The 2021 research for ‘Progetto Egnazia: dallo scavo alla valorizzazione’ took the usual form of a teaching excavation, in which about 70 students participated, and interventions took place in two sectors of the ancient city.

In the insula south of the forum, which has been extensively investigated in recent years, several tombs belonging to the indigenous dwellings (previously excavated) were identified, and perhaps a sector destined for infant burials. They date to the site’s earliest phase – between the late 4th and the early 2nd century B.C. In this space there was also a well, built in opus quadratum using large blocks, which showed the same skilful construction seen in the dwellings.

Further excavation in the area linking the atrium domus with the peristyle house, which obliterate the indigenous dwellings, confirmed that both houses were built as distinct architectural units in the first half of the 2nd century B.C. This is the period to which the results of recent research date the laying-out of the road network and the formation of the insulae, at least in the central area of the city. The autonomy of the houses was confirmed by the study of the water supply structures. In the early imperial period, therefore at the time of the forum’s construction and the building of the baths in this insula, the two residential units were joined into one house with atrium and peristyle, in a very visible position a few metres away from the forum.

The question of water resource management also emerged from the results of the excavations in the other sector at the south-eastern edge of the city. In 2019, imposing channels made of limestone were found closing a quadrangular area destined for rain water collection. This season, an underground branch was identified that seems to channel the water into the underground structure known as the ‘cryptoporticus’. If this connection is confirmed, it will provide another element to support the reinterpretation of this monument as the largest water distribution structure in the city, in a sector that increasingly appears to have been the area for supply and public distribution, dedicated to the systematic exploitation of the natural water resources, which made the use of an aqueduct unnecessary. It is also of great interest that, from the 5th century onwards, the area for water collection and the quadriportico around it were reused as metal working structures, for which the forge and quenching pit were identified, close to four rooms used for working and living, according to the multipurpose model that characterised the city in the late antique period.