renovation of Via Sparano and ‘Borgo Murattiano’ near the Palazzo Mincuzzi, some Late Antiquity sherds and human remains were found. The discovery made possible the investigation of a multi-layered context for the first time in a systematic and scientific way in this part of the city. A funerary area was documented dating to a period between the end of the Late Antiquity and the High Middle Age, with six graves that show the presence of an extra-moenia cemetery area in the south of Bari. This area of the city, well attested throughout the Roman age up to the second century AD, continues for at least 3-4 centuries, indicating the at-tractive role of an extra-urban road system, still efficient in the 5th-6th century AD. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 488 - Giacomo Paglietti . 2020. Santa Vittoria di Serri: indagini nelle discariche “taramelliane”. Campagne di scavo 2016-2018 . At the beginning of the twentieth century the archaeologist Antonio Taramelli carried out several excavation campaigns in the nuragic sanctuary of Santa Vittoria di Serri. These excavations produced a series of spoil heaps of earth and stone close to the structures investigated. In some cases these deposits constitute an impediment to the reading of archaeo-logical emergencies as well as a modification of the original morphology of the soil such as compromising the normal fill-ing of the sacred well during the winter season. In other contexts of Sardinia, the Taramelli landfills have revealed con-siderable protohistoric artifacts for careful study. The excavations conducted in the three-year period 2016-2018 at the eastern sector of the sanctuary of Santa Vittoria di Serri allowed the recovery of different categories of ceramic and metal artifacts. Preliminary results are presented in this contribution. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 487 - Andrew Tharler – D. Alex Walthall – Elizabeth Wueste – Christy Schirmer – Ben Crowther – Jared Benton – Randall Souza – Katharine P.D. Huemoeller. 2020. Preliminary Report on the 2017 Season of the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (CAP). In its fifth season, the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (CAP) continued archaeological investigations inside the Southeast Building, a modestly-appointed house of Hellenistic date located near the western edge of the city. The 2016 CAP season had revealed the full extent of the property’s boundary walls and allowed us to propose a cohesive phasing scheme for the building’s construction, occupation, and abandonment. We suggested that the house was occupied for approximately 60-75 years, beginning in the second quarter of the third century BCE. The 2017 CAP excavations resolved a number of remaining questions, particularly those concerning the phasing of the boundary walls, the layout of interior spaces in the southern and eastern parts of the building, and the nature of domestic activities at different stages of the house’s occupation. This report describes the results of these excavations and pro-poses a new account of the building’s early development. The discovery of two large rotary millstones within the building raises the possibility that the occupants of the house may have specialized in the milling of grains and prompts us to re-name the building, “the House of the Two Mills”. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 486 - Myles McCallum - Martin Beckmann - Matthew Munro - Simone Nardelli - Greg Baker. 2020. Excavations at the so-called Villa di Tito, Castel Sant’Angelo (RI), May to June, 2019 . The 2019 archaeological investigations at the so-called Villa di Tito (hereafter, ‘Villa di Tito’) include excavation, 3D imag-ing reconstruction of standing architectural remains, artefact analysis, and conservation. Our efforts this year have pro-duced a more accurate plan of current and previous excavations, a three-dimensional model of the site and its environs, more evidence for a recent post-abandonment occupational phase, and clear dating evidence for the first renovations carried out on the structure as part of a period of significant architectural expansion and elaboration. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 485 - A. D’Andrea – A. Bosco – A. Coralini – A. Fiorini – R. Valentini. 2020. Ercolano. Documentare e studiare siti archeologici storici: il contributo delle tecnologie digitali . In the last few years, the use of 3D reality-based techniques in Cultural Heritage has grown significantly. Laser scanner and aerial or close-range photogrammetry have become the new tools for many experts and professionals in the field of documentation and restoration. As it is fundamental to integrate old and new datasets, a common topographical framework is frequently required to guarantee the perfect fusion of data originating from different sensors or acquired in different periods. Integrating the scans with high-resolution images allows to document and evaluate the state of art and conservation of archaeological structures quickly. New methods and approaches are tested to check the reliability and accuracy of the 3D objects, particularly if these digital replicas are the final product of the alignment of separate data-acquisition campaigns (4D). The paper deals with the implementation of a network for the Insula III of Herculaneum, an area greater than 4.000 sqm, since 2005 main case-study of the second research projet of the University of Bologna in Vesuvian region, the Domus Herculanensis Rationes (DHER). The topographical grid, obtained through the alignment and roto-translation of over than 300 scans, has been used to geo-reference and scale the high-resolution images taken during a parallel photogrammetric campaign of the painted and decorated walls of the Insula, in the framework of the Atlante degli Apparati Decorativi di Ercolano, a complete photogrammetric and graphic catalogue of the wall paintings and decorated floors of Herculaneum. The contribution deals with the workflow making the documentary basis of a research on decorations in context (as part of a research in household archaeology, insula based) and mainly on the tests carried out to evaluate the accuracy of the network. