Season Team

• AIAC_1871 - Riva di Roma - 2007
  Between 12th July 2006 and 10th August 2007 a geophysical survey was undertaken at the site of Riva di Roma close to the town of Acilia Madonetta, 20km to the south west of Rome in the Comune di Roma. The survey was conducted to assess the archaeological potential of an area of terrain some 135 hectares in size, located between the low hills of Acilia to the north east, and the coastal plain of Casal Palocco to the south west. The work was carried out on behalf of SIACI for Pirelli RE – Aree Urbane, and was conducted by the British School at Rome and the University of Southampton. The survey was successful in mapping and identifying a number of archaeological features across the area, mainly relating to the works of the Bonifica conducted along the coastal plain in the 19th and 20th centuries. Remnants of some military and telecommunications infrastructure were also identified in the survey results, but no extensive evidence was found to suggest significant human habitation in the area in the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods.
• AIAC_1897 - Porto - 2008
  Geophysics: The three year programme of magnetometer survey on the Isola Sacra began in the north-eastern corner of the island and has detected: • Structures to the south of the Fossa Traiana between Sant Ippolito and the Capo due Rami • that are possibly associated with the _Statio Marmorum_ • Road alignments • Field boundaries • Possible tomb structures overlooking the Tiber. Excavation: The main _focus_ of excavations remained the large open area at the eastern edge of the Palazzo Imperiale initiated in 2007. The sequence here is now clearer. Considerable emphasis was directed towards the southern side of the channel excavated in 2007. While the expected southern mole has proved elusive, the excavations uncovered the northern face and a range of rooms belonging to the large building delimiting the southern side of the channel: this runs for 250m in an east-west direction, and was c. 80 m wide. This southern wall face embodied a high complex structural sequence running from the 1st through to the later 5th centuries AD. More was learned about the circular building uncovered in 2007. It was in fact ovoid in shape (c. 42m x 35 m) and may have acted as a centre for the registration of incoming cargoes. Emphasis was also directed towards the excavation of the sequence of cisterns at its northern end. It now seems certain that these were built during the Trajanic and Hadrianic periods, undergoing an important series of modifications down into the late antique period, as well as providing evidence for limited occupation during the 11th-13th centuries AD. It is possible that these were the easternmost of a line of cisterns along the northern façade of the Palazzo Imperiale, that were fed by an aqueduct running along the south side of the channel uncovered in 2007, and which may have been used to provide freshwater for ships leaving Portus on their return journeys. Additional fieldwork included a programme of geoarchaeological coring in the excavation area (J-P Goiran, Universite de Lyons), as well as a sub-bottom profile survey of the Trajanic basin in collaboration with the Duca Sforza Cesarini.