Season Team

• AIAC_2694 - c.d. Villa degli Antonini - 2012
  During the third season of excavation, we continued the investigation of the curvilinear structure to the west of the bath complex. With the aim of defining the precise plan as well as the character of this structure, the excavation sectors to the north and east of the emerging walls were expanded and a new sector about 30m to the west of the west edge of the excavation area was opened. The continuation of investigations in the northern sector clarified the nature of a curving wall identified at the end of the previous season. It belongs to a still buried spiral staircase of which only the base of a window, a fragment of one of the treads, and the central column remain. The staircase must have led to at least one room underneath, the existence of which was already inferred since 2010 and which was apparently covered by a groin vault. Excavation in the new sector, aimed at testing the results of 2011 geophysical surveys which suggested that the already emerging walls continued so as to form an elongated oval, brought to light new curving wall segments of identical type and layout to those already uncovered. The wall structures from both areas may therefore be attributed to a single building of elliptical shape, thus lending more weight to the hypothesis that we are dealing with the amphitheatre at Lanuvium where, according to the ancient sources, Commodus killed wild beasts. The artifacts recovered consist mainly of large numbers of white and colored marble fragments, very numerous polychrome tesserae in glass paste, a number of brick stamps, especially anepigraphic ones, and ceramic fragments such as African slipware. Future investigations will seek to define the exact plan and chronology of this building and to identify other structures in the adjacent areas.
• AIAC_2694 - c.d. Villa degli Antonini - 2014
  Durante la campagna di scavo 2014 si è continuato ad indagare l’anfiteatro, identificato come tale nel 2012. A tal scopo si sono concentrate le esplorazioni nel Saggio A e nel settore a N e ad E nell’Area 1 (originariamente denominata area della c.d. ‘Struttura Curvilinea’), immediatamente ad O del complesso termale. Contestualmente è stata indagata una nuova area (Area 2 – Saggio F), circa 200 m a N delle suddette strutture, in corrispondenza della zona attualmente adibita a circolo di tiro con l’arco. Quest’area è stata interessata nel 2013 da prospezioni geofisiche. Nella zona dove le indagini avevano evidenziato delle zone di anomalie ascrivibili alla presenza di strutture sepolte sono venuti alla luce alcuni setti murari la cui lettura topografica è ancora di difficile intepretazione ed un mosaico di tipo bianco-nero con decorazione a cerchi allacciati che determinano esagoni, motivo iconografico identico ad uno presente negli _Hospitalia_ presso Villa Adriana. Tali resti potrebbero essere pertinenti alla parte residenziale della villa, fino ad oggi mai individuata. Da questa zona provengono in particolare un considerevole numero di frammenti di marmo bianco, modanati e non, ed alcuni frammenti di affresco a decorazioni geometriche e vegetali. Numerosi altri frammenti di affresco, a motivi floreali, provengono dal saggio A. Il resto dei materiali continua a restituire un quadro simile a quello degli anni precedenti: preponderanza di frammenti di marmo, colorato e non, e di tessere in pasta vitrea; presenza di bolli laterizi epigrafi ed anepigrafi; frammenti di anfore e di ceramica da cucina e da mensa, tra cui sigillata africana, ascrivibili al II d.C.; frammenti di vetro-mosaico; chiodi di bronzo e di ferro ed altri elementi metallici non meglio identificati. Inoltre, prospezioni geofisiche sono state condotte in un terreno in loc. Quarto della Mandorla, a ca. 200 a S delle terme, che necessita ulteriori esplorazioni.
