Excavations on the northern slopes of the Palatine between the Arch of Titus and the Atrium Vestae were undertaken to study a residential quarter occupied by Republican aristocratic residences. The excavation has yielded unexpected results, and it is now possible to reconstruct the history of this area from the ninth century BC through the late Medieval period, the moment of its abandonment. The first systematic arrangement of the slopes dates back to the mid 8th century BC, when a series of scattered huts were destroyed to allow the construction of the fortifications. These walls remained in use until the mid 6th century BC. Following the destruction of the walls, the area was occupied by a private residential area, destroyed later by Nero. New buildings were constructed under the Flavians, who built here two horrea. Placed in direct communication with the sacred grove of the Vestal Virgins (the lucus Vestae), a domus was found that has been interpreted as the domus publica, dating back to the beginning of the 6th century BC and destroyed under Augustus, who built another horrea in its place. The most recent extension of the excavation toward the House of the Vestals was undertaken for the study of a building that has been tentatively identificatied as the domus regis sacrorum, as well as an absidal monument, interpreted as the aedes Larum. The oldest phase of both of these structures dates to around 750 BC. Future excavations aim at a better definition the plan of the domus regia of the 8th - 7th century BC, as well as the recovery of new information on monuments belonging to the sanctuary of Vesta. (Dunia Filippi)

_Area della c.d. domus Publica_ Già nel 2001 l’indagine ha permesso di documentare come questa parte delle pendici prossime all’angolo nord-ovest del colle sia stata oggetto per la prima volta di un intervento edilizio nella metà dell’VIII sec. a.C. concretizzatosi nella realizzazione di un edificio a più vani, che non trova confronti coevi in area etrusco-laziale, se non alla fine del VII e nel VI sec. a.C. Di questo edificio nella campagna del 2006 è stato documentato il primo degli ambienti addossati al lato ovest. Nello stesso settore è emersa anche la prima sostruzione dei margini del fossato, rivelatasi contestuale alla sistemazione dell’area per la presenza dell’edificio. Per la fase relativa alla seconda metà dell’VIII sec. a.C., è stato possibile documentare la presenza di un ambiente di servizio addossato al lato occidentale dell’edificio, aperto verso l’area dei focolari; questo ambiente sarà poi sostituito da un vano analogo nel corso della prima metà del VII sec. a.C. e successivamente da due ambienti con analoghe funzioni. _La Casa delle Vestali_ Il paleosuolo, nella parte nord-orientale della casa delle Vestali pre 64 d.C. che obliterava attività risalenti alla II fase laziale (un focolare forse connesso con le tombe adiacenti) e una fossa risalente all’età del Bronzo recente, mostrava delle tracce di lavorazione identificate come arature realizzate con un aratro ad uncino. L’ampliamento dell’indagine ai settori settentrionali dell’atrium Vestae di epoca imperiale ha portato, nel corso delle varie campagne, a raccogliere dati anche sulle fasi del Santuario successive alla sua distruzione a causa dell’incendio neroniano, e la sua successiva ricostruzione. E’ emerso che le colmate presenti nella parte orientale dell’edificio imperiale si datano in età tardo-neroniana. Questo indica come il progetto neroniano sia stato portato a termine almeno per l’area delle Vestali, come testimoniato anche dai bolli laterizi nelle murature.

The investigation clarified a number of important points regarding the entire area of the Sanctuary of Vesta. As regards the sanctuary’s borders, a further stretch of the wall which was constructed around the mid 8th century B.C. in order to define the area was recorded. The mud-brick wall was built to the south of the ditch which ran between the Palatine and the Velia, in turn regularised by a deep vertical cut. This stretch was recorded to the west of the domus Regia, the building constituted by a number of aligned rooms on its long side which was built in 750-725 B.C. (Phase 2.1 of the domus known as the domus Publica). This year’s excavation confirmed what had been suggested by preceding investigations, that is the modification to the plan of this building that was made during the second half of the 8th century B.C. (sub-phase 2) by the addition at the eastern end of a wing built at right angles to the central part of the building. In the House of the Vestals further structural elements from the 6th and 2nd century phases were found, however, here it seems opportune to concentrate on the new data from the Temple of Vesta. Here, the reopening of a sector already partially investigated by G. Boni and R. T. Scott, on the south-western side of the preserved temple uncovered important new elements. As well as bringing to light the corner of a structure in tufa blocks, datable to before 550 B.C. and razed in the 5th century B.C., next to the temple stretches of two of the temple’s foundation trenches were documented. The earliest dated to the first half of the 4th century B.C., the later one to the last quarter of the 4th century B.C. Also belonging to this phase were two blocks of Grotta Oscura tufa attributable to the podium. As regards the post 64 A.D. history of the site, as well as the investigation of the imperial Atrium Vestae (wing W), we note the excavation of a number of rooms abutting the Neronian portico and built obliterating part of the Neronian via Sacra, whose function as part of a baths has been underlined and for which a preliminary 4th century A.D. date emerged.

