A team from Milan University (director Prof. Fabrizio Slavazzi) carried out these excavations in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendency of Lazio. Work concentrated on the imperial villa; in particular, the hill area denominated Area V. Here, in correspondence with rooms V12 and V15, a trench (4 x 9 m) was opened that revealed a series of walls belonging to two rooms. They shared the same rear wall built in _opus_ _reticulatum_, bonded with a perpendicular structure built using the same technique. Originally, the area must have been characterised by a single large quadrangular room that was perhaps part of the first phase in this sector of the villa. Later, three more walls defining the limits and alignment of rooms V12 and V15 were built at right angles to the rear wall. Further down in room V15, an earlier, semicircular wall emerged which it is suggested was what survived of the dome of a large kiln/oven, denominated Kiln 1. It had an internal diameter of over 2 m, was covered by a thick layer of whitish mortar, and had been built abutting the _opus_reticulatum_ wall. The preliminary date for the construction of Kiln I is 1st-2nd century A.D. Following a destruction phase, another semicircular structure was inserted into Kiln I, abutting its south side and resting directly on its floor. It was built using dumped materials. It forms a smaller structure that for appearance and characteristics is interpreted as a kiln/oven (Kiln II). It is suggested that it was used for cooking food and that it substituted the earlier kiln/oven, which probably had the same use, and had fallen into ruin. The area was definitively abandoned in the late antique period and layers of fill and rubble gradually obliterated the structures. A fragment of an ARS D plate with stamped decoration found inside Kiln II dates the end of its use and of the other structures in the area to between the end of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century A.D.

In September 2015, the University of Milan’s department of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, in collaboration with the Lazio Museum Centre and the Archaeological Superintendency for Lazio and South Etruria continued its excavations at Sperlonga (LT). This season work was again centred on the eastern part of the villa, in the area in front of the previous year’s excavations where ovens were found, the aim being to gain an understanding of the spatial organisation. A series of new rooms were uncovered, with several occupation phases and evidence of restructuring. Various floor levels were identified in the sequence of mortar make-ups and _opus_ _signinum_ surfaces. The removal of the fill revealed the masonry-built front of oven II, constructed following the collapse of an earlier oven, and two perpendicular walls belonging to a phase pre-dating the latter indicating a different division of the spaces before they were occupied by the ovens, which obliterated them. After the construction of oven II, the room in front of oven I was divided into three new rooms, characterised by several occupation phases. Later, floors were laid, which were in turn obliterated by a sequence of collapse, deposit and levelling. These rooms were probably abandoned at the same time as the oven went out of use, as there was a fragment of stamped ARS among the materials found in the abandonment layers, of the same date as one found in the fill of oven II, datable to between the late 4th and first half of the 5th centuries A.D.

As in previous years, the excavations carried out by Milan University’s department of cultural and environmental heritage studies investigated the eastern part of the villa. The work concentrated on the sector in front of the kilns found in 2014, in order to gain a better understanding of the spatial layout of the area in which they were situated. The removal of the layers of obliteration and fill revealed a mortar make up for an _opus signinum_ floor. The joining up of the different excavation areas clarified the stratigraphic relationships between the various features. During the same phase as the kiln’s use, the area in front of them was closed to the south with a line of reused materials, including two elements from a _torcular_. It was then decided to excavate below the surfaces on which the kilns stood; this revealed another _opus_ _signinum_ floor. Rubble and a large amount of burnt materials were present in the underlying layers, which could indicate destruction through fire, following which the area was levelled using the rubble on top of which the kilns were built. During this season, work also continued on documenting the already known structures of the villa, in particular the pavilion facing the grotto.