• AIAC_2694 - c.d. Villa degli Antonini - 2015
  In 2015 archaeological investigation at the Villa of the Antonines was conducted in two distinct areas: the main one where the amphitheater and the baths are (Area 1), and another (Area 2) 150 m uphill where the 2014 excavation revealed two rooms decorated with black and white mosaics, of which one, almost completely exposed, presented a motif identical to a mosaic in the Hospitalia at Hadrian’s villa, of interlocking circles defining hexagons. In Area 1 further excavation and geophysical investigation by means of microgravimetric survey inside the arena and in the sector between the outer ring of the amphitheater and the baths confirmed the presence of underground structures. In particular, the eastward expansion of Saggio A has ascertained that two parallel concrete walls oriented W-E partially exposed in 2014 formed the long sides of an apsidal, barrel-vaulted underground chamber. This room is connected, in the middle of the arena, with what must be the central gallery along the major axis of the amphitheater of which segments of walls have been partially excavated. In Area 2 portions of a new room with black and white mosaic flooring decorated with an elaborate octagonal motif were uncovered. Moreover, one of the already identified rooms, in which only a small part of the black and white mosaic was preserved, has revealed that its decoration, originally thought to be exclusively of a divided scales pattern, includes a head of a gorgon. These decorations suggest that the rooms formed part of the residential quarters of the villa, given also their location with an impressive view of plain and sea. Such features, together with continuing finds of fragmentary opus sectile elements, colored glass tesserae, and fresco fragments, although dispersed, contribute to validating the hypothesis of an extensively appointed imperial villa
• AIAC_2694 - c.d. Villa degli Antonini - 2016
  During the 2016 season we continued to explore Area 1, where the amphitheater and the baths are located, and Area 2, ca. 150 m north of Area 1, where excavation revealed rooms decorated with black-and-white mosaics. The continuation of the investigation in Area 1 revealed new data on the layout of the substructures of the amphitheater. In the zone just west of room ζ, known since 2010, we have determined the presence of walls in connection with an underground passageway, orthogonal to the central longitudinal gallery of the building. Nonetheless, it is not clear yet if there is symmetry with the western side, where the 2015 investigation revealed the existence of an apsidal, barrel-vaulted underground chamber. Moreover, the discovery of a segment of a N-S wall showed that in the eastern sector there must have been a wall, parallel to those of the central corridor and touching at its extremities the innermost elliptical wall. This confirms the complexity of the underground passageway layout and therefore helps to corroborate the distinctive nature of this amphitheater, despite its small dimensions. In Area 2, on the basis of the presence of curving walls and a niche decorated with a gorgon mosaic uncovered in previous seasons, we opened targeted trenches in order to test the hypothesis that these structures might all have been part of a circular space (ca. 22 m diameter) with niches. This hypothesis is now strengthened by the discovery of a second, and possibly a third niche, the latter of which presented an additional fragmentary piece of mosaic. The artifacts uncovered this year in both areas are similar in typology to those found in previous seasons. In particular we found a great quantity of glass and black-and-white mosaic tiles, as well as fragments of marble and monochrome and polychrome fresco.
• AIAC_2694 - c.d. Villa degli Antonini - 2017
  During the 2017 season we continued to explore the amphitheater, west of the bath complex (Area 1), and the plausible residential quarters of the villa (Area 2), ca. 150 m north of Area 1, where rooms decorated with black-and-white mosaics were previously discovered. In Area 1 we continued to uncover walls that are part of the underground passageway system beneath the arena of the amphitheater. The investigation of these underground rooms and corridors has contined to point to an absence of orthogonal symmetry to the central longitudinal gallery of the building of the kind one would initially have expected. We have also further explored the N-NE area outside the amphitheatre, but no significant data have emerged here so far. On the other hand, the exploration in Area 2 has confirmed the presence of the hypothesised large circular room (ca. 22 m diameter) with niches. The expansion of the investigation in a new area (saggio P) north of the already-explored trenches that aimed to identify a fourth niche of the circular room, has brought to light also parts of two new portions of black-and-white mosaics. The decorative pattern of one, at present exposed only minimally, cannot be identified, while the other seems to have covered quite a large surface and presents a vegetal decoration. Moreover, additional portion of walls uncovered here this year seem to be in connection with the ones discovered in 2016 in Saggio G and might be interpreted as a small portico. Few artefacts were found in Area 1, while in Area 2 we found a high concentration of fresco fragments, for the most part white, but some of these also carry a decorative red band.