Investigations were undertaken in two distinct sectors: Eastern sector 2005 and North-western sector 2005. In Eastern sector 2005 the earliest phase of the “domus del Labirinto” was investigated. Datable to between the mid 1st century B.C. and the Tiberio-Claudian period, all that remains are traces of an open area with service structures (a well and a hearth). The construction of the building was preceded by the digging of a ritual foundation pit which was then deliberately filled. The finds recovered from the pit are particularly well conserved (either intact or completely reconstructable) and comprise a black glaze bowl (Lamb. 28) placed upside down over a loom weight, an olpe and jar in coarse ware, a black glaze pyxis (Lamb. 3), a situliform black glaze jar (3rd century B.C.) and Lamboglia 2 amphorae. Thirty broken stones (porphyry from the Valcamonica) had also been deposited in the pit. The first domus remained in use until the Tiberio-Claudian period, when the floors in the reception area of the house were laid using opus caementicium and various types of marble, and the eastern open area was obliterated and partially raised using dumps of rubble and earth. In the North-western sector, not previously investigated, a small rectangular room (5,70x4,00m), oriented on a north-west/south-east alignment emerged. It conserves the collapse of the roof and walls in perishable material and a beaten earth floor. At present it is difficult to propose a strict link between this structure and the open area to the south, however, their contemporary use and abandonment must be noted. It does not seem possible to propose a residential use for this small complex and it is more likely to be a service area (storeroom, workshop?). A preliminary chronological horizon for use of the complex can be placed within the first decades of the 1st century A.D. (Maria Teresa Grassi)

The excavation investigated two separate areas: Sector east 2006 and sector north-west 2006. In sector east 2006 investigation of the earliest phase of the ‘Domus del Labirinto’ continued. Excavations in the sector north of the domus of Tiberian-Claudian date revealed numerous traces of cuts and the fills in a layer of sterile sand, sealed by thick dumps. They related to the first sporadic occupation of the area, datable to between the end of the 2nd and the first half of the 1st century B.C. The identified contexts had not been disturbed by later interventions and thus, as sealed contexts, were of great interest. They produced a clear picture of the assemblage of materials, in particular pottery, in use during the first occupation phase on the site. The cuts, of varying shapes and sizes, had been used to dump rubble (the remains of carbonised structures, plaster, brick and tile), and mainly domestic rubbish. Two contexts were of particular importance, for the quantity and quality of the materials preserved. In fact, the excavation identified two holes characterised by a consistent number of pottery artefacts (some almost intact or fragmented but reconstructable), comparable with other middens already found in the area. Thus, this sector which was subsequently occupied by the structures of another domus coeval with the ‘Domus del Labirinto’, seems to have been a space on the edge of the _vicus_ used for quarrying construction materials (sand for aggregate) and for dumping rubbish. The excavation of sector north-west 2006 continued, to the north and south, the investigations begun in 2005 which had exposed a small service room with a courtyard (storeroom? workshop?) datable to the first decades of the 1st century A.D. To the north, a trench opened in 2005 was widened in order to examine the levels of the first occupation phase (1st century B.C.). The excavation of a small channel was of great interest. Made of tile and well-preserved at the eastern end, it forked into two smaller channels to the west. To the east the channel cut a midden, whose fill contained material datable to the first half of the 1st century B.C. To the west it was cut by a second midden, whose fill produced abundant pottery including two ASR bases with the stamp L. TETI SAMIA. To the south, excavations identified a new room, smaller than that found in 2005. The perimeter walls were in a precarious state of preservation as they had been heavily robbed. In fact, it was only possible to suggest a plan for the room on the basis of the robber trenches. The floor was a simple beaten earth surface, and the absence of a tile collapse suggests it did not have a tile roof but probably a more modest covering of perishable materials.

