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Excavation

  • Aquinum
  • S. Pietro Vetere
  • Aquinum
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Province of Frosinone
  • Castrocielo

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Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • This was the 10th campaign of excavations in the urban area of Aquinum, in the locality of S. Pietro Vetere (Castrocielo FR). During this campaign, the excavation area was extended and excavation deepened in the rooms already identified, in particular in the central block of the building where the heated rooms of the male sector to the west, and female to the east are situated. An overall excavation area of c. one hectare was reached.
    In particular, in the male sector the investigation involved the excavation of the tepidarium and the two praefurnia that heated the calidarium. The excavation data from the male tepidarium showed the existence of a large heated room with two construction phases, the later one coinciding with the re-paving of the room during the 2nd century A.D., associated with alterations or improvements to the heating system.
    The surviving figures on the new floor (rhinoceros, panther and sea griffons) find stylistic parallels with motifs typical of the first half of the 2nd century A.D., period when the Vecciane baths saw a general phase of monumentalisation.
    In the female sector of the baths, a number of rooms were excavated whose construction phases date to the late Republican-early imperial period. It remains to be clarified whether these rooms constituted the easternmost part of the female sector or whether they related to a sector that was not part of the baths.

    The excavation of the latrine and in particular the conduits for the drainage of wastewater was completed. The layers of fill contained fragments of polychrome figured wall plaster including some with inscriptions painted in red.
    Other interventions aimed to complete the excavation and documentation of the road, a section of the so-called Via delle Terme, which delimits the bath building to the north. The eastern continuation of the gravel stretch of this road was uncovered.

    In the southern sector of the baths, where the gymnasium and a series of rooms connected to it were identified, arranged along the west and east sides, it was decided to concentrate on the northern zone, where the north perimeter wall was intercepted that separated the porticoed courtyard of the praefurnia that heated the calidarium from the bath complex.
    Other interventions took place in the western part of the gymnasium where the structures belonging to the first courtyard construction were intercepted.
    There was substantial evidence of robbing and dismantling in the gymnasium area, which turned the bath complex into a quarry during the late antique period, and a 6th-7th century burial was found in the northern part of the gymnasium.

    A new trench was opened by the theatre (Area 25000). The decision to investigate here was based on the presence of several anomalies in the aerial photographs taken in 2015, in one of the fields west of the excavation area. The traces were seen to be the north-western corner of a large colonnaded structure, which it is suggested was a porticus duplex. The investigations aimed to find the hypothetical continuation of the structure and gain some understanding of the urban layout in this part of the Roman colony.

  • Paola Guacci - Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF) 

Director

  • Giuseppe Ceraudo - Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)

Team

  • Aurora Quarta- Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria
  • Giuseppe Alvar Minaya-Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)
  • Luana Testa - Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria
  • Maria Costantino - Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria
  • Paola Giglio- Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)
  • Paola Guacci - Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)
  • Università del Salento, Facoltà di Beni Culturali, Scuola di Specializzazione in Archeologia

Research Body

  • Università del Salento, Dipartimento di Beni Culturali, Laboratorio di Topografia Antica e Fotogrammetria (LabTAF)

Funding Body

  • Comune di Castrocielo

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