Fasti Online Home | Switch To Fasti Archaeological Conservation | Survey
logo

Excavation

  • Egnazia
  • Fasano
  • Egnatia
  • Italy
  • Apulia
  • Province of Brindisi
  • Fasano

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • Investigations of the western monumental area of the Roman and late antique city began in 2001. In particular these involved the sector crossed by the via Traiana and occupied by the large trapezoidal -shaped square that was partially excavated in 1912-1913.

    From 2005 onwards work began on the area of the Episcopal basilica, in particular the south nave. Ceramic evidence showed that the area of the square (trench 1) was occupied in the late Bronze Age. Construction of the square itself began in the mid Hellenistic period (2nd century B.C.) and it was monumentalised in the Trajan period, as attested by the ceramics and a coin of the Emperor Trajan (found in 2005), sealed in the make up of the square’s paving. It is possible to attribute to the same period the Doric portico and the Ionic propylaeum, found on the west side of the square, paved with large squared blocks of limestone and equipped with a drainage system. The channels were found which collected the drained water into a large cistern. This was faced with waterproof plaster, had two openings from which to draw off water and there was a third well with cut footholds providing access from above for maintenance purposes.

    From the second half of the 4th century A.D. the spatial organisation was renewed: inside and outside of the portico small rooms were built with reused material recovered from the area itself. These rooms were linked to the activities taking place in the nearby port and were used for the storage and sale of wares from Africa and the East. North of the via Traiana rooms with opus signinum floors were built; to the south a monumental fountain was created, datable to the 2nd century A.D., which remained in use until the 5th century A.D. In the same area rooms with painted plaster decorated with geometric and floral motives were built. Around the 4th century A.D. the area south of the road underwent a process of reorganisation when a substantial paving was laid, perhaps in order to widen the road.

    To the south a residential and production area was laid out, connected to the two kilns investigated during the 2004 and 3005 excavation campaigns. One produced table wares, the other kitchen wares and both were still functioning at the beginning of the 7th century A.D. A side street off the via Traiana, east of the productive structures, provided access both to the space housing the kilns and to other rooms whose commercial and productive use is attested by the materials found: fragments of African and eastern amphorae and large containers for storing dry goods.

    Between the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century A.D., as attested by the materials found in the collapse of the structures, a vast fire destroyed the area linked to the via Traiana in this sector. This context produced a gold coin from the mint at Constantinople issued by the Emperor Justinian (527-565 A.D.) and found in a room to the north, whilst to the south a gold ring dating to between the 6th-beginning of the 7th century was found. In a later period that cannot be specified, a roadbed was laid over the via Traiana to create a drainage system.

    In 2005 and 2006 the area of the Episcopal basilica was excavated, in particular the south nave. This revealed the long chronology of the occupation phases in this part of the city which predated the church’s construction. This runs from the Messapian period (to which a funerary area can be ascribed, above which a series of rooms whose plan cannot be defined were built in the 2nd century B.C.) to the late antique period (in the 2nd century A.D. a fullonica was built). A phase of destruction datable to the 4th century A.D. was followed by the final restructuring of the area, with rooms of uncertain use: they were decorated with a mosaic floor and painted wall plaster.

    Based on the stratigraphic and numismatic evidence, in particular a coin of the Emperor Leo (457-474)), the construction of the Episcopal basilica dates to around the second half of the 5th century A.D.

    In 2006 research was continued in the area north of the via Traiana. It was revealed that in the late Republican period the area of the future monumental square was occupied by a beaten earth surface, overlaid by a pavement of limestone slabs which, in the Imperial period, was cut to make way for a conduit for the drainage and collection of water. At the northern end of the conduit was a structure that was perhaps part of the system for shutting the cistern and for water collection. The cistern seemed connected to that situated further south in the central sector of the western portico.

    In the south portico there was evidence of the re-arrangement of the area in the Trajanic period, with a pavement which in part seemed to follow that of late Republican date, and at the same time appeared linked to other structures uncovered near the square’s southern cistern. During the mid Imperial period the entrance to the square was rebuilt. Analysis of the finds provides a date of the 2nd-3rd A.D. for the use of this floor level which went out of use in the 4th century A.D. The investigation in the urban area south of the via Traiana has led to a better understanding of the late antique productive quarter, in particular the area of the kilns facing onto the side road off the via Traiana and to a closer examination of the zone south of the via Traiana and the monumental fountain.

  • MiBAC 

Director

  • Maria Raffaella Cassano - Università degli Studi di Bari, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia

Team

  • Assunta Cocchiaro - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Bari, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia

Funding Body

Images

  • No files have been added yet