The campaign involved a single large area, denominated Sector north-west 2007. With the opening of a large area adjacent to the eastern edge of the 2006 trench the upper stratigraphic levels were investigated, revealing structural remains immediately below present ground level. A series of rooms in perfect alignment with the room excavated in 2005 were identified. Investigations in the western part of the sector revealed the _in situ_ collapse of a tile roof, a substantial level of compact and refined clay, to be interpreted as a deposit originated by the break up of the unbaked clay walls, and extensive layers of dark loam, perhaps relating to a phase of collapse or destruction of the walls and the subsequent decay of the timber structures. All of this stratigraphic evidence was delimited, to the north and south, by two long parallel robber trenches on a north-west/south-east alignment. The northern trench, in particular, was perfectly aligned with a short section of wall identified in the south-eastern corner of the excavation area. The latter was preserved at foundation level with one course of the footing. On the base of the analogies that have emerged from the excavations of the 2005 and 2006 rooms, it was possible to recognise a row of at least two (perhaps three) rooms, all apparently of similar dimensions and perfectly aligned in a north-west/south-east direction. In fact, both the tile collapse and the clay and/or silt layers from the destruction of the walls found exact parallels in the evidence from rooms 2005 and 2006. On the northern edge of the excavation a patch of heavily damaged opus signinum paving was uncovered. The paving was not of a particularly high quality and numerous white and black stone tesserae had been inserted into it, apparently without any precise design. The presence of an element of this type is of interest, it may be suggested that it belonged to a residential building rather than a service/productive structure. Thus, it would have been part of a different building complex than those identified in the southern part of the sector. The building techniques used in these rooms, their small size and layout all suggest that these structures were part of a structure destined for utilitarian activities, perhaps the storage of goods and products. A preliminary date of the 1st-2nd century A.D. is suggested, although only the continuation of the excavations and the study of the materials will provide more precise data regarding function and chronology.

A single large sector was excavated, Sector 2008. Extending over an area of 576 m2, this sector represented the link between the two large areas of the Roman _vicus_ investigated in previous years. These areas were the ‘Domus del Labirinto’ to the north and the so-called Artisans’ Quarter to the west, an area characterised by the presence of service structures (storerooms? workshops?). This seasons excavation was undertaken with the aim of creating a single, large research area which would provide better understanding of the plan of the _vicus_ and check for the existence of other residential buildings to the south of the “Domus del Labirinto”. The size of the sector made it possible to investigate surface layers, identifying the structures lying immediately below present ground level. Some structures were found which suggested the presence of a series of buildings, presumably residential, on a north-east/south-west alignment, in perfect correspondence with the urban layout of the vicus. Although these elements are still partial, they did seem to present a coherent architectural development, dating to a single period, showing not only a reciprocal structural coherence, but also a coherence with the ‘Domus del Labirinto’. In fact, these building seemed to develop along a single front, with rooms positioned in sequence one after the other, and open areas (gardens? courtyards?) to the east and probably to the west of them. Five _opus signinum_ floor levels were identified, in varying states of preservation, presumably corresponding to the same number of rooms belonging to one or more houses. Of these floors, two were distinguished from the rest due to their exceptional nature within the panorama of known residential architecture in the _vicus_ of _Bedriacum_: the _opus signinum_ floor of a _triclinium_ with an mosaic emblem of white and black tesserae and an _opus signinum_ that probably belonged to a heated room. The discovery of the mosaic _emblema_ was of great interest for its intrinsic and evocative value, which at a distance of fifty years is an addition to the catalogue of tessellated floors decorating the _domus_ of _Bedriacum_, which includes the well known labyrinth mosaic. A break on the south edge of the mosaic did not compromise the reading of the decorative scheme: a continuous band comprising a wave motif bordering a panel decorated with an orthogonal composition of four stars, each composed of eight lozenges tangent at two sides, leaving a large straight panel in the centre. This panel depicts a high-footed _kantharos_ with double volute handles and bell-shaped body, four smaller squares on the diagonal, decorated with four birds; along the border of the composition the large squares are reduced to rectangles decorated with _peltae_. The comparison with the ‘Domus del Labirinto’ – the alignment of the structures, _triclinium_ mosaic floor typology, construction techniques -, together with the stylistic-formal analyses, suggest a preliminary date for the mosaic of the second quarter of the 1st century A.D.

