Season Team

• AIAC_1142 - San Felice - 2009
  Since 2004, a team of archaeologists led by Drs. Hans vanderLeest and Myles McCallum have engaged in archaeological research at San Felice, a Roman villa site occupied from the last quarter of the first century BC to the early decades of the third century AD. Research at the site has included geophysical prospection, excavation, and finds analysis. To date, we have excavated over 700 square metres of the structure at San Felice. Our investigations have revealed that the site was initially a private estate which subsequently came into the possession of the emperor, likely during the first century AD. Activity at the site can be divided into three occupational phases (late 1st BC to early 1st AD; mid first AD to early second AD; mid second AD to early third AD) and a post-occupational phase of unknown date (likely either the late third AD or the early seventh AD). The structure was originally a peristyle villa set on a terraced basis villa with a series of well-appointed rooms lining the edge of the terrace, each with a view over the Basentello Valley. During the third phase, much of the site was converted from a residence to a facility engaged in wool processing, textile production, sheep rearing, and possibly hunting. Throughout its occupation, the site shows evidence for commercial contacts with the colony of Venusia, and several new ITS stamps likely associated with pottery production at Venusia have been recovered at the site. During the post occupational phase, the building material and metal from the site was reused and recycled for use either in the expansion of Vagnari in the late third/early fourth century AD, or the construction of a medieval village on the top of Serra San Felice during the seventh century AD. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests that during the last occupational phase and the post-occupational phase, the site’s inhabitants may have been subsisting on a starvation-level diet, although further excavation and analysis is required to confirm this. During excavations in 2008, we recovered a _mortarium_ stamped with a menorah in contexts associated with the third phase. This suggests that there was at least one Jew at the site during this period. It will be interesting to see if this Jewish presence is corroborated by excavation and analysis of the human skeletal remains at the Vagnari cemetery (directed by Dr. Tracy Prowse, McMaster University). Future work will seek to clarify the activities carried out here during the third phase, regional commercial links to sites such as Venusia and other imperial sites in Puglia and Basilicata, and why the site was abandoned.
• AIAC_1142 - San Felice - 2010
  The is no summary for this season.
• AIAC_1142 - San Felice - 2011
  During the months of July and August, 2011, a team of 25 archaeologists and archaeology students from Canada and the United States continued excavating the Roman villa site at San Felice, work which commenced in the summer of 2005. The goals of the excavation were to determine the layout and nature of rooms surrounding a central peristyle courtyard/pool area; to better understand the nature of activity at the site during a post-occupational phase dating to the late second through early third century AD; to determine, if possible, the nature of renovations to the structure in the late first century AD; and to generally better understand the transition of the site from a primarily residential structure to a centre of artisanal production. Excavations in 2011 provided a great deal of evidence related to the post-occupational phase of the structure. To begin with, a series of tile surfaces, composed of reused tegulae, imbrices, and dolium covers were constructed directly on top of a thick layer or rubble, a phenomenon that was particularly easy to discern in the south western section of the excavation where the level of overburden protected the rather delicate archaeological remains of the post-occupational phase. These surfaces all show evidence for burning and are accompanied by hearth features. Sediment samples were taken for flotation by Anthony Taylor while charcoal samples were examined by Dr. Robyn Veal in the hopes of understanding better the activities associated with the post-occupational phase. We also discovered a relatively well-preserved pottery kiln that had been dug into an early phase floor surface. Although we only excavated the _praefurnium_, it is likely that the kiln was used to produce oil lamps as. It is also now quite clear that by the end of the late first century AD much of the villa, including its central peristyle, was converted from a residential to an artisanal or industrial function. This involved raising the floor levels in certain parts of the structure, filling in some doorways, inserting dolia defossa and diverting the water present in the central peristyle pool. The finds from archaeological strata associated with this renovation suggest that wool working and the preparation of textiles was an important activity at the site. While we had hoped to find evidence for the northern limit of the structure, based on our northernmost trench it now seems clear that plough damage is too great in this area to ever recover the plan of the structure’s northern edge, although we did find some small, well-preserved patches of painted concrete flooring in this area. Still, it is possible that future excavations may find evidence of the _basis villae_. Finally, the finds associated with the first two phases of activity at the site, from the second half of the first century BC to the mid-first century AD, suggest that the site’s inhabitants were of a relatively high social status. These finds include pieces of an iron candelabra, a carnelian intaglio, and a great deal of tack and harness.
