Season Team

• 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_1898 - Falacrinae - 2009
  The third season of excavation at the site of the Roman villa at San Lorenzo took place between the 6th July and 15th August and involved some 40 students from universities in Italy, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The site, which lies 4 kilometers to the south of Cittareale overlooking the Via Salaria, was first identified at the end of the 19th century, has since 2007 been the subject of detailed investigation through geophysical survey and excavation by the British School at Rome and the University of Perugia. The aim of the 2009 excavation was to investigate a range of rooms at the northern extent of the villa, initially indicated by the geophysical survey, and whose presence was confirmed at the close of the previous year’s excavation. Furthermore, excavation continued of the late antique phase, identified in the western range of the complex, where over the course of the previous two years a small workshop has been discovered, revealing that the villa was the site of a various forms of production in the late 4th and early 5th century AD. Finally, a test trench was planned in order to assess the southern extent of the villa, in view of future excavation. The 2008 excavation had revealed the north-western corner of a large double colonnade, to the east of which lay an open area, and behind which appeared to lie a series of rooms. This was confirmed by the 2009 excavation, which discovered a series of five rooms, two of which were decorated with white limestone mosaic floors, and one which was decorated with a marble floor in opus sectile. These rooms, which formed the pars urbana of the villa, also served to define the northern limit of the complex, also confirmed by a substantial external wall and the end of a long paved drainage channel. The spectacular discovery of a preserved floor in opus sectile is amongst the most important aspects of this villa. The two different types of modules used in the composition of the floor, together with the various different types of marble, suggest that the pavement can be dated to the Flavian period, a moment in which the villa was subject to significant alterations. Also discovered in this northern part of the complex was a small calidarium, as identified by the presence of in situ suspensurae and a praefurnium. The second major area which the 2009 excavation focussed upon was the continued investigation of a series of rooms of the complex which were later reused in the late antique, after a period of abandonment of the villa in the 3rd century AD. The discovery over the previous years of a series of pools and several paved bases which had been exposed to firing, as well a number of bronze vessels and millstones, together with a small hoard of coins gave an indication as to the activity in this villa in the late antique. Excavation therefore continued of the most southerly room before the site is cut by a small track and a modern pipeline. The excavation revealed further aspects of production on the site, including the mould of a lamp, as well as confirming the probability of several phases of construction in the late antique period. Excavation has shown that a significant part of the central range of the complex lies underneath the church and modern cemetery of San Lorenzo. Therefore, guided by the results of a magnetometry survey conducted in 2008, an evaluation trench, begun the previous year, was further extended to the south of the complex. The results suggest that the first phase of the villa lay on the southern end of the terrace, and as the villa was monumentalised in the Early Imperial period, it extended to the north, finally covering an area of approximately 10,000m².