Important results came out of the 2010 investigations, providing further clarification regarding the structures that were part of the sanctuary of Vesta, in particular the early Archaic phase. Behind the central hall of the building, interpreted as the domus Regia, it was also possible to further investigate the sequence of walls belonging to the ditch substructure, built in between the second half of the 8th and the mid 7th century B.C. which confirms the construction of three successive walls, the first of which an emplecton. In relation to the first wall, in the stretch presently being investigated, there was a ritual burial. Half of a dolium wall had been placed in a pit, the other half placed on top of it and then an infant’s body. The burial was positioned uphill from the wall and at a right angle to it. In the area of the Vestals the excavation was completed of a hut built in around the mid 8th century B.C. Below the Archic and Republican residence of the Vestals, it was perhaps already inhabited in this phase by the priestesses of Vesta. Part of the hut’s southern perimeter was uncovered. The wall, built in pisé, preserved one of the door jambs with two external and one internal post. The line of the wall indicated that the hut was more rectangular than initially thought, with a length of about 8.43 m and a width of at least 6 m, reconstructable as about 8.10 m.

The 2012 investigations have made an important contribution to knowledge not only of the monuments constituting the Sanctuary of Vesta, both in the early archaic and later periods, but also of those immediately east of the sanctuary. The width of the first building constructed around 750 B.C. is now known thanks to the discovery of a stretch of perimeter wall, and new information on the walls of the subsequent structure, interpreted as the _domus Regia_ has been uncovered. Its back wall, facing onto the ditch between the Palatine and Velia, was faced with baked clay of which a fragment with moulding was recovered. In the subsequent _domus regis sacrorum_ of mid Republican date, the deepening of the excavation in a room next to the _tablinium_ produced sensational results. This room, perhaps open-air, housed an altar connected to a well from at least from the 4th century B.C. Votive material ( _arule_ ) was found close to the altar. Until at least the late Republican period, the altar and well continued to be rebuilt. A new excavation area was opened next to the Porta Mugonia of archaic and late Republican date, in an area untouched by G. Boni’s excavations. A cult area, of at least archaic date, with an altar and votive material, was uncovered right in front of the gate, whose orientation it follows. It was accessed from the so-called ‘clivo Palatino A’, which from the via Sacra led to the gate. The cult’s position in front of the gate recalls that of Jupiter Stator. Towards the end of the 2nd century B.C., the cult area may have been incorporated into a building in which a _tablinium_ seemed to be present.

The 2014 excavations uncovered a part of Rome, unknown to date, immediately east of the sanctuary of Vesta, in the area opened two years ago and whose investigation was completed this season. Last year, evidence showed that the cult site in front of the structure we identified as the _porta_ _Mugonia_ dating to the archaic and late Republican periods, dated to at least the second half of the 8th century B.C. and was continuously in use until the early 2nd century B.C. This cult area was entered from the road (the so-called _clivius_ _Palatinus_ A), which from the _via_ _Sacra_ climbed up to the above mentioned gate. During the 8th century B.C., a rectangular room, with pisè walls and a monumental hearth at the centre, was built within the area. The results from this season’s campaign fixed its chronology (Latium phase IVA1), and revealed that there was an earlier phase: the earliest phase was simply restored in the Latium phase IVA1, without any substantial alterations to its plan. An altar was placed at the centre of this first _sacellum_ that was subsequently rebuilt. However, the construction of the cult building did not mark the beginning of the history of this part of the Palatine slopes. One of the most striking new discoveries was that this _sacellum_ was built on top of the obliteration levels covering a proto-urban dwelling. The excavation reached natural, documenting the entire stratigraphic sequence of the slope. The earliest occupation of the area was constituted by the remains of huts, built from the Latium phase IIB onwards, and continually rebuilt for a total of five phases until the Latium phase IIIB 1, when they were destroyed. These remains can certainly be associated with the scarcer remains previously documented a few metres further up the hill.

The 2018 excavations provided new information about the use of the _horrea_ in the imperial period between the 6th and 16th centuries A.D. Two rooms were investigated inside the _horrea_ _Vespasiani_ where a substantial stratigraphy relating to the post-antique occupation of the building was documented. Between the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., a production activity was set up here that produced a large amount of metalworking waste. This installation was obliterated by the deposition of three infant burials (7th-9th century A.D.) and was later buried below a substantial dump of material put down in relation to the construction of the Orti Farnesiani.

This season saw completion of the investigation of the north slope of the Palatine, in the area between the so-called _Clivius_ _Palatinus_, the so-called Via Nova of imperial date, the so-called _scalae_ _Grecae_ (or _scalae_ _Anulariae_) and the via Sacra. Thanks to the collaboration and support of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, a new phase of research began on the opposite side of the hill. This new project came out of the need to undertake a systematic analysis of the sector between the _scalae_ _Caci_, the road separating the complex of ancient buildings below the church of Sant’Anastasio from the Circus Maximus, the so-called _domus_ _Praeconum with the so-called _Pedagogium_ and the Augustan _domus_ with two peristyles occupying the middle slope of the hill. This area represents a “vacuum” in our knowledge of the Palatine’s topography and the layout of the building complexes, which in the imperial period formed the urban landscape of this slope overlooking the Murcia Valley. The 2019 investigations led to the rediscovery of several ancient structures shown in Renaissance drawings and on G. B. Nolli’s plan where three rectangular rooms are shown with the long sides on a NW-SE alignment, open to the north and closed to the south by a perpendicular structure. This season, the westernmost of these rooms was explored and the stratigraphy relating to the obliteration of the structure was removed. The material is currently being studied.