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  • Rione Terra
  • Pozzuoli
  • Puteoli

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    Monuments

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    Periods

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    Chronology

    • 100 BC - 200 AD

    Season

      • On the acropolis of Rione Terra at Pozzuoli a _lararium_ came to light, entirely frescoed with two overlying phases of plaster. It was inside a Roman underground chamber situated along via Duomo which retraces the _decumanus maximus_ of Augustan date. Painted on the back wall were the winding coils of the Agathodemon snakes slithering towards a square altar. The lateral walls showed the twelve gods of Olympus, six on each side. The _Dodekatheion_ was also frequently represented at Pompeii; the House of Pansa comes to mind but also houses IX, 11, 6; IX, 11,1; VIII, 3 and 1-12. The wall facing the entrance showed the labours of Hercules, whilst the vault was decorated with floral motifs.
      • Excavations reopened at Rione Terra. During the laying of a sewer pipe at the foot of the acropolis, in the area of the present port, three large quadrangular pillars in _opus caementicium_, faced with _opus latericius_ came to light. Standing circa 2 m apart they were preserved to a height of circa 5 m and rested upon a base of piperno _opus quadratum_, comprising at least two courses of blocks which showed heavy signs of marine erosion. On top of the easternmost pillar was the impost of an arch, also in _opus latericius_, on an east-west alignment. An attractive and rather probable hypothesis suggests these pillars were part of the arch which must have stood at the entrance to the famous so-called “Caligulan” wharf. This was still visible at the beginning of the 20th century before being incorporated into the modern wharf.
      • At Rione Terra excavations continued in the area of the archaeological park comprising the western sector of the _decumanus maximus_ of the colony and one of the cardines. Excavation of a _horrea_ complex was completed. The _horrea_ were of the cryptoporticus type, facing onto the southern side of the _decumanus maximus_, and inside were many of the important statues now housed in the Campi Flegrei archaeological Museum within the castle of Baiae. The new investigation mainly regarded a fifth cryptoporticus, of Augustan date, which linked the other four branches of the road. All the rooms were reused in the mid-imperial period for artisan activities, as attested by a number of tanks for lime slaking. Excavation of the _pistrinum_, facing the cryptoporticae, was also completed. Here, a room paved with reused basoli, equipped with tanks and work surfaces and a large bread oven was uncovered. To the west of this structure, excavation revealed a stairway providing access to the levels above the _pistrinum_ which may have been for residential use. Below ground level a large network of cuniculi for the provision of water were explored. Cut into the tufa bank they alternated with cisterns and structures in _opus incertum_ which were probably rooms connected with the Capitolium. Along the _cardo_ of Via S. Procolo, a stretch of the sewer network below the ancient road came to light. Cut into the tufa bank it comprised a series of orthogonal and parallel branches, linked to the main sewer which on a north-south alignment poured the waste water directly into the sea on the south side of the promontory. Many of the wells which opened along the course of the cuniculi had been obliterated by dumps of rubbish from the 1st century A.D. onwards.
      • Behind the _pistrinum_ the remains of a mid-imperial kiln came to light, built on top of late Republican structures. A complex of rectangular narrow cells identified below the _pistrinum_ were also excavated. The cells opened onto four corridors at right angles to each other, probably to be identified with the _horreum publicum_ of the late Republican colony. The walls of one of the cells showed traces of painting. The cardo of Via S. Procolo, linked to the _decumanus_ of Via Duomo was also uncovered. To the west it was flanked by a taberna, to the east by the perimeter of an _insula_. The road was paved with limestone basoli and numerous reused marble fragments, including an honororific inscription mentioning _Antoninus Pius_. The stratigraphy revealed that the basoli overlay mid-imperial levels. A _tabernum_ was discovered along the _decumanus_ of Via Duomo, with a back room and vaulted stairway leading down to a complex of _cuniculi_ for water provision. On one wall the remains of a fresco depicting an Agathodemon snake was preserved. Further west were other shops with painted wall plaster. Built in the late Republican period they were restructured in the Imperial period and finally obliterated in the 13th-14th century by a dump of architectural marbles which probably came from one of the buildings facing onto the square in front of the Temple of Augustus. Of note amongst these were inscriptions mentioning the Julio-Claudian emperors, Trajan and the praetorian of _Antoninus Pius_ and a headless draped statue of a woman. A small room situated along the decumanus of Via Duomo was also excavated. Of late Republican date this was perhaps a _cubiculum_ that had later been transformed into a lararium, created on the upper storey of one of the _tabernae_. Lastly, on the northern ridge, excavations were renewed on the complex of _cryptoporticae_ which formed a substructure to the hill. Their presence attests the fact that in the Augustan or Julio-Claudian period this side of the hill top was no longer surrounded by walls. The _cryptoporticae_, on a north-south alignment, had opus mixtum walls and _opus caementicium_ barrel vaults.