• AIAC_349 - Monte Pallano - 2009
  Excavation of a farm building (ACQ 10000) discovered in 2002, and excavated in 2006 and 2007 was completed. The building is now known to be c. 5 x 10 m; it had a tiled roof, but no internal walls. Built in the first half of the first century A.D., it was occupied until the Hadrianic period, as pottery and numismatic evidence show; then it seems to have been abandoned after a single catastrophic event which brought down at least part of the roof. An earlier phase is represented by two wall stubs and residual late Hellenistic pottery; however the Roman phase involved cutting back into the hillside and levelling the ground surface (the natural marl was smoothed as a floor surface), mostly removing earlier phases. The building was probably used for processing of agricultural produce and secondary products from stock-raising. Previously dolia inscribed with what was presumably their volume (17, 5) had been found in the building. This season a shallow rectangular mortared basin, resting on a raft of cuboid cobbles, and water-proofed with a thin veneer of cocciopesto, was found in the NW corner. The function of the basin is as yet undefined; it appears to drain into one of five sub-circular pits cut into the floor. These were heterogeneous in terms of the material found within them; but three were characterised by the same concentrations of carbonised fruit (flesh and seeds) which had been noted in 2007 (Shelton 2008). Since one of these pits seems to drain the basin, it is likely that the fruit remains are derived from a food production process involving the basin (rather than representing waste, whether accreted casually or dumped as a midden). Other activities taking place at various times are weaving (20 plus loomweights were found together, with others found in previous seasons); and perhaps bone working (a long-horn cow horn found on the floor next to an iron knife). The building was not reconstructed, although a crude wall stub belonging to a later horizon was located to the west; but continued anthropogene activity in the area is suggested by the accumulation of faunal, and anthropogenic material in its post-collapse layers; evidence of late Roman frequentation has been noted nearby (Fasti Online report 2007). The post-collapse assemblage implies continued habitation nearby: it seems that our building was part of larger farm complex nearby, now in heavily-wooded ground. This would account for the earlier residual material and quantities of tile noted in the woods, and might well be the source, through colluviation, of the surface assemblages identified by field survey in the 1990s by John Lloyd and his colleagues: Scatters 7 and possibly 9. This location lies at the watershed of two hydrological systems, conforming to what is known of the preferred positions of Roman farm sites around Monte Pallano. Field survey nears Archi and San Giovanni di Tornareccio produced a small number of surface signatures compatible with occupation sites, ranging from the Neolithic to the Roman period.
• AIAC_811 - Tempio di Venere - 2006
  Fornire il recinto di un tempio di boschetti e giardini era pratica abbastanza comune nel mondo romano, ciononostante anche a Pompei, raramente questi giardini sacri sono stati indagati dal punto di vista archeologico. Per rimediare a questa lacuna l’università di Sheffield sta conducendo ricerche dal 1998 ad oggi nel tempio di Venere, al fine di recuperare evidenze per la cronologia e l’allestimento del principale santuario romano della città e per quello del suo _nemus_ . Le nostre indagini hanno contribuito significativamente alla comprensione dell’uso dello spazio urbano a Pompei e del ruolo del bosco sacro nelle pratiche cultuali. Sono state rinvenute chiare evidenze per la progettazione di un giardino nel santuario romano più antico risalenti al I sec. a.C. e, più precisamente, alla metà dello stesso secolo, permettendoci di identificare questo come uno dei più antichi giardini di tempio conosciuti nell’impero romano. Il bosco sacro di Venere era un giardino “architettonico”, in cui alberi e arbusti furono piantati in modo alterno sui tre lati della corte entro file di contenitori di terracotta lungo il portico colonnato, gli alberi quasi certamente riecheggiavano il ritmo delle colonne e visivamente esaltavano il tempio a chi veniva dal lato meridionale. Le piante nei pressi del tempio rappresentavano ciò che gli autori latini consideravano il _nemus_ , ovvero un bosco creato o manipolato dall’uomo per integrarsi con l’edificio sacro e le sue immagini. Nel periodo augusteo il tempio e il suo portico furono rinnovati per qualche ragione il giardino del tempio fu abbandonato e la corte pavimentata con malta. Anche se il santuario in seguito non ebbe un giardino, i monumenti votivi e le strutture idriche scavate, indicano che la corte rimase il punto focale della venerazione religiosa e dell’attività sociale fino alla distruzione definitiva del santuario nel 79 d.C.
