Season Team

• AIAC_1897 - Porto - 2007
  The first season took place over five weeks during September and early October 2007, and was directed by Simon Keay and Graeme Earl (Southampton), assisted by Dott.ssa Lidia Paroli (Soprintendenza per I Beni Archeologici di Ostia), and involved participants from the universities of Southampton, Cambridge, Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Aix-en-Provence, Tarragona and Seville. It built upon two earlier seasons of topographic work (March 2007) and resistance tomography (June 2007). The excavations uncovered a large (250 mq) open area at the eastern edge of the Palazzo Imperiale, a key building at the centre of the port, revealing a large rectangular dock or canal that was probably of Claudian date, defined by a spectacular series of moles on the south side of the main Claudian basin of the port. This was filled with sand in the course of the first and second centuries AD, and its central stretch subsequently covered by a large circular building in the Severan period. The whole area was extensively replanned in the later fifth and sixth centuries AD.
• 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.
• AIAC_1897 - Porto - 2009
  The third and final season of excavations at Portus were undertaken for two weeks in the first half of July, and between the 26th August and the 23rd October. This involved the continuation of excavation on the western side of the side at the foot of the late antique walls, within the large building at the southern end of the site (Building 5), on the western side of the cistern block (Buildings 1 and 3) and on the western side of the path in the direction of the main body of the “Palazzo Imperiale.” Overall an area of c. 3000 square metres has now been excavated with an international team of c 50 people, resulting in the identification of seven main periods of structural development along the eastern side of the “Palazzo Imperiale.” One of the highlights of the season included the discovery of the western side of the amphitheatre, which was found to be inscribed within a monumental hemicycle, a seriously of luxuriously appointed rooms lying immediately to the west which formed the eastern edge of a garden complex. The rooms generated large quantities of imported marble, including a very fine head, possibly representing Ulysses, and environmental material. Another was the discovery of the Claudian mole and an associated series of beach deposits. In addition to the excavation, there was an intensive programme of Ground Penetrating Radar survey covering the whole of the “Palazzo Imperiale,” further environmental coring (with the Université de Lyon) and a first programme of helicopter-based infra-red photography of the whole of Portus and the Isola Sacra (with the University of Ghent).
• AIAC_3604 - Interamna Lirenas - 2014
  The total-coverage geophysical prospection (magnetometry) carried out over the whole urban area of Interamna Lirenas had made it possible to identify not only the main settlement layout, but also relevant monumental features within it. Most prominent of all, next to the forum, was a theatre. This discovery prompt a serious reconsideration of the nature and importance of the settlement, especially since the absence of any archaeological feature hinting to the presence of this kind of building had been taken by our predecessors as a sign of the secondary nature of the town. The 2013 (6x20m) test trench had already verified (a) the close correspondence between the excavated structures and the plan produced through geophysical prospection and (b) the remarkably good state of the buried archaeology (although little was preserved above floor level). The excavation of foundations also made it possible to date the building to the second half of the I century BC, a date which is fully compatible with the building technique employed. In 2014 the trench was further extended by way of another perpendicular section (23x13m) encompassing portions of the cavea, the orchestra and the scaena. The excavation yielded important details that also help appreciate the post-abandonment phases of the building and its state of preservation. First and foremost, the floor of the orchestra is yet to be uncovered, despite the fact that our trench has reached a depth of about 1.70m below the surface. Furthermore, although we have identified the wall of the scaena and one of the hospitalia, the floor of the pulpitum itself is yet to be found. All of this suggests that the structure is in fact better preserved in its lowest levels than originally assumed. As for the scaena wall, whereas the southern face was badly preserved, the northern one yielded extensive in situ remains of frescoes (two sections about 4m in length on each side of the hospitalium). These have not been excavated as it was deemed advisable to carry out this work in the presence of a conservator, something which we have already planned for the 2015 season. Especially interesting is the evidence we have uncovered for an extensive and systematic spoliation process. Large blocks of limestone, in all likelihood part of the cavea originally, are found displaced and broken up – some even stacked vertically against each other for later processing! The thick layer of debris which fills the cavea appears to have been dug trhough at some point in order to allow access to the structures, in accordance to a practice which is well-attested at the site for the whole modern period (used like an open-air quarry). A preliminary analysis of some of the finds from contexts associated with these activities suggest a medieval origin for at least some of them. The presence of a large magnetic anomaly to the NW (as revealed by earlier magnetometry) taken together with the fact that several of the limestone blocks were smashed seems to suggest the presence of a lime kiln nearby.