Season Team

• AIAC_1897 - Porto - 2003
  The geophysics work around Trajan’s harbour began in 1998, and has since been completed. The magnetometry results revealed: • A plan of the ‘Imperial Palace’ and its associated warehouses • A series of warehouses fronting the port • A part of the massive defensive wall circuit • The port’s major aqueduct, the location of which was previously unknown • Details of buildings to the southwest of the harbour, surrounding the basilica site and lining the canal which connects the harbour to the Fosse Traiana • More evidence for land reclaimation and property divisions at the confluence of the Tiber and Fossa Traiana.
• AIAC_54 - Falerii Novi - 2008
  A major ongoing geophysical survey has taken place over four seasons (1997-8, 2002, 2004 & 2008) at the Roman colony of Falerii Novi, undertaken by The University of Southampton, The University of Cambridge and the British School at Rome, first as part of The Tiber Valley Project and subsequently the Roman Towns in the Middle and Lower Tiber Valley Project. Falerii Novi is situated on the lower eastern slopes of Monti Cimino in the volcanic territory to the west of the Tiber valley, c. 50km north of Rome. The 1997-8 magnetometry survey proved very successful in the identification of many features in the urban setting. From the results, a clear interpretive map was created of the town, showing hundreds of buildings, both private and public, including warehouses, shops, market places, temples, a theatre, and the forum. The overall geophysical plan produced from the results also showed a clear street layout over most of the area which varies from the previous suggested layout of Di Stefano Manzella. The 2002-4 and 2008 seasons demonstrated that evidence for human activity at Falerii Novi extends beyond the towns circuit walls, revealing a possible gladiator training ground beside the amphitheatre, areas of cultivation, and a wealth of mausolea and possible rock cut burial chambers clustering along the edges of roads leading from the town. The clarity of the geophysical results from Falerii Novi and the large area covered by the survey provided us with one of the most complete town plans from Roman Italy; only Pompeii and Ostia offer similarly extensive plans. The results have considerable potential in shedding new light upon key issues in the development of Roman urbanism.
• AIAC_55 - Vignale - 2002
  Vignale forms a key part of the settlement of _Falerii Veteres_; it is crucial for our understanding of the complex phenomena that determined the appearance and development of the settlement. The results of the geophysical and topographical survey undertaken in 2000 and 2001 allow us to reassess the nature and extent of the archaeological remains located on the plateau at Vignale. The spatial arrangement of the site suggests that the settlement was articulated around two separate alignments laying either side of a sunken road. To the north of the sunken road lay a sanctuary area with two temples and two cisterns. The geophysical survey has found structural evidence beside the southern cistern, and the overall results demonstrate that both cisterns share the same northwest to southwest alignment. The magnetometry and resistivity surveys also reveal a complex of structures associated with the southernmost temple, which measure some 60 x 40 m, and are of the same alignment. A difference in function in the area to the south of the road is perhaps supported by the geochemical evidence, which shows differing patterns. The geophysical evidence shows many small sub-rectangular anomalies, with rarer larger features. In cases, it has been possible to infer relationships between the smaller features, and they seem to share the east-west orientation of the sunken road. Some are likely to have been wells, while the larger ones with squared sides may have been water-cisterns. Despite the different nature of activities taking place to the north and south of the sunken road, there is little doubt that the route itself is the key to understanding how activity on the Vignale plateau was structured, with the area lying on its northern side acting as a sanctuary. The sanctuary area can be seen as one of the ritual foci of _Falerii Veteres_, on account of the prominence of the plateau and its geographical position. It is important to remember that it was but one of a number of sanctuaries within the broader settlement complex of _Falerii Veteres_. The existence of many sanctuaries suggests that movement within, and possibly between, sanctuaries along established route-ways, like that found at Vignale, is probably fundamental to understanding how such routes were used by the inhabitants.