This was the first campaign of excavations in the quarter east of the _Cardo_ _Maximus_ at Luni. A trench (Area 1000) was opened that revealed the razed structures of three rooms and what was possibly an open area, defined as the North-Eastern Sector (Figs. 1-2). The north and west schist stone walls of room 1 enclosed a tank lined in _opus_ _signinum_. The tank probably remained in use until the second half of the 5th century, when the laying of another, non-waterproof, floor alongside the _opus _ _signinum_ marked a change in the room’s function. The room underwent further changes between the 5th and 6th centuries: a well was built in the south corner that partially destroyed the tank (Fig. 3) and, subsequently, the well was also obliterated and the room was filled and robbed until being finally abandoned in the second half of the 7th century. Room two, was bordered to the north and east by the structures of room 1. It had a paving of small cut stones bonded with mortar and finished with a layer of smoothed mortar. Modern digging had cut into part of the room and this made it possible to examine the floor’s make up, constituted by layers of a clay matrix and cobblestones, and the foundations of the north wall that the floor abutted. The excavations reached 1.08 m below ground level at which point water from the water table appeared. The interesting finds date the construction of the floor and associated structures to between the beginning and the third quarter of the 1st century B.C. The structural relationships between room 2 and rooms 1 and 3 suggest that their construction was contemporaneous. Although room 3 was only partially excavated, it was possible to record the plan and suggest that some sort of craft working activity took place there (Fig. 4). The room had schist stone walls with an entrance at least 1.05 m wide in the east wall. The southern part of the room was occupied by a circular structure (diam. 1.32 m), paved internally with _opus_ _signinum_. The north part of the room was paved with cement mixed with stones. The room’s function changed in the central decades of the 6th century A.D. when the entrance was blocked and the tank filled with a layer of clay. The north-eastern sector of Area 1000 was obliterated by a greyish-black clay layer, which contained abundant building materials, pottery, bone and metal (iron and bronze) fragments. The finds suggest the layer formed in the first half of the 7th century A.D. This level obliterated a series of structures and layers of late antique date (5th-7th century A.D.), including a north-south wall and a sort of “L” shaped base of uncertain function. The complexity of the overlying stratigraphy prevented the identification of any stratigraphy relating to earlier phases.

This was the second campaign of excavations in the quarter to the east of the southern segment of the _cardus_ _maximus_ in the urban centre of Luni. The excavations were extended to cover an area of 12 x 12 m. The investigation continued of room 1 in the southern sector. It had an _opus_ _signinum_ floor that was slightly buckled/warped running from the west wall sloping down to the east. The southern part of the wall presented a make-up of very fine _opus_ _signinum_ covered by smoothed mortar. Both floors were cut by the construction of a well built of large cobblestones (fig. 1). The structure also cut a layer of accumulated material, datable to between the final decade of the 5th and the mid 6th centuries. The destruction layer relating to the wall dated to the mid 7th century A.D., when the room was finally abandoned. The continuation of a deep robber trench cutting the floor was identified in the northern sector. The stratigraphy relating to the floor make-up was visible in the trench, which was also characterised by the presence of large pieces of the floor that had collapsed into it. The trench was covered by a layer of greyish-black clay containing numerous finds (tile, pottery and metal fragments, bone), which dated it to between the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. This layer was the final accumulation above the trench fill, thus documenting the phase when the room was finally abandoned. Room 2, which in the first phase was linked to the first by an _opus_ _signinum_ threshold that was later blocked (fig. 2), was excavated as far as its south wall. This room’s floor of vertically placed small stones bonded with abundant mortar also presented substantial warping up against its north wall. In the northern part of the trench, the excavation of room 3 was completed (fig. 3). Square in plan, it was paved with marble grit and mortar and had a threshold in correspondence with the north-eastern perimeter wall. Grey glaze (Morel 2287 type plate) and cooking wares, found below the floor make-up in the room date the original construction to the first half of the 1st century B.C. Later, at a moment generically attributed to the imperial period, a circular vat was built (diam. 1.3 m) with an _opus_ _signinum_ floor and a drain of terracotta pipes (fig. 4). The structure, positioned in the southern corner of the room, suggests that room 3 together with the open-air space adjacent to it had an artisanal function, which remains to be clarified. A layer of black clay containing ARS D (Hayes 61B2 and 91B) and eastern amphorae type LRA 4B2, date the abandonment of the structure to the central decades of the 6th century A.D. Robbing took place in the antique and modern periods that led to the complete removal of most of the room’s perimeter walls; the materials found in the related levels date the final abandonment of this sector of the excavation to the 7th century A.D.