• AIAC_811 - Tempio di Venere - 2007
  La ricerca delle evidenze archeologiche di un bosco sacro nel santuario di Venere è lo scopo primario della nostra ricerca, ma lo scavo ha gettato luce anche sulla cronologia e lo sviluppo del santuario, sul suo allestimento e sulle alterazioni dei limiti del tempio e il ruolo del santuario nell’espressione dell’identità politica e religiosa di Pompei. Gli scavi sono stati condotti nel 1998, 2004 e 2006 con due stagioni di studio nel 2006 e 2007. Al fine di costruire il santuario sul pendio naturale dell’area, ammassi di macerie edilizie, rifiuti e terreno furono gettati sul pendio e depositati per creare una terrazza artificiale su cui costruire il nuovo tempio e i portici circostanti. Le fondamenta della struttura tagliano e sono inserite nei depositi della terrazza su cui sorge il tempio. La ceramica, i manufatti, la stratigrafia e argomenti storici suggeriscono che il tempio sia una creazione dei coloni romani intorno alla metà del I sec. a.C. Nel corso delle nostre indagini sono state recuperate chiare evidenze della presenza di piante, dimostrando che la sistemazione della corte del santuario a bosco sacro fu contemporaneo alla costruzione del tempio e ai portici circostanti. Si tratta di uno dei boschi, legati ad un tempio, più antichi del mondo romano, per il quale abbiamo evidenza archeologica. Piante, fosse per alberi, alcuni dei quali conservavano ancora vasi in terracotta in situ, sono stati scavati nei depositi di costruzione della terrazza del tempio. Il bosco consisteva in una fila di alberi e arbusti piantati in modo parallelo di fronte alle colonne dei lati settentrionale, occidentale e orientale del santuario. Il disegno è quello di una normale piantumazione di alberi incorniciati da una porticus triplex. Localizzato su un’ampia terrazza artificiale nell’angolo sud-occidentale della città, il santuario con il suo tempio, i portici e la corte allestita a giardino stavano come un monumento cospicuo e un simbolo ideologico della Pompei romana, “abitazione di Venere” (Martial, Epigrams 4.44.5). Nella sua seconda fase, agli inizi del I sec. d.C., il tempio e i portici furono rinnovati, usando marmo lunense come elementi decorativi. Per qualche ragione, il bosco sacro andò fuori uso allora o fu abbandonato e la corte del santuario pavimentata con malta. Le basi dei monumenti votivi e le tracce delle modifiche della gestione dell’acqua nel santuario in età augustea indicano che il sito rimase un importante luogo di culto. Il terremoto del 62 d.C. e forse ulteriori sussulti negli anni seguenti distrussero il complesso. Le macerie nel recinto erano state rimosse e i lavori edilizi nelle fondamenta del nuovo tempio e dei portici erano comunque in stato avanzato prima dell’eruzione del 79 d.C. Alcune parti delle sovrastrutture in marmo lunense del tempio di seconda fase erano state riciclate per questa ultima costruzione e differenti tipi di pietre calcaree colorate importate dal Mediterraneo orientale e dall’Itali settentrionale erano state tagliate e messe in opera nel sito. Il santuario non fu mai finito, né il bosco sacro fu ripiantato a causa della catastrofe finale.