The most recent excavations by Saint Mary’s and McMaster universities at the so-called Villa di Tito (RI) began in 2018 and continued in 2019. After a two-year pause due to COVID, research began at the site again in 2022. The goal of excavations in 2022 was to continue the exploration of the terraced area of the villa, in part to determine definitively if the structure was indeed a Roman-period villa and to better understand the structures plan. We also wanted to dig a small test-trench in the structure’s lower-level of cryptoporticus to determine the degree of disturbance and archaeological preservation after restoration to the structure carried out in the 1980s.

Excavation of the terraced part of the structure revealed the use of earthen architecture (pisé or cob) alongside the use of wooden framing elements in what appears to be a food preparation and storage area (Rooms 8a and b). We also found further evidence for the substantial restructuring of the villa in the early to middle part of the first century CE, which included the infilling and abandonment of a well, built over by Room 8b. Within the well, we appear to have recovered some elements of a votive deposit likely associated with its decommissioning. We also arrived at the first century CE floor level in Rooms 9 and 10 and found good evidence that Room 10 was renovated at some point in the first or early second century CE, which included blocking doorways connecting Room 10 to Room 9 and the yet-unexcavated Room to the west or Room 10. Within the concrete floor of Room 10 we also discovered evidence for what appears to be the post-destruction salvaging of materials from the site; the outline of two holes dug into the floor were defined and await excavation next year.

Within the cryptoporticus, we found a relatively intact collapse layer or the area’s ceiling and the story that once sat above it, as well as what may be the top of a small staircase descending to a lower level within this part of the villa. Artefactual evidence from the cryptoporticus suggests that the structure suffered a terminal collapse event sometime in the late first to mid-second century CE. The absence of any African Red Slip pottery points more strongly to a first century CE date for this event.