This was the third campaign of excavations in the quarter situated east of the southern stretch of the _Cardo_ _Maximus_ at Luni. In the northern sector of Area 1000 the investigations concentrated in the area – originally interpreted as open – to the north and east of room 1 and now denominated room 2 (Fig. 1). The research aimed to check the characteristics of the craft-working installation that was set up in this part of the excavation area in about the mid 5th century A.D. and was partially excavated in previous seasons. A stratigraphy formed by at least three different dumps was reached below the agricultural surface layers. All three were attributable to the same activity (Fig. 2). The layers in question, which ceramic finds date to the mid 6th century A.D., presented a substantial quantity of building materials including fragments from two floors, in _opus_ _signinum_ and _opus_ _spicatum_. The latter was of particular interest as the classic _spicatum_ bricks were replaced by various types of materials (roof tiles, _bessales_, other types of brick), cut to size to fit a floor of this style. The described levels obliterated the floor levels and razed walls belonging to earlier structures, which, based on the previously excavated stratigraphy, are datable to the first half of the 5th century A.D. The final stretch of a pipe made of terracotta _tubuli_, which exited the small circular structure inside room 1, was identified north of the room. The pipe entered a quadrangular masonry-built vat with a floor of marble slabs (Fig. 4). This was probably _in_ _situ_ and part of a pre-existing structure (an _impluvium_?). The eastern side of room 2 was delimited by a wall 60 cm wide (Fig. 5), probably built when the craft-working installation was created. It may be suggested, with due caution, that the latter was a _fullonica_. In the southern sector, the enlargement of the excavation area exposed a series of rooms, leading to an overall re-reading of the structures. Indeed, the plan of the rooms suggests the presence of a _domus_, which in later periods was restructured several times (Fig. 6). Room 4, interpretable as an atrium, contained two large fragments of an _opus_ _scutulatum_ mosaic floor (Fig. 7), while the white and black floor mosaic in room 8 (the _tablinum_?) was preserved almost intact. The central design (about a quarter of which was uncovered) presented a vegetal motif of vine leaves. The exterior border was formed by a meander pattern, and a series of squares formed by broken lines, partially preserved on the west side, probably marked the passage from room 4 to room 8. The entire southern sector was then subjected to the systematic robbing of the walls for the recovery of the building materials. The stratigraphy relating to this intervention was almost exclusively made up of mortar, plaster fragments, small pieces of stone and a few pottery fragments. The presence of pottery datable to the first occupation phases in this area indicates that the robbing also involved the fill of the foundation trenches. The large quantity of painted plaster fragments, pieces of masonry relating to the actual plastering of the wall, and the complete absence of construction elements, suggests the earlier buildings were systematically dismantled following the removal of the wall plaster. The fact that this stratification is present across almost all the rooms in the southern sector (rooms 4-8), also covering the later structures is of great interest. The destruction layer also covers the make up for mosaics in areas away from the walls, which makes it possible to propose that, at the time of the robbing, the mosaics already had large holes in them, evidence of an abandonment phase that had already began some time before.

Nella campagna 2017 (25 settembre-16 ottobre) è continuato lo scavo nell’area sud-orientale della città, immediatamente ad Est del Cardo Massimo. Al momento è stata scavata una superficie di circa 900mq, (Fig. 1) corrispondente a parte di un’ _insula_ che un muro con andamento est-ovest (US 1002) distingueva in due settori, occupati da due _domus_, entrambe costruite agli inizi del I sec. a.C. Della _domus_ settentrionale è stato identificato un _cubiculum_ e l’ala meridionale ad esso adiacente. I due vani, entrambi di 3.51 x3,53 m, risultano pavimentati da piani in graniglia di marmo e malta, impostati su preparazioni in ciottoli e argilla. Risolutivo, per l’identificazione della _domus_, è stato il ritrovamento del fondo dell’ _impluvium_ dell’atrio: questo’ultimo, di 2,5x3 m, era costituito da due lastre in marmo lunense, tutt’ora _in situ_. La vasca risulta essere stata in parte smantellata a seguito della sistemazione, all’interno della _domus_, di una probabile fullonica, messa in opera tra IV e V sec. d.C.; il fondo venne invece lasciato in posto e inglobato all’interno di una nuova vasca rettangolare, più grande della precedente (6,5x2,5 m), ed evidentemente più funzionale alle nuove attività (Fig. 2). In corrispondenza del margine orientale del fondo dell’impluvio si trova un incasso di forma quadrangolare, da indentificare con il fondo dell’originario scarico delle acque sporche della vasca; significativa è la