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  • Tarquinia
  • La Civita
  •  
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Province of Viterbo
  • Tarquinia

Credits

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Monuments

Periods

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Chronology

  • 600 BC - 400 AD

Season

    • Per prima cosa, si è messa in luce l’area interessata dallo scavo della Soprintendenza nel 2014, diretto dalla dr. Gabriella Scapaticci. Poi lo scavo è stato ampliato sui lati Nord ed Ovest e, per breve spazio, anche verso Sud. Al margine meridionale dello scavo sono venuti alla luce due pozzi, che si aggiungono agli altri due, individuati dallo scavo precedente, entrambi dotati di vera da pozzo. Il pozzo, collassato in antico due volte, a NE dell’ambiente B, è stato scavato fino alla profondità di 3,5 m, senza poter raggiungere il fondo, data l’esiguità dello spazio disponibile, e lo scavo ha permesso di capire come il pozzo, databile prima del III/II secolo a.C., era stato dotato di una imboccatura in pietra che lo metteva in comunicazione con una pavimentazione posta a poco più di un metro più in alto, legata a lavori di terrazzamento della zona. I pozzi risultano scavati nello strato geologico in argilla molto compatta, rivestiti di pietrame, e destinati alla captazione delle acque piovane. Immediatamente oltre l’angolo dell’ambiente B è stata messa in luce una piccola parte di pavimento in battuto di VI-V secolo. Nella parte Sud-Ovest dello scavo è venuta alla luce una fontana, pertinente alla fase databile alla fine dell’era repubblicana, quando furono realizzati anche pavimenti in _signinum_ lungo i lati Ovest e Nord dell’area indagata. La fontana è quadrangolare, ha un pavimento in nenfro, tre pareti dotate di una canaletta realizzata con un muro esterno parallelo a quello interno, il quale è dotato di lesene su tre lati, mentre sul terzo c’è la porta. Al centro resta un foro sul pavimento, dove era alloggiato l’alto piede di un _labrum_ in marmo bianco, di cui si sono trovati frammenti. In età medio-imperiale avanzata la fontana era crollata e il suo interno colmato per livellare il piano. Lo stesso accadde al pozzo a NE, il cui collasso coinvolse parte del pavimento a mosaico che gli stava accanto.
    • The excavations, begun in 2016, were extended to the west and north. The house was larger than originally thought and its complete extension remains to be discovered. To the north, in sector II.B, a room with a _figlinum_ floor decorated in a pattern of scales was uncovered. Immediately to the south, there were two rooms, the larger of them T-shaped. Inside the larger room, in a second phase, two dividing walls were put in to create three rooms. To the exterior of the east side, there were two rows of macco stone blocks, perhaps a base or reinforcement for the wall. Further south, was an area characterised by the remains of iron working, a _dolium_ and an amphora, while to the west of the area there was a paving of large blocks of nenfro, steeply sloped, suggesting the presence of a well or collapsed cistern. Proceeding to the west, from north to south, two rooms were identified (partially excavated) and then a rectangular room paved in _scutulatum_ with a diamond motif of white tesserae, adjacent to a room on which the remains of a pipe made of fragmented terracotta segments. Further south, in the south-west corner of the excavation area, the water pipe feeding the well or cistern was identified, and another room of which the south-west corner survived. It was built of _opus_ _spicatum_, steeply sloping towards the south-west, where a well was situated that had collapsed in antiquity. In the large room B in sector I, excavated by the Superintendency in 2014, the excavation was deepened in the south-western part where the ancient floor was not preserved. This revealed an earlier _scutulatum_ floor of Hellenistic date. Lastly, the bottom of the cistern situated next to the fountain was investigated. Once the water was removed, the upper levels of the deposits were excavated. The animal bones and pottery recovered showed that the cistern was used as a midden in the late antique-early medieval periods.
    • The work begun in 2016 was continued with the extension of the trench to the west and east (fig. 1-2). The house was very large, at least 2000 m2, including the courtyards. To the north-west, in sector IIQ, a room came to light that after being cut by a wall, was then turned into a _triclinium_ (fig. 3-4). Immediately north, a series of structures ran from east to west: a small square cult space (fig. 5), delimited by stone slabs, with a small altar in macco stone, filled with soil containing a few fragments of terracotta cult objects; then a rectangular room (fig. 6) partially paved in _opus_ _scutulatum_ and partly in mosaic, decorated with white and black meanders; adjacent, to the west, a dump of materials comprising small bricks, very fragmented open vessels in coarse pottery and a series of bases from small vessels, similar to lids, and a heavily oxidised iron spade; immediately south of the dump there was another containing fragments of pre-Roman pottery; slightly to the west a votive well was excavated (fig. 7-8) lined with stones, c. 1.70 m deep and containing animal remains, iron fragments, two badly-preserved coarse ware cups, several miniature cups and three terracotta votives, one seemingly made of unbaked clay representing an arm. In the large room LB the excavation went down to the foundation off-set of the west wall (fig. 9), which dates to the 2nd century B.C., while the _opus_ _scutulatum_ floor uncovered during previous campaigns was shown to be a raised corner of c.40 cm, with well-plastered walls above (fig. 10), in a room in which only a pillar has been uncovered so far. In the eastern part of the excavation area several room were uncovered (fig. 11), two of which dating to about the 3rd century A.D. (fig. 12).

FOLD&R

    • Attilio Mastrocinque – Fiammetta Soriano . 2021. Indagini archeologiche nell’area della “Domus del Mitreo” di Tarquinia: campagne di scavo 2016-18 con documentazione tridimensionale. FOLD&R Italy: 497.

Bibliography

    • G.Scapaticci, c.s.d., A new Mithraeum on the Civita of Tarquinia: the Discovery, in The Mysteries of Mithras and other Mystic Cults in the Roman World, Symposium Tarquinia 2016, a cura di P. Johnston, A.Mastrocinque, A.Russo Tagliente e L. Takacs.
    • A.Mastrocinque, F. Soriano, c.d.s., Novità e scoperte dalla prima campagna di scavo nell'area del Mitreo (Civita di Tarquinia).
    • A.Mastrocinque, c.d.s., Mithras in Tarquinia, in The Archaeology of Mithraism in the Roman Empire. New Finds and Perspectives, Internat. Conf. Alba Iulia 26 – 28 October 2017.
    • C.M. Marchetti, A. Mastrocinque, F. Soriano, c.d.s., Terrecotte architettoniche dalla domus del Mitreo di Tarquinia, in Network e officine. V Conferenza Internazionale sulle terrecotte architettoniche e sui sistemi decorativi dei tetti in Italia (Napoli, 15-18 marzo 2018)