A single large sector was excavated, Sector 2009. This area formed the northern edge of the sector partially excavated during the previous season. The excavation aimed to continue investigation of the stratigraphy in the area of the _opus signinum_ floor which was probably that of a heated room. The investigation was undertaken due to the particular importance of the floor, unique within the panorama of residential architecture in the vicus, inserted in the sequence of rooms aligned in a north-east/south-west direction uncovered in 2008. There were a number of clearly visible circular impressions on the surface of the well-made _opus signinum_ floor, some with mortar residue, interpreted as the make up for the pilae supporting the _suspensurae_. This hypothesis was confirmed by the recovery of a cylindrical _suspensura_ and several fragments of tubuli for wall heating found, during the opening of the trench in the previous year, in the immediate vicinity of the floor. However, above all confirmation was provided by the discovery in situ of a partially damaged _suspensura_ at the south-eastern edge of the _opus signinum_ floor, although it was smaller in diameter than that discovered previously. The floor was heavily damaged and its dimensions reduced by deep-ploughing which had heavily cut the original edges. Along the southern edge of the floor there was a feature interpreted as a robber trench, whose fill was mainly constituted by small to medium brick fragments and fragments of mortar and plaster. North of the floor, by the northern edge of the sector, there was a jumbled layer of brick fragments, at present interpreted as the probable dragging of the mixed up layers of collapse previously identified close to the floor itself. To the west of the floor were two structural elements, which will only be defined by the continuation of the excavations. The first was constituted by a long trace of painted plaster (circa 85 cm), apparently preserved in situ and still partially covered by collapsed material, lying parallel to the north-western edge of the floor. This feature may be interpreted as the remains of what was probably the outer facing of the original wall which closed this room to the west. The second element was constituted by a large fragment of _sesquipedalis_, lying flat upon a layer of broken down clay, apparently without any connection to the nearby structures. The opus signinum paving constituted the base above which the actual floor of the heated room was supported on the _suspensurae_. The alignment of the structures and the sequential arrangement with respect to the other structures identified in the area, indications of a coherent architectural development, suggest a preliminary date of the 1st century A.D. for the heated room.

After one year of break, the excavation resumed in 2011 focusing on a single large area of the so-called Artisans’ Quarter, already partially excavated during the previous seasons (North-western sectors 2005, 2006, 2007). The aim has been to deepen the investigation and to collect more precise data about the layout, the function and the chronology of this part of the ancient village. South of a long robber trench running north-west/south-east - dividing the residential area of “Domus del Labirinto” and “Domus del kantharos” and the productive/commercial area (Artisans’ Quarter) - a sequence of small rooms, porches and courtyards develops along two parallel rows. A rectangular room has been identified at the eastern edge of the northern alignment. The room was sealed by a thick layer of pure and compact clay, attesting that a spontaneous abandonment led to the natural perishing of its walls, made with the technique of pisé. The foundations, built in brick and tile fragments (System A, according to Bacchetta’s typology, see Bacchetta 2003), have been heavily robbed. The covering must have been in perishable materials. On the floor in beaten earth a Republican axis and a Domitianus coin have been found. Beside this room there was an elongated porch, opening on a courtyard. The porch had wooden pillars supporting a covering in perishable materials and ended with a small tile roof. In a corner of this porch there was a big pit, filled with a great abundance of fragments of common ware and of volcanic millstones, comparable to some finds of the “Domus del Labirinto” area dating to the 2nd-3rd century A.D. (see C. Orsenigo, La media età imperiale: rinnovamento e trasformazione. L’Ambiente C, in Calvatone-Bedriacum, DVD 2008). A corridor ran from the courtyard between the two rows of aligned structures; the walls probably supported two wooden storage shelves collecting a great quantity of miniscule pottery sherds, mostly rims of the cookingpot “tipo Calvatone” (see C. Orsenigo, L’olla tipo Calvatone, in Calvatone-Bedriacum, DVD 2008). They might have been part of a storage and productive complex, which is also suggested by the general layout (alternating small rooms and open spaces), the building techniques and the nature of the collected materials. A sounding at the south-west corner of the porch testifies the existence of an earlier phase under the foundation of the beaten earth floor of the porch. Three sides of a room sharing the orientation of the later structure have been unearthed: two walls are in pisé, the third one in bricks. The building technique of this room, as well as its stratigraphic position, suggests one refer it to the neighboring room identified in 2005 (first decades of the 1st century A.D.).

