Three excavation campaigns expand the map of Roman Italy

Three archaeological sites, in three different regions of Italy, have yielded new elements regarding the Roman city in recent weeks. For each of the three stories, the available source is at present a single one — the respective universities or bodies promoting the excavations — and no further independent confirmation is available: we state this here once and for all, before turning to the substance of the finds.

At Aquinum, in Lazio, the eighteenth excavation campaign of the Università del Salento has brought to light a decorated boundary stone and a votive altar in marble. The boundary stone bears the name of the dedicator, probably Caius Ammius Cammarus, although the complete reading of the inscription still needs to be verified. More significant, from a historical-religious standpoint, is a new fragment of the altar: it has made it possible to reconstruct part of an inscription previously known only incompletely, identifying the deities to whom it was dedicated — the Genius of Augustus, the Lares of Augustus and the Genius of the Colony.

At Sant’Angelo in Vado, in the province of Pesaro, the twenty-fourth excavation campaign of the Università di Macerata in the ancient city of Tifernum Mataurense has added new pieces to the understanding of the site’s urban layout. The discovery of an additional column reinforces the hypothesis of a large portico along the front of the palaestra of the Roman baths. The site also continues to serve as a field-training laboratory for students enrolled in degree courses in Cultural Heritage and Archaeology.

In Rome, along the Appia Antica, the Parco Archeologico and the Università di Ferrara have begun the first excavation in a sector of the Villa dei Tritoni never previously investigated, at number 55 Via Appia Antica. The villa entered the public estate in 2022, after the State exercised its right of first refusal following some auctions that went unsold. The excavation has already brought to light masonry structures in opus reticulatum and traces of several phases of use of the building. The site was opened to the public on the occasion of Appia Day, on 3 and 4 October.

Three different stories, one common thread: in each case it is universities — Salento, Macerata, Ferrara — conducting the excavations, often in collaboration with local heritage authorities, and in each case the sites also serve as training spaces for students of archaeology and cultural heritage.