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 484 - Hélène Glogowski. 2020. Entre archives et vestiges: les restaurations antiques de l’enceinte tardo-républicaine d’Ostie . Construite vers le milieu du Ier siècle av. J.-C., l'enceinte tardo-républicaine d'Ostie a fait couler beaucoup d'encre ces dernières années. Mais en dépit de l'intérêt qui lui a été porté, plusieurs zones d'ombre subsistent encore, c'est le cas de ces restaurations antiques mentionnées dans les journaux de fouilles, et qui sont aujourd'hui en grande partie mécon-nues. Cet article se propose donc d'étudier ces mentions de restaurations des journaux de fouille, et de les comparer avec les récentes études qui se sont intéressées à l'enceinte, ainsi qu'avec de nouvelles observations sur le terrain, afin de comprendre l'évolution de l'enceinte à travers le temps. Built around the middle of the 1st century B.C., the late-Republican city wall of Ostia has been the subject of much dis-cussion in recent years. However, in spite of the interest that has been paid to it, several shady areas still remains, such as the ancient restorations mentioned in the excavation diaries, which are largely unknown today. This article therefore proposes to study these mentions of restorations and to compare them with recent studies that have taken an interest in the city wall, as well as with new observations in the field, in order to understand the evolution of the walls over time. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 483 - Patrizia Basso - Diana Dobreva (eds.). 2020. Aquileia: first results from the market excavation and the late antiquity town walls (part two) . The presentation of the research project of the University of Verona's Dipartimento Culture e Civiltà, carried out in the former Pasqualis property in Aquileia, continues with this second paper that aims to discuss the preliminary results of the excavation held in 2018 and 2019. As much as the work is still at the beginning, some important results already came to light. It is about a new market building that was part of the other two already known from previous excavation held in the ’50 and a structured floor surface, possibly a ramp connecting the two city walls via a footpath that was probably used to unload goods and foodstuffs from the river to the market buildings. These structures seem to be part of a monumental market building that most probably was used to sell different types of goods. Its strategic position next to the river from one side and close to the basilica from another could be of great importance to better understand the development of Aquileia during Late Antiquity. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 482 - Patrizia Basso - Diana Dobreva (eds.). 2020. Aquileia: first results from the market excavation and the late antiquity town walls (part one) . Between 2018 and 2019 the University of Verona, in collaboration with the Fondazione Aquileia and under licence from the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, carried out an archaeological excavation on the former Pasqualis property in Aquileia. The area has been already excavated in the ‘50s of the last century when two of the town’s parallel curtain walls that run along the river and market buildings located south from the basilica were uncovered. This city sector be-came particularly important from economic and social point of view for Late Antique Aquileia. In this paper (Part one) will be discussed the preliminary analyses of the archival documents and the geophysical survey that took place before the excavation. In the second part (Part two) the results of two years of excavation will be presented. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 481 - Massimo Capulli – Dario Innocenti. 2020. Il paesaggio archeologico sommerso e costiero del ragusano Nuovi dati dal progetto Kaukana . The Kaukana Project is a collaboration between the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine (Italy) and the Marine Superintendency of the Sicily Region, with support from the Institute of Nautical Archaeolo-gy. Kaukana is the name of an ancient Roman village near Punta Secca, a small town in the Ragusa province of south-eastern Sicily. The main objective of this project is the assessment, inventory, and study of underwater archaeological sites of the region in order to reconstruct their relationship with the surrounding coastal communities. Fieldwork began in summer 2017 with the excavation of the Punta Secca shipwreck, continued in 2018 with survey and in 2019 with the ex-cavation of the columns shipwreck of Kamarina. This paper presents the results of those campaigns. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 480 - Veronica Ferrari - Università del Salento. 