Archaeological investigations were carried out this year in the so-called “Artisans’ Quarter”, specifically in several sectors already partially explored in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2011. The investigations were particularly addressed to better understand the evolution of a phase of the vicus dating to the 1st century AD. This phase was found between the better-known levels of 2nd-3rd centuries AD (investigated in 2011) and those of the 1st century BC, located close to a water drain. Past campaigns brought to light two rectangular rooms from this phase. Designated as Room 1/2005 and Room 3/2011, they are oriented NW-SE. The foundations of both were found in a leveling layer that has yielded a large amount of ceramic material dating back to the first decades of the 1st century AD, including a Sarius bowl. The 2012 excavation focused on the area between these two structures and unearthed two more quadrangular rooms (Room 4/2012, and Room 5/2012) that present features not found in any of the quarters excavated in Bedriacum. The walls were partially robbed of building materials in antiquity though traces remain of brick foundations (type Bacchetta 4, see Bacchetta 2003) and of walls in perishable materials, maybe unfired bricks. A circular-shaped solid level (diam. 140 cm), made with brick and pottery fragments bound together with grey mortar, was found in the centre of Room 4/2012 (located to the west). In Room 5/2012 (located to the east), a similar circular structure is in raw earth with up-turned edges and contains several brick fragments placed horizontally. It is enclosed by a ring-shaped structure of concrete (80cm x 340cm), concave in section and set externally against the walls of the room. Thus, the newly excavated rooms seem to present roughly the same structure of a central element and ring-shaped structure, which can be connected to the use of a mechanical device with a circular movement. Both rooms were abandoned at the same time and were sealed by a thick layer rich in cookingpots “tipo Calvatone” (AD 150-250), which, consequently, can be dated after the mid 2nd century AD. They are likely to have been part of a small productive-artisanal area for agricultural products processing. Therefore, a different use of this area than the residential one of the adjacent and contemporaneous “Domus del Labirinto” and “Domus del Kantharos” might be confirmed for even the early Imperial period.

In the “Artisans’ Quarter” the research focused on the phase dating to the 1st century AD, that included a sequence of rooms and structures aligned in NW/SE direction, brought to light during the 2012 excavations. The excavations continued south of these buildings, discovering a structure - whose interpretation is still difficult at present - in the middle of a likely courtyard. This structure, whose original plan is supposed to be rather complex, has completely collapsed; it is yet possible to guess that the elevation was made by brick fragments in the bottom and by clay on the top. Such research has led to a better definition of events and their chronological development. For instance, it is now evident that all the buildings belonging to this phase seem to have been abandoned and systematically spoiled in the last quarter of the 1st century AD. Within this research, it was also possible to bring to light some structures belonging to a previous phase - dated to the 1st century BC: the most interesting are some sections of at least one water drain, leaning to NW, that all share the orientation with the later buildings. The bottom and the shoulders of these drain portions are built in brick fragments with the same technique identified in the drain to the N, excavated between 2005 and 2012. One portion develops on ten courses for a total depth of 90 cm; another one preserves on its top - probably rebuilt - the remains of a cover made by big tiles juxtaposed. Great attention was paid to the analysis of the building techniques and of the practices of reusing materials within the walls, the floors and the drains: in particular, new variants of A. Bacchetta’s typology dedicated to the foundation walls in Cisalpina were found. The building complex continued to the W, where two different phases were recognized. The life of this sector is supposed to have come to an end earlier if compared to the east sector, where it continued in different ways beyond the half of the 2nd century AD.

In the 2014 fieldwork two large trenches were opened (total extension: 560 sq m) in an area that had never been investigated before. In the _Settore Sud 2014_, to the west of the area of the _Domus del Kantharos_ investigated in 2008, it has been proved that the residential quarter extends westward. There, two incomplete plaster floors in bad state of preservation were uncovered. These floors were aligned with the already known mosaic floor bearing a _kantharos_ and dated to the first imperial age. In the eastern part of _Settore Nord 2014_, which is situated immediately to the west of the limit of the 2002 trench in the area of the _Domus del Labirinto_, we have continued the investigation of the open area with a storage and productive function close to _Ambiente C_. This remained in use intensively until the second half of the 3rd century AD. It is probably part of a building located further west that was only partially brought to light but whose exceptional nature had been clearly evident since the beginning of the fieldwork. Indeed, close to the northern limit of the excavated area and roughly aligned with _Ambiente C_ a fragment of a polychrome mosaic was uncovered. This was part of the floor of a large room orientated NE/SW. The mosaic seems to belong to the renovation of a concrete floor which experienced sinking already in antiquity. Because of this, part of the floor had been spared by the damage of agricultural activities, while the remaining part, that was higher in elevation, had been destroyed. In the preserved mosaic fragment, which has a white background, it is possible to recognise the corner of a polychrome decoration with two concentric borders (one is a band of simple guilloche with black, white, pink, violet and yellow _tesserae_, the other is a Greek fret with pink and yellow _tesserae_ ). These border a triangular/arch-shaped frame inside of which is an incomplete figurative decoration (possibly a small bird). The presence of an extensive band of white tesserae outside these borders, would suggests that the polychrome decoration was the central part of a mosaic covering the whole room. A preliminary middle Imperial age dating (2nd-3rd c. AD) for this mosaic can be conjectured.

