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Excavation

  • Grumentum, Foro
  • Grumentum
  • Grumentum
  • Italy
  • Basilicate
  • Province of Potenza
  • Grumento Nova

Tools

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)

  • In July and August 2014, a team from the University of Edinburgh conducted excavations in an area to the southeast of the forum at Grumentum, expanding upon a provisional trench established by V. Scalfari in conjunction with the Università degli studi di Verona in 2009. Geophysical surveys and test excavations conducted to the east of the forum between 2010 and 2013 suggested that a street lined by a portico and tabernae was located in this area. The long-term goal of the University of Edinburgh’s project is to confirm the presence of this commercial quarter and document its chronological development.
    During the 2014 season, four soundings of varying size were placed within a 15×15m area located to the north Scalfari’s trench. Three 1×1.5m soundings were situated to the east of the road, in an effort to analyse a series of rectilinear structures identified in 2013. To the west of the road, a 1×2m sounding was established to examine the hitherto unexplored remains in this area.

    Initial interpretations of the geophysical survey results had suggested that relationship between the portico and the road was unusual, with the former measuring nearly twice the width of the latter. Excavations in 2014 indicate, however, that the linear feature previously interpreted as the portico is the road itself. In its initial phase (possibly as early as the 1st c. BC), the road was probably surrounded by porticos on both sides. At some point (likely in the 3rd c. AD), the façades of the tabernae situated to the east of the road were extended to the line of the portico colonnade, incorporating the colonnade’s column bases into their construction. In the 4th or 5th c. AD, part of the road surface was roughly paved with a variety of recycled construction materials, including bricks, roof tiles, and fragments of mosaic. Excavations conducted in the west sounding did not reveal the presence of similar commercial structures on the opposite side of the road, but two of the column bases associated with the western portico have been identified.
    In 2015, we hope to refine the dates of these phases and reveal the initial layout of the eastern tabernae. Further excavation to the west of the road will provide the opportunity to confirm the presence (or indeed absence) of structural remains in this area.

  • Ine Jacobs  
  • Taylor Lauritsen 

Director

  • Ine Jacobs – Oxford University
  • Taylor Lauritsen – Cardiff University

Team

  • Cristina Di Lorenzo – Università degli Studi di Catania

Research Body

  • University of Edinburgh

Funding Body

  • University of Edinburgh

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