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Excavation

  • S. Gaetano di Vada
  • Rosignano Marittimo
  • Vada Volaterrana
  • Italy
  • Tuscany
  • Province of Livorno
  • Rosignano Marittimo

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • During the 2012 campaign research centred on the northern sector of the archaeological area. Excavations continued in the area west of building A (Small Baths, trench CVI, room XVII) and a structural re-evaluation of the rooms in building A was made.

    The enlargement towards the north of trench CVI revealed the plan of room XVII that was connected to building A and situated west of it. The structures forming its perimeter could not have supported masonry walls, but only lightweight structures or roofing. It is suggested that this structure was probably multifunctional, acting as a wood store, shed for tools and ‘spare parts’ (special tiles).This function and the presence of a threshold, suggest that a sector of the area was roofed, while it is possible that the southern part, crossed by the drain from the frigidarium, was open air. The extension of the trench also exposed another passageway from room XVII of the baths, which has been reconstructed as an access used by slaves for carrying out structural maintenance. Deepening of the excavation (‘C’) in the north-western corner revealed flooring made up of layers with a sandy or sandy clay matrix overlying a layer of pressed sand containing fragments of Italian sigillata. Below this layer was a stratification with a sandy clay matrix which covered the dunal sands, within which was a fragment of Italian sigillata. This data agrees with that from the 2011 campaign and confirms the building chronology of room XVII (end of the 1st-beginning of the 2nd century A.D.).
    In building A the rooms excavated by the local Gruppo Archeologico between 1975 and 1977 were re-examined.
    Room I: probable housing for the testudo, it presented an opus caementicum base that occupied almost the entire space; cleaning exposed patches of floor make up and it was possible to get a better look at the base itself and of the housing for the terracotta piping that supplied water to room IV.

    Room II: may be interpreted as a service room relating to the use of the testudo; cleaning revealed a number of floor make ups on top of which rested USM 6, a step providing access to the bronze container.

    Room IV: structurally joining to V (_calidarium_), the room presented two blockings subsequent to its period of use, one towards exedra XVI and the other towards room VI; these were access points for cleaning below the hypocaust floor.

    Room XIII; the space was obliterated by the construction in an unknown period of a cistern in stone bonded with mortar and with a tile floor. In a corner of the room, the 2012 intervention exposed a stratigraphy relating to a series of beaten floor surfaces and make ups that had been cut by the cistern’s creation. Its foundations also cut several layers of dunal sand at a greater depth with respect to the structure’s perimeter walls.

Director

  • Marinella Pasquinucci - Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche del Mondo Antico
  • Simonetta Menchelli - Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche del Mondo Antico

Team

  • Paolo Sangriso - Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche del Mondo Antico

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere

Funding Body

  • Comune di Rosignano Marittimo
  • Fondazione Cassa di Risparmi Livorno
  • Società Chimica Solvay
  • Università degli Studi di Pisa

Images

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