The archaeological campaign in 2015 involved an unexplored area with a total extension of 112 sq m, bordering to SW with the Settore Nord 2014 (the western part) and to SE with the area of the Domus del Labirinto investigated between 2001 and 2006 (the eastern part). In the western part we have continued the investigation of the concrete floor, to whose renovation the fragment of polychrome mosaic discovered in 2014 and dated back to the middle Imperial age (end of the 2nd - mid of the 3rd centuries AD) belonged. The new portion of the concrete floor had irregular margins and had been partially destroyed by the agricultural activities, because of the scarcity of soil over it. The lower layer of the floor was preserved, consisting of brick and ceramic fragments arranged in close connection with each other and bound with clay mortar, and only in a point, at the western section of the excavation, the higher layer of the floor in concrete, consisting of a mixture of white mortar and brick fragments, was visible. Although we didn’t found more traces of the mosaic, the new portion of the floor confirms the size supposed for the room decorated by the mosaic, which occupied an area of at least 7x6 m. The concrete floor was isolated and, proceeding towards the east, we didn’t found other structures for a distance of about 6 m, up to the point where there were two brick walls perpendicular to each other. This lack of structures could reveal the existence of an open space lived for a long time, as evidenced by the numerous coins found (1st - 4th centuries AD). In the eastern part we identified the fragment of a brick floor, consisting of sub-quadrangular bricks. The comparison with similar floorings uncovered in the past at Bedriacum suggests that this new brick floor can be interpreted as an outdoor flooring: the research will clarify whether this structure was destined to a private space (courtyard of a house?) or to a public space (open area between buildings?) and whether it is contemporary to the Domus del Labirinto (first half of the 1st century AD) or later. The lack of structures in large parts of the excavation allowed us to carry out six small trenches. In this way we achieved the sandy levels of the hill on which Bedriacum was founded, intercepting the traces of a first arrangement of the area dated back to the 1st century BC.

The archaeological campaign in 2016 involved an area with a total extension of 464 sq m, bordering on the area of the Domus del Labirinto to the North (excavations in 2001-2006) and on the area of the Domus del Kantharos to the East (excavations in 2008-2009). We found four floors with different characteristics and functions. In the northern part we identified the western portion of a concrete floor oriented NW-SE (3.26x1.68 m). Despite its bad preservation because of the prolonged exposure to the elements after the abandonment, it is possible to recognize in some parts its original decoration. Above a lower layer of brick and ceramic fragments the higher layer is composed of white lithic tesserae combined in a regular texture (?) and inserted in a mixture of white mortar and red brick fragments. To the South of the floor is the base of a pillar, while to the West is one of the perimeter walls of the floor (1.45x0.43 m) with a foundation made up of three courses of brick fragments. A compact level composed of gravel and small brick fragments was brought to light in the central part, with irregular margins and therefore without shape and orientation. The composition, the thickness and the use of fine gravel suggest the hypothesis that it could be an outdoor flooring, probably a courtyard. If these two floors could belong to the latest phase of occupation of the area and in a very preliminary way dated to the 2nd - 3rd centuries AD, the other two identified floors are coeval to the surrounding houses and dated back to the 1st century AD. The south-western extension of a concrete floor found in 2003 excavation of the Domus del Labirinto was identified in the NW corner and also the prolongation of the southern wall trench. A concrete floor was brought to light in the southern part, with a surface made up of black lithic tesserae combined in a regular texture and inserted in a mixture of white mortar and dark red brick fragments. In the research area we found several irregular pits filled with rubble. A pit, in particular, was of great interest. It was located at the eastern edge of the excavation area, it was pseudo-rectangular (6.62x2.42 m) and it was filled with rubble resulting from the destruction of surrounding structures (domus?). Among the discovered finds we found very particular objects made of bronze and iron, perhaps elements (locks?) belonging to furniture. The research carried out in 2016 has confirmed the residential use of this part of the vicus, in continuity with the nearby Domus del Labirinto and Domus del Kantharos, an area characterized by the presence of houses alternating with open areas such as gardens or courtyards.