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Excavation

  • Alba Fucens, Forum (parte orientale)
  • Alba Fucens
  • Alba Fucens
  • Italy
  • Abruzzo
  • Province of L'Aquila
  • Massa d'Albe

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)

  • This short campaign investigated an area on the large terrace on the south-eastern side of the forum. The terrace was constructed after the end of the 3rd century B.C. and obliterated several structures dating to the colony’s early phases, in particular a kiln. The latter’s presence was indicated by a series of elements within the terrace fill (waste materials, mould fragments, lumps of baked clay), and two small walls built of broken tiles, with vitrified surfaces caused by prolonged exposure to heat. The kiln’s plan could only be partially identified. In fact, the tile structures were cut by the foundation trenches for the later walls, coeval with the terracing, which reach a substantial depth.

    The kiln was aligned NW/SE, like the overall plan of the city, and probably had a combustion chamber with a double corridor, and a south-facing praefurnium as suggested by the oblique alignment of the remains of the two walls. A series of stacked imbrices and tiles placed on edge were found on the opposite side, beyond the northern side of the kiln structure. Further mould fragments, including that of a left foot with big toe, and a draped female statuette provided an indication of the kiln’s production.

    In addition to anatomical votives, the kiln probably produced truncated pyramid-shaped loom weights, of which numerous examples were recovered and, primarily plain ware lamps, several of which were found just above the firing floor of the kiln itself, and therefore probably represent the final load before the structure went out of use. Therefore, it was a differentiated production, which perhaps also included architectural terracottas; a fragment of mould was found outside the excavation area.

    A substantial area of baked earth with characteristic reddish colouring extended around the kiln, which suggests that other similar structures may have been present. Other production structures must have existed in the proximity of the kiln as suggested by the presence of several dry-stone walls on the same NW/SE alignment. The discovery of a bowl containing the remains of red pigment (probably belonging to a pictor) indicates that the terracottas were probably painted in one of these structures, which remains to be identified.

  • Riccardo Di Cesare - Università degli Studi di Foggia. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici 
  • Daniela Liberatore - Università degli Studi di Foggia. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici  

Director

Team

  • Emanuela Ceccaroni - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Abruzzo
  • Paolo Fraticelli
  • : Leonardo Paris – Università di Roma “Sapienza”
  • Wissam Wahbeh – Università di Roma “Sapienza”

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Foggia

Funding Body

  • Università degli Studi di Foggia, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

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