      • Four rooms were uncovered which in antiquity occupied the northern edge of the Capitolium terrace. In one a floor of large quadrangular marble slabs was preserved. This fact, together with the recovery of an extraordinary quantity of architectural materials suggests the presence of an imposing public building, with a marble porch or pronaos, that was obliterated in the late medieval period. An altar with lateral pulvini decorated with “gorgoneia”, datable to the Domitianic period and a monumental Corinthian capital must have been part of this structure. It clearly had a major phase in the Flavian period. Lower down a carpet of marble slabs marking the presence of a stairway perhaps surmounted by an arch was visible. Other arches, of which the pillars remain, marked the crossroads of the _decumanus_ with the cardo of Via De Fraia and, to the east, the crossroads with the _cardo_ of Via S. Procolo. At the height of the _decumanus_ of Via Duomo investigations revealed six _tabernae_ created in the early imperial period and transformed at the end of the 3rd century A.D. The eastern stretch of the _decumanus_ of Via Duomo was flanked on both sides by shops and artisans’ workshops of late Republican date. These were enlarged or rebuilt in the Augustan period and given new entrances in the Neronian period. Lastly, in the area of the foundations of the 17th century palazzo Colonna a series of cisterns and service rooms came to light. In one room a mosaic floor with marine scenes, dating to the first half of the 3rd century A.D., was preserved. Further west stairs led into underground or basement chambers, attesting the large dimensions of this bath complex. On the opposite side of the road a small frescoed room datable to between the 2nd-4th century A.D., was discovered. Below the road a stretch of the ancient sewer was explored.
      • Together with the _forum_ area the archaeological exploration of Rione Terra has brought to light the line of the colony’s western cardo, below the present via De Fraja. This _cardo_ sloped slightly to the north in order to join up with the _decumanus_ below via Duomo. It was paved with trachyte basoli, whilst the _rudus_ was made up of a compact cement conglomerate bed containing abundant stone chippings, directly overlying the tufa bed rock. The road was delimited to the east and west by sidewalks with relative crepidines of parallelepiped trachyte blocks, bedded in cement nuclei, partly overlying the basoli and faced in patchy _opus signinum_. The ancient road was flanked, in this stretch, by a series of rooms with public functions, probably _tabernae_. In its latest visible layout the central stretch of the cardo was paved with lava stone basoli of various shapes and sizes. A number of buildings faced onto the road, whose entrances had piperno or marble thresholds. The eastern side was also delimited by a porticoed ambulatory with rectangular pillars of squared travertine blocks which probably supported _opus latericium_ arches. At the southern end, by the chapel of San Liborio, the _cardo_ met the southernmost _decumanus_ of the colony, which in the first stretch is below the modern via Villanova. The short stretch of uncovered road was flanked to the north by arches on _opus latericium_ pillars, perhaps repeated on the south side. Where the two roads met there was a monumental staircase with marble steps, flanked by more pillars. Only preserved in the final part and covered by the steps leading up to San Liborio, it was reached from the cardo and faced the south side of the _decumanus_.

    Bibliography

      • F. Zevi 2004, L’attività archeologica a Napoli e Caserta nel 2003, in Atti del XLIII Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2003), Taranto: 853-923.
      • V. Sampaolo 2005, L’attività archeologica a Napoli e Caserta nel 2004, in Atti del XLIV Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2004), Taranto: 663-705.
      • M.L. Nava, 2006, L’attività archeologica a Napoli e Caserta nel 2005, in Atti del XLV Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2005), Taranto: 583-661.
      • S. De Caro 2002, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2001, in Atti del XLI Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2001), Taranto: 635-675.
      • S. De Caro 2001, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2000, in Atti del XL Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2000), Taranto: 865-905.
      • S. De Caro 2003, L’attività della Soprintendenza archeologica di Napoli e Caserta nel 2002, in Atti del XLII Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 2002), Taranto: 569-621.