Season Team

• AIAC_1758 - Borghesiana - 2007
  Part of a _villa rustica_ was identified during the course of small scale investigations. This was an open area on two levels sloping down to the south-west, with a number of rooms along its western side. The rescue excavation was limited to the definition of the structures found. The containing wall of the first terrace from the north-east, built in _opus incertum_, represented the edge of the archaeological area. Abutting the containing wall were the remains of a _nymphaeum_ comprising a horseshoe-shaped pool, lined in _opus signinum_, inside a quadrangular structure built of _opus reticulatum_. The background must have been formed by an artificial grotto, a dry stone construction of basalt lumps, a concentration of which emerged at this point during the excavation. As well as collecting water it also had an ornamental function. Up against the _nymphaeum_, again between the first and second terrace wall, there was a second pool also lined with _opus signinum_ but rectangular in plan. A section of lead _fistula_ was found between the two structures, which were almost certainly linked by this pipe. A small channel situated on the long north-western side of the rectangular pool acted as an overflow pipe through which excess water was siphoned off into a buried _dolium_. There was a badly damaged _opus signinum_ pavement in the space between the pools and the second containing wall, below which was probably the drainage system for the pools themselves. The remains of terracotta tubes found in what may have been a garden area were perhaps part of the latter. Other infrastructures useful for the disposal of excess water towards the ditch below were present in the area. What was probably an open air drainage channel cut into the tufa bed-rock can be ascribed to a first phase. Following its abandonment a small drain of small tufa blocks was built, of which a part of the tile covering survived. Its alignment diverged from that of the earlier channel and led into a tank built of _opus listatum_. The above mentioned terracotta tubing and a second small drain (also in _opus listatum_ ), running down from an unexcavated room, also led into this tank. A series of rooms opened onto the western side of the garden area. The walls, originally built in opus reticulatum, had undergone a series of alterations. Beyond a threshold of “peperino type” stone, corresponding to the western limit of the excavation, the building must have extended towards the valley, as attested by the substantial archaeological remains there and by past surveys carried out on the other side of the modern road. On the basis of the construction technique and the material recovered, the villa fits into the south-eastern suburban landscape of the 1st century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. More specifically, the late use of _opus incertum_ for the construction of the first terrace wall provided the _terminus post quem_ and a stamp dating from the reign of Diocletian on a brick from the officina Domitiana, found _in situ_, attests occupation that continued through that reign. Worthy of note was the sporadic find of a fragment of marble sculpture, found in correspondence with the crest of the first terrace wall in _opus incertum_, amongst the inclusions in the cement nucleus. This was the terminal part of the muzzle of a deer-like animal, represented at life size with its tongue between its teeth as though dead. Both the subject and rendition of the anatomical detail suggest a mid 3rd century A.D. date. The burial of a woman, without grave goods, was placed in the abandonment level, in the small space between the pool and the structure in which it was housed. The structures which emerged were in a very bad state of preservation due to the agricultural use of the area in relatively modern times.