2020. Indagini aerotopografiche e geofisiche a Aequum Tuticum. In the last years archaeological investigations were carried out, by the ‘Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogram-metria’ at University of Salento, on the vicus of Aequum Tuticum (Ariano Irpino, Av), in cooperation with the Superin-tendence of Salerno and Avellino together with with ATS company. The site occupes a strategic position that was crossed by important roads from prehistory to Roman times. However, it is still very little known. Only two archaeologi-cal excavations have been carried out there, unearthing a small part of the settlement with a stratification dating from the 1st to mid-fifteenth century AD. The project has employed a multidisciplinary approach including systematic field walking, aerial survey and geophysical prospecting with the aim of filling the gap in our knowledge of the ancient site. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 479 - Carlo de Mitri. 2020. Il settore centrale dell’arco ionio-salentino in età preromana (VIII-I sec. a.C.): nuovi dati ceramici da Alezio e Nardò . The rescue excavations carried out in the early 2000s in Alezio and Nardò in South Apulia, provide new data to better define the pre-roman phases of attendante in the middle arch of Ionian-Salento peninsula. In both sites the most docu-mented periods are the Iron Age and the Hellenistic Age, especially thanks to the material culture. In Alezio, the docu-mentation of the sections visible on a construction site, allows to report to the Iron Age a ditch encircled the hill of Lizza; in the Hellenistic Age instead, the area had a funeral destination. In Nardò, excavations for urban regeneration have al-lowed to expand the knowledge of the different occupancy phases of the settlement, from the Iron Age to the present day. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 478 - E. Vaccaro, D.E. Angelucci,C. Bassi, A. Buonopane, A. Florenzano, F. Marani, M. Matteazzi, A.M. Mercuri, E. Rattighieri, M. Sfacteria, M. Zambaldi . 2020. Il sito preromano e romano del Doss Penede (Nago-Torbole, TN): la campagna di scavo 2019 . Begun in 2019, the excavation project at the pre-Roman and Roman hilltop-site at the Doss Penede (Nago, TN) in the Upper Garda is the result of a fruitful collaboration among the Department of Humanities of the University of Trento, the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Township of Nago-Torbole. The site has been known since the early 1990s when its outstanding buildings attracted local interest. However, no strati-graphic investigation has been promoted until 2019, when the site was chosen as the first case-study of a wider project aimed at analysing patterns of change occurred at settlements, economy and the cultural landscape between the sec-ond Iron Age and the late Roman period in the area of the High Garda Lake and the Sarca valley. The first excavation season, whose results are presented and discussed in this paper, uncovered a well-planned hilltop site characterised by a system of parallel large terrace-walls linked by monumental staircases and butted by buildings of various functions. Occupied uninterruptedly between the second Iron Age and the 3rd-4th centuries AD, the site likely experienced a pro-cess of monumentalisation in the early Roman period. The Doss Penede is a quintessential example of the resilience of pre-roman hilltop sites at the time of Romanisation of Cisalpine Gaul. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 477 - Emanuela Murgia . 2020. L’area dei fondi Cassis ad Aquileia nella documentazione d’archivio. The analysis of data stored in the Archives of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia contributes to the overall interpretation of the archaeological findings in the fondi Cassis, where the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici of the Universi-ty of Trieste has been excavating since 2005 (field director: Federica Fontana). All the photos and archival documents related to this site have been examined; most of them have an inestimable value because they portray unpublished ex-cavations, at present unknown. The collection of data has revealed the complexity of an archaeological context excavat-ed in different times, with many pieces of information difficult to relate one another. In particular the consultation of the photographs and cartographic documents has made it possible to recognise some topographical references of the exca-vation carried out by Luisa Bertacchi between 1962 and 1965 in the same area of Aquileia. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 476 - Federica Fontana. 2020. Un’insula a stratigrafia complessa: la Casa “dei putti danzanti” ad Aquileia (via Gemina) alla luce delle ultime campagne di scavo . In 2005, Trieste University began the excavations in an area set along the via Gemina, where one of the most important residential insulae of the ancient city is situated, close to the forum and the river harbour. Brusin had already investigated this site in the 1930s, while more recent diagonal trenches had been exca-vated by Bertacchi closer to the area in question. The last campaigns have unearthed a series of structures, that, due to a complex sequence of cuts, post antique and contemporary interventions, have proved very dif-ficult to interpret, especially concerning the northern rooms of the domus. Still it has been possible to identi-fy and map several of the structures described in Brusin’s excavation records; among them the most rele-vant is the mortar layer which originally sustained a mosaic floor removed after the 1930s campaigns. Fu-ture research will aim to clarify the function this part of the building, to verify the presence of a second en-trance and therefore how this area was connected to the road and the shops and, if possible, also to under-stand the relationship between this section and the rest of the domus. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 475 - G. Zuchtriegel, E. Rizzo, F. Soldovieri, L. Capozzoli, I. Catapano, G. De Martino, G. Ludeno, G. Gennarelli, F. Uliano Scelza, C. Benedetto De Vita, O. Voza. 2020. Scoperta di un piccolo periptero dorico di primo V sec. a.C. nel quartiere nord-occidentale di Paestum: nota preliminare . The paper discusses the discovery of a small Doric temple dating from the early fifth century BC in Paestum, southern Italy. Surface finds belonging to the temple were first noted in 2019 during restauration work on the ancient city walls of Pae-stum. Analysis of aerial imagery and geophysical prospection has made it possible to locate the site of temple in the north-west quarter of the ancient city near the fortification wall. The area is currently under excavation. The present pa-per summarizes what we know so far based on prospection data and on more than 230 fragments that can be attributed to the temple, including fragments of the stylobate, columns, capitals, architrave, frieze, geison and sima. The temple, which appears to have been a small peripteros with 4 x 7 columns, sheds new light on the development of Doric archi-tecture and building techniques in Paestum between the Archaic and the early Classical periods. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 474 - Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi. 2020. Il santuario di Venere Ericina Primi risultati delle indagini nel castello normanno di Erice . Recent archaeological research carried out in the courtyard of the Norman castle of Erice have shown that the excava-tions carried out by G. Cultrera in the 1930s did not completely capture nor destroyed the ancient structures. This made it possible to collect planimetric data and to clarify the chronology of the phases related to the sanctuary of Venus Erycina. The new research helped to identify a previously unknown late archaic phase. Circular structures have been discovered which, together with the finds of votive material and pottery, suggest that the area should be considered a sacred site al-ready in that period. The existence of the sanctuary in this phase coincides with a scattered settlement, which has been identified and excavated in several places along the medieval city wall. In the first half of the 5th century BC, when the scattered settlement had already developed into an urban centre, the sa-cred area appears to have been located on the top of the mountain in an extra-urban area. In contrast to the urban cen-tre, which was abandoned after the First Punic War, the sanctuary continued to be frequented during the Roman period, especially in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The new excavations confirm the written sources. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 473 - Luigi Magnini - Cinzia Bettineschi - Armando De Guio - Laura Burigana - Stefano Pedersoli - Elena Griggio . 2020. Non solo scavo: novità dal Bostel di Rotzo (VI) a venticinque anni dall’avvio delle indagini dell’Università di Padova. This paper presents the most relevant updates related to the archaeological investigations carried out in the proto-historic settlement of Bostel (municipality of Rotzo, Vicenza – Italy) during the years 2017-2019. In particular, it discuss-es the results of the excavations in sector D and G, and the implications of the first radiocarbon dates ever performed in the site. The excavation revealed the existence of one new house unit (in sector G) and helped to understand the pla-nimetry of the archaeological remains in sector D, especially with regards to the domestic building and the small, squared structure in limestone slabs. The 14C analysis shed new light on the time-span of the human presence in the area, suggesting a sporadic occupation at the beginning of the Iron Age and backdating the permanent settlement at least to the mid-fifth century BC. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 472 - Dora Cirone - Alessio De Cristofaro - Matthew J. Mandich. 2020. Signum Vortumni Project. Rapporto preliminare sulla seconda e terza campagna di scavi negli Horrea Agrippiana (2017-2018). In the summer of 2017 and 2018, the archaeological excavation in the Horrea Agrippiana planned by the Signum Vor-tumni project continued. The findings emerging from the new excavations allowed us to better understand the stratigraphic sequence already identified in the 2016 campaign. The late Republican domus, with walls in opus incertum masonry, has returned traces of the floors, II style wall decorations and some furnishings. It is confirmed as a high-level aristocratic domus, developed along the terraces of the western slopes of the Palatine. A significant new discovery concerns the construction phase of the Horrea Agrippiana. In the 2016 campaign, the re-mains of a structure interpretable as a warehouse had been found. It is characterized, at least on the northern side, by a series of parallel chambers, 4 meters wide, open to the south, finished in travertine block endpieces opening onto an ar-ea that was probably open-air. The new stratigraphic data could indicate that it is not an older phase of the Horrea, but its first project phase. This would have been interrupted by a fire (12 BC?) and then replaced by the new Horrea Agrip-piana project in opus quadratum, still visible on the site. Regarding the construction of the Horrea, the pottery from the new layers confirm the dating to the Augustan period. Finally, much interesting new evidence concerns the Late Antique phases of the warehouse. Some contexts testify to productive activities dating to the 5th-6th century AD, while a group of new burials, probably from the 7th century AD, seem to be connected to the life of the nearby diaconia of San Teodoro. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 471 - Giovanna Cera - Università del Salento. 2020. Nuove ricerche nel centro fortificato messapico di località Li Schiavoni (Nardò, Lecce) Considerazioni preliminari sulle campagne di scavo 2016-2019 . Located about 4 km northeast of the Ionian coast, the small fortified Messapian settlement at Li Schiavoni (Puglia, South-ern Italy) occupies an extensive plateau, controlling the territory. The stratigraphic research, conducted at this site since 2016, has revealed part of a house, remains of burials and some sections of the fortification wall; archaeological finds that attest the vitality of this settlement site particularly for the VIth and part of the Vth centuty B.C. The walls, built during the Archaic period, was restored and reinforced during the Hellenistic period, perhaps because of an imminent threat. Thanks to the special focus on the new archaeological data from the Li Schiavoni settlement, we can highlight some as-pects of the territorial organization of this part of the Salento region between the Archaic and Hellenistic periods. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 470 - Massimo Capulli (Dipartimento di Studi umanistici e del patrimonio culturale – Università degli Studi di Udine. 2020. Fluvial Archaeology in Italy. Methods and First Results for the Study of a Roman Shipwreck Area . The Stella River (Udine, Italy) was in antiquity one of the most important watercourses of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, its relevance residing in that it connected the populations living in the foothills of the Alps to the ones living near the Adriatic coast. The Anaxum Project (named after the Roman appellation for the river), a partnership between the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage of the University of Udine and the local Archaeological Superintendency, aims to reconstruct the history of the Stella River basin focusing on human-landscape relationships through time. This article describes the part of the project focused on the study of a Roman shipwreck area; in particular, the relation-ship between the remains of a barge and a spread of archaeological material, which without a break stretches north of the hull for tens of meters. The aim was to find out if this material could be part of the cargo of the same wreck, to assess the original dimensions of the boat, as well as to ascertain the dynamics of the sinking and post-depositional events. Thanks to the methodology used during the underwater archaeological research, it was possible to establish in the whole area investigated the homogeneous presence of tegulae (roof tiles) equal to those that were part of the known cargo of the ship; the presence of the same producer names on the tegulae stamps provides the most solid proof that the spread of archaeological material is linked with the barge. However, it seems unlikely that all of the tegulae recovered were on the same boat. In accordance with the stowage scheme observed, the boat could not be laden with more than 55 tegulae per linear meter. This means that even if we do not consider the fact that we have partial data (many tiles are still on the river bottom), at its widest part the vessel would have been over 13 meters to accommodate all recovered tiles. At present, one explanation could be that this archaeological site represents a convoy and that a second vessel might have been involved in the sinking. Keywords: Shipwreck, Site formation processes, Method, Underwater archaeology, Research design, River PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 469 - Elisabetta De Minicis, Giancarlo Pastura - Università della Tuscia, Matteo Zagarola. 2020. San Valentino (Soriano nel Cimino). Nuove acquisizioni (campagne 2018-2019) . This paper presents the results of two different campaigns of archaeological excavations (May- June 2018 and June 2019) in the medieval site of San Valentino (Soriano nel Cimino - VT) conducted by University of Tuscia (Viterbo), Department of Studies (DISTU). This research brought to light a church and another building, and helped us to define and understand the topography of the settlement. Moreover, the archaeological excavations have clarified the chronology of the church, from the twelfth century to the modern period, with earlier phases of the seventh through ninth centuries AD. A Roman inscription of the 1st century b.C. found on the site, reused in a medieval wall, raises interesting questions about the estates, their owners and the productions of goods in the area during that period. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 468 - Angelo Castrorao Barba - Università degli Studi di Palermo, Roberto Miccichè, Filippo Pisciotta, Claudia Speciale , Carla Aleo Nero - Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Palermo, Stefano Vassallo- Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. di Palermo, Pasquale Marino, Giuseppe Bazan - Università degli Studi di Palermo. 