Season Team

• AIAC_1983 - Regio VII, insula VI and Villa delle Colonne a mosaico - 2016
  This season involved the initiation of two new trenches, both situated in areas outside of the Villa core. The first, measuring 6 by 5 meters (AA012), spanned the area between the shops along the east side of the Via dei Sepolcri and the core of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico, including parts of two rooms located where the southwest corner of the early Villa core met with the later additions of vaulted supporting structures. Excavation produced 31 stratigraphic units and revealed that this part of the structure had not been fully excavated of eruptive material. Removal of layers of lapilli and ash produced extensive information about both the eruption, revealed the final phase condition of these rooms, and uncovered evidence of several phases of development during the latter part of the life of the area. It is clear that during the construction of the shops to the west of the Villa (Phase 4), the zone in between them also received a series of vaulted corridors with adjoining rooms, likely in two stories, which served to raise the elite elements of the Villa on a raised platform. Subsequently, the area was outfitted with a drain and opus signinum catchment designed to evacuate large quantities of liquid from an as yet unidentified source. In a change possibly to be associated with the earthquake(s) of 62 CE, the area was then downgraded and filled with rubbish and a large dolium for water storage. Rooms previously belonging to the Villa became elements of the western shops at this time. The eruption itself first carried elements of domestic material into the area, then caused the vaulting above it to collapse. The second trench (AA013), measuring roughly 9 by 5 meters, was located against a row of tombs south of the Villas entrances in a triangular space of uncertain function. Here, excavation revealed many levels of deposited soil, the final layers of which were clearly the result of the construction of the tombs themselves. Three of these tombs may now be sequenced as a roughly contemporary. A surprisingly municipal-scale drain was found also to have been constructed in concert with these tombs. A single cremation burial in a pottery urn was recovered from one of the few areas not disturbed by Maiuri’s interventions of 1935. Natural soils and the earliest phases in the area were not encountered owing to the significant depth of deposits, but the final phase clearing and/or rebuilding of the drain was also apparent in the form of a final-phase open trench filled with eruptive material.
• AIAC_1983 - Regio VII, insula VI and Villa delle Colonne a mosaico - 2018
  In June and July of 2018, the Via Consolare Project continued stratigraphic excavations in the area of the Villa delle Colonne a mosaico as a part of its on-going research into the chronology, urban development, and utilization of the properties along the Via Consolare, from Pompeii’s surburbium to its forum. The four trenches in the Villa core were opened (AA016, AA017, AA018, AA020), intended to provide material dating the earliest phases of Villa construction and to explore the nature of the final-phase utilisation of space. That in the north-eastern corner (AA016) produced evidence of a broad conduit draining water into a deep cistern, with evidence that the first phase of the Villa had included an interior colonnade of brick columns previously thought to be a secondary addition. This cistern and drain went out of use in the final phases as the Villa’s vertical expansion came to be supported by several large piers. The trench to the west (AA018) examined the central court and a small room to the south. This uncovered a lead pipe (fistulum) that ran laterally across the courtyard, originating in a large, above-ground cistern to the west of the core. Further traces of the brick-column colonnade and a thin opus signinum floor provided evidence of the changes to surrounding rooms that had attended the addition of upper stories to the Villa. This area also established that the Villa core does not actually represent an earlier phase of the Villa, but instead is a massive square platform, nearly 2 m deep that had been built during the initial construction in order to elevate it above its local surroundings. Excavations intended to recover the destination of the fistulum (AA020) revealed that it had not reached the final phase water features that are located in the south-eastern corner of the core, but rather ran towards the bath-suite situated to the east of the core. These also provided evidence of final phase changes including the probable removal of elements of the lead pipe. Exceptionally, in the area of two cooking platforms (AA017) a final phase build-up of cooking debris was recovered, producing a laminate of charcoal, ash, and lime above a packed earth floor, that documented the use of space in the area until the eruption itself. At depth in this area the base of the Villa platform was recovered, displaying a thick sequence of fills and building debris that provisionally date the Villa to the early 1st c. CE. Removal of modern debris (AA018) in the area of the northern entrance corridor produced evidence of extensive early modern exploration, likely in pursuit of underlying Oscan graves, but also revealed sufficient surviving ancient stratigraphy to reveal a beaten earth track with repairs, and several late period changes to the walls and door closure system. This area is to be explored more fully in 2019. Excavation in 2018 has dramatically altered the chronology of the Villa, the motivations of its builders, and the role it played in the urban fabric of the area outside of the Porta Ercolano.