This was Rome University’s first season of excavations in the abbey complex of Sassovivo (Foligno, PG). This research is part of a wider study on one of the most important abbeys in the region as regards both historical and architectural, characterised by good building stratigraphy. The excavation area (9 x 12 m) was opened in part of the churchyard at the front of the building. Although it was a short season, several unknown structures were exposed that shed new light on the medieval phases of the monument. The first wall was the facade of the church built of limestone ashlar blocks, 9.10 m long, 1.13 m wide and preserved to a maximum height of 1.30 m, as seen in a modern interspace built along the south side of the area. This unexpected evidence showed that the Romanesque church, datable to the late 12th century, had a single nave, with an apse to the south-east and was over 27.50 m long. During the 13th century, an imposing U-shaped structure of limestone blocks was built abutting the facade, which together with another wall, now incorporated in the external front of the monastery facing onto the churchyard, constituted a sort of forepart similar in shape to a galilea, combining a portico and a vestibule. This level was accessed through an opening in the east end of the north wall, while the vaulted roof was attested by the traces of two adjacent arches visible in the monastery facade. Over the course of time, the exterior and interior of the forepart were used for funerary purposes. To date, at least three masonry-built tombs (in ashlar or roughly worked stone blocks) have been identified but not excavated, in addition to a nucleus of human bones in a pit whose edges have not yet been found. Two monumental “a cassone” tombs built along the north side of the forepart were of particular interest, perhaps relating to high-ranking individuals although at present their social status, religious or lay, cannot be established. The covering of the tombs was not preserved. Their excavation had to be put-off until next season due to lack of time, however, the material from the post-depositional layers in the tombs suggests a date within the full medieval period for the cemetery area. All of these structures, like the facade, were demolished and obliterated following work by the architect Carlo Murena in the 18th century, involving the moving back of the facade and creation of a new architectural look for the interior. Lastly, the date and function of a sub-circular kiln found inside the forepart remain to be established, determining whether it was a limekiln or for bell-making. However, this and other questions regarding the stratigraphy must be left until the 2015 campaign.

This was the second campaign of excavations run by Rome University’s School of Architectural and Landscape Heritage with the participation of Rome’s Pontificia Università Gregoriana, The Hungarian Natural History Museum, and the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest. Several tombs were excavated, some of which identified in 2014 and others during this season. The investigations showed the communitary and lay character of the burials, whose dating remains uncertain, although it can probably be attributed to between the 14th and 15th centuries. To date twelve burials have been investigated, which contained the skeletons of adult males and females and two infants. Inside the forepart, the kiln _praefurnium_ was excavated. A large quantity of charcoal nuclei and bronze slag was recovered from the fill, evidence suggesting that this was a bell making structure, perhaps relating to the 13th century church. Also within the forepart, a tomb bordered and covered by limestone slabs was excavated. It contained the remains of a young woman in foetal position. The excavation area was extended at the facade of the forepart (Trench IV) and its north-eastern end. Trench IV revealed several monumental “a cassone” tombs, built in stone blocks, and other walls that are difficult to interpret at present. The presence of an imposing wall at the north-west corner of the forepart, perhaps a buttress, was of particular interest. It was built of grey-green worked limestone blocks placed in almost horizontal courses with a nucleus of chips and irregular lumps of the same material and mortar. The north-east facade was faced, while the south-eastern side was built up against the terrain. Until the excavations are extended downhill and the investigation of the wall completed, its relationship with the structures of the forepart remains to be clarified. More masonry-built tombs were uncovered, abutting the north-eastern side of the combined portico and vestibule. The earth graves of two adult males, a woman, and a child were present in the same area. The absence of divisions between the deceased suggests this was a common grave associated with particular events such as famine or epidemics, again datable by the materials in the graves to between the 14th and 15th centuries. Trench III was opened along the left side of the church. Partially excavated, it revealed a number of modern phases, including a wood store, and at the bottom of the trench what is perhaps an ancient floor level. This can be associated with a door, later blocked, in the east wall of the church, evidence of the existence of an entrance on this side of the abbey church already in the medieval period.

This was the fourth campaign of excavations carried out by the School of Specialisation in Architectural and Landscape Heritage, Rome La Sapienza University, with the participation of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana University of Rome, the Natural History Museum of Hungary and Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest. The 2017 excavations took place in the final part of the courtyard that extended in front of the church and is closed by the present terrace wall to the west and to the south by the facade of several rooms now used by the religious community that resides in the complex. Once the layer of soil forming the courtyard surface was removed, traces of several structures relating to modern phases in the area were exposed. They were constituted by mortar surfaces, patches of brick and stone floors, a pit, perhaps for planting, a small dry-stone wall and the remains of a brick-built drain. The foundations of the walls now forming the south front of the courtyard were also identified and which, like the standing walls, date to the medieval period (13th-14th century), and a uniform surface of stones and weak mortar that extended for about 6 m across the entire excavation area was also exposed. This layer corresponded with the levelling of the extrados of a masonry-built barrel vault that was part of an underground chamber accessible from the abbey’s lower courtyard and now used to house a water tank. The room was built in the medieval period as shown by the construction of the perimeter walls and was constructed to create a terrace and increase the usable area of the surface above it. In this way, the link between the monastery’s lower courtyard and the upper church was guaranteed, perhaps via a ramp or steps. A brief section of one of the two longitudinal walls belonging to another underground room to the north-east of the other was identified. On its west face, there were traces of the spring lines of two transversal brick arches that were demolished during the late 18th century, when these structures were definitively buried.