2020. Nuovi dati sull’occupazione altomedievale dell’insediamento di Contra-da Castro (Corleone, Palermo) nell’area dei Monti Sicani. In Spring 2018, a second archaeological campaign was carried out in the rural site of Contrada Castro (Corleone, Pa-lermo). The main aim was to investigate a building just partially excavated in 2017. The results of this excavation con-firmed the sequence, which starts from the late archaic/classical period and then continues with a new settlement from the Byzantine to the Islamic period. Over the collapse layers of some stone structures, not entirely investigated, of the late 6th-5th c. BC a probable area for peri-natal burials was created during the 7th-early/mid- 8th c. AD. This marginal cemetery area was replaced by a rectangular building for craft activities for pottery production. In fact, in the first phase of this building two pottery kilns were associated with large amounts of productive wastes. The production activities were relatively brief, and one of the kilns was probably reused as an oven. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the use of this build-ing from the late 8th c. AD to the 9th c. AD when it was apparently abandoned: there are no signs of fire or violent de-struction. During the 10thc. AD this building was no longer visible and new wall was built with a completely different orien-tation. The Islamic occupation, covering the entire 10th and 11th c. AD, was heavily damaged by post-abandonment ac-tivities of spoliation of stone and agro-pastoral practices that occurred during the last century. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 467 - Giuseppe Milazzo - Direzione Regionale del Piemonte, MiBACT, Gilberto Montali- Università di Palermo. 2020. Nuove indagini all’Edificio A di Piazza della Vittoria a Palermo . A recent archaeological excavation has been carried out in the so called “Edificio A”, in the archaeological site of Villa Bo-nanno, Piazza della Vittoria in Palermo, by the Dipartimento Culture e Società (University of Palermo) and the Polo regio-nale di Palermo per i Musei e i Parchi Archeologici. “Edificio A” was discovered and excavated by the end of the XIX Cen-tury and the rich mosaic floors were removed and transferred at the National Archaeological Museum. The style of these mosaics dated the building at the Severian period but there are still some aspects of this monument that are unclear, such as its function and the existence of previous buildings in the area. The new exploration aimed at understanding this part of the ancient town, so important for the comprehension of the architectonical and urban development of Palermo. Parole chiave: Palermo, Edificio A, architettura romana Key words: Palermo, Edificio A, Roman Architecture PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 466 - Alessia Morigi- Università degli Studi di Parma, Riccardo Villicich- Università di Parma . 2020. Nuove ricerche archeologiche presso la villa di Teoderico. The excavation of the archaelogical site which takes its name from the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, were conducted from 1998 to 2016 by the University of Bologna, assisted, as from 2016, by the University of Parma which undertook the sole directorship of the project in 2018. Theodoric’s villa complex in Galeata is one of the latest examples, at least within the Italian peninsula, of the typology of major private residences in late antiquity. The site is multi-layered and character-ised by seventeen centuries of occupation, from the 6th century B.C. to the 12th century A.D. Important new knowledge of the pre-Roman (a late iron-age settlement) and Roman (a large villa) phases of the site has been acquired. The most important results, however, relate to the late antique phase. The excavation, in fact, has led to a new interpretation of the complex known as the “palace” or “villa of the Gothic king Theodoric”. The most significant discovery, related to the 2018 excavation by the University of Parma, relates in fact to the Theodo-rician phase of the site: an octagonal room, attributable to the most prestigious sector of the complex and paved with an extraordinary well-preserved mosaic, was brought to light. Excavations are currently being conducted in the neighbour-ing areas of the octagonal room, which are also paved with mosaics. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 465 - Silvia Pallecchi-Università degli Studi di Genova. 2020. Nora, Quartiere Occidentale: campagne 2017-2019 nell’Area C2. This paper presents the preliminary results of the archaeological research 2017/2019 carried out by the University of Genoa in Nora (Pula, CA), in the Western Quarter, Area C. In this area, excavations have brought to light a rather complex stratigraphic situation, in which six different phases of life and transformation have been recognized, framed in the period between the end of the III and the beginning of the VII century AD. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 464 - Martina Fusi. 2020. I distanziatori da fornace come indicatori di produzione. Nuovi dati per Populonia . The discovery of a missing handicraft district in Populonia used in the production of ceramics has changed the percep-tion of the local pottery industry. Local production had been hypothesized for common pottery – jars with three blobs or three engraved lines under the rim – and for some cups of Atelier des petites estampilles. These assumptions had not been supported by the necessary evidence of finding either production indicators or by chemical or petrographic analy-sis. Based on this hypothesis, a study was launched to determine the local pottery production in Populonia, with special at-tention being paid to the Hellenistic period. The results of this investigation permitted the recognition and classification of a variety of pottery spacers found. One bell-shaped and four ring-shaped spacers come from the so-called House of Seeds, close to the Populonian harbor. Three ring-shaped spacers uncovered from a layer dating to the Hellenistic period in the Necropolis of Casone. Another group of 15 pottery spacers – ring, bell, cylindrical-shaped – were recovered in the archives of the ex-Soprintendenza Archeologia della Toscana. The pottery spacers from Populonia are an important novelty: they have finally been identified as local productions. Thanks to this study we have plausible affirmation of the existence of a local ceramic industry: typology and contextual-ization of the spacers allow us to hypothesize some of the different pottery classes manufactured in this area. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 463 - Francesco Meo, Università del Salento. 2020. Indagini archeologiche a Muro Leccese 2016-2018: l’edificio residenzia-le in località Palombara. Considerazioni preliminari . The excavation conducted in the last three years (2016-2018) in the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese (Lecce) by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Salento has revealed a residential complex of about 1300 square metres in the eastern part of the town (the Palombara district). The dwelling has at least three phases, included between the Archaic and the Hellenistic periods. Several rooms have been discovered, of which the banqueting hall is the most important. Together with the residential complex, a wall made reusing architectural elements and orthostats passes through some rooms of the house. It is most probably dated to the 3rd century BC as several weapons and traces of a large fire were discovered under its collapse and it has been interpreted as a protection during the last assault which de-stroyed the town. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 462 - Paolo Brocato, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università della Calabria , Luciano Altomare - Università della Calabria, Benedetto Carroccio, Margherita Perri, Università della Calabria. 2020. Scavi nell’abitato del Timpone della Motta di Francavilla Marittima (CS): risultati preliminari della campagna 2019. This paper is a preliminary report of the recent excavations conducted by the Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici of the Università della Calabria in the ancient settlement of Timpone della Motta. During the third year of excavation research was carried out on the plateau II and on the plateau I, where structures and numerous materials dated between the Bronze Age and the 5th century BC were discovered. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 461 - Federica Boschi - Università di Bologna, Ilaria Venanzoni - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici delle Marche, Vincenzo Baldoni - Università di Bologna, Michele Scalici, Università di Bologna, Michele Silani - Università di Bologna. 2020. Il progetto ArcheoNevola e la pianificazione di una scoperta: la tomba di un principe Piceno a Corinaldo (Ancona) . In Corinaldo, located in the northern Marche region, an integrated research brought to light a high-status tomb dating back to the 7th century BC, which provides remarkable data on a wide range of aspects of the Picenian culture in this central part of Italy. The discovery is the result of a combination of aerial survey, geophysical prospection and targeted archaeological ex-cavation, undertaken by the multidisciplinary ArcheoNevola project, based in the University of Bologna, and carried out in advance of a planned development program. The cooperation with the Marche Archaeological Superintendency and the Municipality of Corinaldo allowed to start with a preliminary impact assessment, within the designed construction of a new Sport complex in the Nevola River Valley. The excavations carried out in 2017 and 2018, here presented, involving small-scale trials followed by open-area inves-tigation, quickly confirmed and supplemented the results of the non-invasive survey, revealing the remains of an ex-traordinary funerary deposit related to a princely leader within the early Iron Age society of the region. As the first such monument identified and excavated in northern Marche this has provided an extraordinary opportunity to investigate a type-site of the Picenian culture, up till now poorly documented and little understood despite its undoubted importance in the pre-Roman development of the area. The success of the operation lies both in the value of the finding, which belongs to a rare class of elitarian funerary mon-ument, and in discovery methodology, as part of development-led archaeology. At this stage of the research, still in pro-gress, questions remain about several aspects of the Picene tomb and the ancient funerary landscape, but some prelim-inary thoughts can be advanced about the amount of data collected, which will be progressively refined when the inves-tigation goes further. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 460 - Mara Migliavacca, consulente scientifico Museo Civico “Domenico Dal Lago” di Valdagno; docente a contratto presso Università degli Studi di Padova, Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali.. 2020. Il sito di Uomo della Roccia (Muzzolon di Cornedo, Vicenza). Campagne 2015-2018 . The paper describes the archaeological fieldwork from 2015 to 2018 in the Neolithic site of Uomo della Roccia which lies in the Italian Prealps between Lake Garda and River Brenta. The site is in the Schio – Recoaro minerary district, corre-sponding to the eastern part of the Lessini mountains, embracing the upper Agno valley, the Leogra valley, the Posina river basin, the Tretto area and the Sinello valley in the Trentino region. The district is rich with minerals, copper as well as iron. The archaeological excavation discovered the history of a prealpine landscape made of agrarian terraces, in which the remains of a Bronze age structure and many artefacts, dating from prehistory to Early Middle Ages, were identified. The artefacts and radiocarbon dating show that the bulk of the occupation dates to the late Neolithic. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 459 - Michelle Hobart, Alessandro Carabia . 2020. Excavation at Castellaraccio (Civitella-Paganico – GR) 2018. This report summarizes the first archaeological campaign (May – June 2018) at the medieval settlement of Castellaraccio of Monteverdi. The scope is to first identify the life span and activities of the castle and to understand the relationship of the hilltop with its immediate surroundings. The research will further determine the socio-economic role that the castle played in this strategic area, positioned over farming land, a bridge and a major road that led inland from the coast to Siena. The presence and collaboration of a nearby ongoing excavation of earlier Etruscan and Roman settlements are the ideal condi-tions to address how the activities changed and transformed through time, adding another perspective to the current debates. This first season aimed to clear the castle from the collapse to expose its plan and date the life span of its occupation. Further clearing was also extended to the exterior of the castle to document the different wall techniques of the fortification. Only one area was opened over the most monumental part of the castle. The lack of medieval glazed pottery, except for a few fragments of undatable kitchenware, could indicate a pre-majolica settlement. While it is still premature to assess any date of occupation of the hilltop, it seems safe to establish that Castellaraccio belongs to the first incastellamento generation. The use of non-invasive techniques in the next campaign will help read the territory around the castle, along the Ombrone river and possibly to the nearby Cannicci valley. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 458 - Elena Chirico. 2020. La mansio di Hasta ad Alberese (GR, Toscana, Italia). The mansio of Hasta, mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana, was built along the via Aurelia vetus at Alberese, in the southern part of the ager Rusellanus (GR, Tuscany, Italy). Some oblique aerial photographs made it possible to recon-struct the plan of the site occupying an area of about 3 ha. The mansio was built at the end of 1st – the early 2nd AD by the impe-rial estates. The res Caesaris, which had acquired the ager Cosanus and the islands of Giglio and Giannutri in the Grossetan Maremma, had invested in the ager Rusellanus and promoted in the Alberese a certain amount of devel-opment documented by the restructuring of the sanctuary complex of Diana Umbronensis, by the construction of the manufacturing district of Spolverino at the last bend of the Ombrone river and perhaps with the construction of the man-sio of Umbro flumen at the mouth of the Ombrone..Like many other mansiones of the Italian peninsula, Hasta was abandoned in the late 5th century AD. A new occupation is documented in the early Middle Ages when the Astiano cur-tis, whose name recalls that of the Roman mansio, is documented from written sources. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet
- 457 - Adolfo Panarello. 2020. Note preliminari sui resti di una struttura muraria in opera poligonale di epoca repubblicana nel basamento della Chiesa di S. Bartolomeo – Frazione Sipicciano di Galluccio (Provincia di Caserta – Italia centro-meridionale) . The polygonal wall (third style of polygonal masonry) fragment reported in this paper has been only very poorly present-ed in some local publications and in book about the environmental contexts of the Roccamonfina volcano (Central-Southern Italy). Built with lavic elements, it now serves as the foundation for the north wall of the ruined church of San Bartolomeo in the village of Sipicciano di Galluccio (Caserta Province). Although this paper reports only the results of careful surface surveys, it is at least useful to describe and highlight an interesting structure that has so far escaped the attention of archaeologists and that certainly deserves to be studied in greater depth. The description allows comparison and suggest more in-depth and wider archaeological investigations in this extended area bounded by the Via Latina and the Garigliano river, along whose banks many Roman sites have been found. This publication extends our knowledge of the polygonal structures located in the border region between Lazio and Campania region, adding a structure with a fine building technique, great elegance and interesting functional peculiarities. PDFpermalinkRecord Sheet