In the summer of 2011, Columbia University, in collaboration with H2CU (Centro Interuniversitario per la Formazione Internazionale) started an archaeological project in ancient Stabiae: The “Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art” (APAHA), a program that is projected to run for five years. During this time, the project will perform stratigraphic excavations in one of the largest and most opulent villas in Campania, the Villa San Marco. This villa, along with Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the rest of Stabiae, was buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. In the 18th century, when archaeological interest in the lost Campanian cities began, it was among the earliest structures to be uncovered. Excavated by the Bourbons to extract artefacts and wall paintings, it was then immediately reburied. A program to bring the villa back to light started in the 1950s and continues to the present day, but only with the aim to uncover what the Bourbons had already seen. APAHA is the first program ever to perform stratigraphic excavations in the Stabiae villas, investigating the pre-79 A.D. history of the site. The project’s goal is to understand the architectural history of the villa, as well as any existing older habitational layers, giving a full archaeological account of the stratigraphy from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius down to virgin soil. The project will also excavate in the street that delineates the northern section of the Villa San Marco with the aim of understanding the interaction between private and public space. Since the street is an extension of the Stabiae city-grid plan, part of the goal of these excavations is also to investigate the connection between the villa and the settlement of Stabiae.

In the summer of 2012, Columbia University, in collaboration with H2CU (Centro Interuniversitario per la Formazione Internazionale) followed up on its successful 2011 pilot season in ancient Stabiae as part of the “Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art” (APAHA). The Program performs stratigraphic excavations in the Villa San Marco, one of the largest and most opulent villas in Campania, investigating both the Villa as a Roman elite structure and the pre-79 AD history of the site. The goal of the excavations is to give a full archaeological account of the stratigraphy from the eruption layers of Mt Vesuvius down to virgin soil. Building on the results from the previous year, the 2012 campaign had two main research goals: investigating the Villa’s system of water-supply and drainage, and clarifying the Villa’s relationship with the road that marks its northern limit. The results were on the one hand the discovery of a work area in the northern sector of the Villa, and on the other the clarification of the temporal relationship between the Villa and the road and a better understanding of the history of the road itself.

The goal of the 2014 excavations by the Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA) was to reach a better understanding of the architectural development of the Villa San Marco. To that end, two trenches were excavated in areas of particular interest in that respect. The first was located in a small, enclosed garden (viridarium). It is located close to the atrium, hypothesized to be the Villa’s original core. It is also one of only a handful of rooms where two different architectural alignments meet (that of the Villa’s main part and that of its bathing complex) and where it is possible to excavate without removing mosaic flooring. In the adjacent architecture, signs of restructuring are visible, suggesting alterations to the arrangement of rooms. Those alterations notwithstanding, the results of the excavations showed that little rebuilding had occurred in this part of the Villa. The second trench was located just north of the threshold of the Villa’s tablinum. This area is interesting archaeologically because the threshold connects two sections of the Villa that have a different socioeconomic character: an undecorated working sector to the north and a beautified domestic sector to the south. Here as well the trench promised to be rewarding for investigations into architectural development. Together with the atrium, the tablinum is thought to have belonged to the Villa’s original construction. A surprise in this trench was the discovery of a wide and deep wall, either the outside face of a large cistern or the foundation for a demolished loadbearing wall.