presenza, in linea con lo scarico, dello sbocco di una della canalette che si immettono nella cloaca del _cardo maximus_. Le strutture pertinenti alla possibile fullonica - al momento costituite da una cisterna circolare dalla quale si dipartiva una tubazione a pressione che immetteva acqua nella vasca rettangolare sopra descritta - nel corso del VI sec. d.C. andarono in disuso. La fase più tarda è documentata da un muro con andamento Est-Ovest, largo 90 cm circa, individuato presso l’angolo Nord-occidentale dell’area di scavo, con tutta probabilità coevo alla tettoia e ai pali individuati nella campagna 2016 e riferibili a un contesto di VII-inizi VIII sec. Molto meglio conservata, e di maggiore impegno architettonico, risulta essere la _domus_ meridionale, della quale la campagna 2017 ha permesso una più precisa definizione di alcuni ambienti: l’ _atrium_ (4), i _cubicola_ laterali (2 e 3), l’ala (1), il _tablinum_ (7) e il corridoio di passaggio (6) fra l’atrio e tablino (Fig. 1). Questa _domus_ era dotata di cospicui mosaici pavimentali: nell’ _atrium_ era una pavimentazione in _opus scutulatum_ a tessere litiche bianche poste a distanza regolare, all’interno di un tappeto musivo nero ad ordito obliquo; nel _tablinum_ il pavimento mosaicato presenta campo decorativo bordato da due fasce, di tessere rosse e nere, e da una cornice a meandro di svastiche a giro semplice e quadrati: al centro, su fondo bianco, si trova uno scudo di squame bipartite adiacenti, in colori contrastanti, che si dipartono da un centro esagonale, all’interno del quale è inserito un motivo floreale stilizzato (Fig. 3). Sono state documentate operazioni di spoliazione e di ristrutturazioni della _domus_, con la costruzione di tramezzi e la messa in opera di potenti strati di intonaco e malta per rialzare i piani pavimentali. Tali operazioni risultano strettamente connesse alla costruzione di una struttura con mura dello spessore di 4 piedi = 120 cm) che in epoca tardo-antica venne ad impostarsi sull’atrio. Un piccolo vano quadrangolare, probabilmente da interpretarsi come sua fossa biologica, si appoggiava al muro settentrionale della struttura. (Fig. 4). I materiali rinvenuti nelle stratigrafie tarde della _domus_ documentano intense attività almeno sino a tutto il VII sec. d.C.

This season excavations continued in the south-eastern part of the city, immediately east of the _Cardo_ _Maximus_ So far a surface area of over 1000 m2 has been excavated, corresponding with a part of an _insula_ occupied by two _domus_, defined south _domus_ and north _domus_, both built in the late Republican period. (Fig. 1) The excavations concentrated on the area occupied by room 4 (atrium) where a new area of the _opus_ _scutulatum_ was exposed (Fig. 2). Thanks to some robbing of this floor surface it was possible to identify the underlying floor make-up for another mosaic surface and the structures of an earlier _impluvium_, datable to between the late 2nd century and the 1st century B.C., as suggested by the mass of materials dating to this period found during the excavation. Another sector of the large quadrangular building (identified in 2017), formed by at least two rooms came to light in room 4 (Fig. 3). Excavation mainly took place in the east room, where the floor make-up was identified. This was made up of clay, lumps of mortar and numerous fragments of decorated plaster, attributable to the Second Pompeian Style, which probably came from the destruction layers of the _domus_ (Fig. 4). The few ceramics found in the layer (in particular terra sigillata) suggest the floor dates to no earlier than the first or second half of the 1st century A.D. Rooms 5 and 6 were then investigated. The fill in a large circular hole situated in the north-eastern corner of room 5 was excavated. The hole cut the layer of rubble present in the room and the underlying floor surfaces and make-ups. It also cut an earlier trench dug to rob the north wall of the south _domus_, datable to around the second half of the 7th century A.D. Lastly, the layer of mortar and plaster fragments occupying the entire surface of room 5 was removed. The layer had been put down in the imperial period to form a floor surface. This layer overlay a floor made of mortar and crushed marble (Fig. 5). In the northern sector, the investigations concentrated on the 6th-7th century phases, which followed the abandonment of the production area, probably a _fullonica_ that occupied the north _domus_ in the 4th-5th centuries. A large rectangular room, 3.2 x 7 m (Fig. 6) was identified here. Floor surfaces and make-ups were uncovered that date to the final decades of the 6th and the 7th centuries. At the centre of the room, which reused the walls of the _domus_ and newly constructed walls, there was a hearth built in broken tiles placed flat and bordered by schist stones placed on edge (Fig.7). Other structures were present to the east – a series of postholes belonging to a single structure - and various dumps of building materials and pottery, which belonged to the same chronological horizon as the rectangular room, thus providing a wealth of information about the occupation phases at Luni during the Byzantine and Lombard periods.