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Excavation

  • S. Pietro di Villamagna
  • Villamagna
  • Villa Magna
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Rome
  • Gorga

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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)

  • In June and early July a campaign of excavation and geophysical survey was carried out at the site of Villa Magna. In spite of the fact that the villa is mentioned in two letters from Marcus Aurelius to his tutor, Fronto (iv.5), and on a well-known inscription recording the paving of a road from Anagni to the villa (CIL X, 5909, A.D. 207), the site had never been the subject of scientific investigation. Over the northern sector of the villa was built the monastery of S. Pietro di Villamagna, mentioned in documents from the tenth century onwards. Of this, a Romanesque church and a line of 15th century fortifications are still visible.
    The magnetometry covered around 9 ha. Its spectacular results, still in the process of elaboration show the plan of the northern half of the villa. Excavation took place in front of the church and in the courtyard of the nineteenth-century casale, built on extensive vaulted substructures.
    An extensive cemetery occupied a yard at the entrance to the church, subsequently sealed by the fortification of the borgo around 1400. Inside the church, excavation in the northwest chapel revealed a group of tombs dating perhaps to the sixteenth century, cutting a series of pavements beneath. A Cosmatesque pavement was also revealed during the cleaning of a small clandestine excavation in the presbytery.
    In the courtyard of the casale, 300 meters to the South, the general plan of the productive sector of the villa was revealed. All floors were paved in marble, including that of the sumptuous cella vinaria paved in opus spicatum with tiles of Numidian marble, and panelled with marble and serpentine. Dolia emerging from this pavement leave no doubt that, in spite of its decoration, the room was used for the pressing and storage of wine.

Director

  • Andrew Wallace Hadrill - The British School at Rome
  • Ann Kuttner - Department of Art History, University of Pennsylvania
  • Brian Rose
  • Elizabeth Fentress
  • Sandra Gatti - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio

Team

  • Walter Pantano
  • Andrea Di Miceli
  • Hendrick Dey - American Academy in Rome
  • Janine Young - L - P : Archaeology
  • Caroline Goodson - Birkbeck, University of London
  • Marco Maiuro - Università degli Studi di Trieste
  • Rose Ferraby - The British School at Rome
  • Sophie Hay - Archaeological Prospection Services of Southampton
  • Andrew Dufton - L - P : Archaeology
  • Cinzia Filippone - British School at Rome

Research Body

  • Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica
  • Department of Art History, University of Pennsylvania
  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio
  • The British School at Rome

Funding Body

  • Comune di Anagni
  • The 1984 Foundation

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