A major ongoing geophysical survey has taken place over four seasons (1997-8, 2002, 2004 & 2008) at the Roman colony of Falerii Novi, undertaken by The University of Southampton, The University of Cambridge and the British School at Rome, first as part of The Tiber Valley Project and subsequently the Roman Towns in the Middle and Lower Tiber Valley Project. Falerii Novi is situated on the lower eastern slopes of Monti Cimino in the volcanic territory to the west of the Tiber valley, c. 50km north of Rome. The 1997-8 magnetometry survey proved very successful in the identification of many features in the urban setting. From the results, a clear interpretive map was created of the town, showing hundreds of buildings, both private and public, including warehouses, shops, market places, temples, a theatre, and the forum. The overall geophysical plan produced from the results also showed a clear street layout over most of the area which varies from the previous suggested layout of Di Stefano Manzella. The 2002-4 and 2008 seasons demonstrated that evidence for human activity at Falerii Novi extends beyond the towns circuit walls, revealing a possible gladiator training ground beside the amphitheatre, areas of cultivation, and a wealth of mausolea and possible rock cut burial chambers clustering along the edges of roads leading from the town. The clarity of the geophysical results from Falerii Novi and the large area covered by the survey provided us with one of the most complete town plans from Roman Italy; only Pompeii and Ostia offer similarly extensive plans. The results have considerable potential in shedding new light upon key issues in the development of Roman urbanism.

The first season of excavations of the multi-year Falerii Novi Project took place in June 2022. The preceding non-invasive investigations of the site (Keay et al, 2000; Verdonck et al, 2020) provided detailed plans of the interior of the city which has enabled the formulation of an excavation methodology to precisely target buildings and areas of interaction within the city. This was further enhanced in 2021 by a campaign of surface survey and coring to refine the understanding of the site’s configuration and chronological development (Bernard et al, 2021). The 2022 excavations focused upon three areas within the city, including a domus, the macellum and a street intersection on the main Via Amerina inside the South Gate. The excavation area near the South Gate, aimed to identify the Via Amerina (cardo maximus), as well as establish the typology and chronology of the buildings that opened on to the principal road within the city. The trench, measuring 15 x 15m, revealed an east-west paved road, a series of rooms (one paved in opus spicatum) and an open, or porticoed area with a tiled drain. The excavation (10 x 10m) of part of a domus south of the Forum revealed a large rectangular room framed by walls of tuff blocks in opus quadratum that formed part of the domestic structure. Interior finishes and floors were destroyed already in antiquity. Construction technique and a tuff column capital within the destruction layer may suggest a late Republican or Early Imperial date. The excavation of the macellum, located behind the apse of the church of Santa Maria in Falerii investigated an area of 10 x 5m. The work revealed three rooms with at least four phases of construction visible in the walls. The central room appears to have served as the primary entrance to the macellum, while the two flanking spaces likely functioned as shops.

Presented are results of the first three years of the Falerii Novi Project (FNP), an international archaeological research initiative to explore the ancient urban site of Falerii Novi, in the Comune of Fabrica di Roma (Viterbo, Lazio), in the middle Tiber Valley. According to sources, Roman Falerii Novi was founded in the mid-third century BCE, when the nearby Faliscan center of Falerii Veteres (modern Civita Castellana) revolted and was conquered by Rome. The site, measuring nearly 32 ha, lies along ancient via Amerina, approximately 50 km north of Rome. The only standing premodern remains are the city-walls, generally dated to its foundation, an extramural amphitheater to the northeast, peri-urban tombs, and the complex of Santa Maria di Falleri, whose monastic community is first mentioned in the 11th century CE. Previous work in the nineteenth century and limited excavation carried out by the Soprintendenza during the late twentieth century remain largely unpublished. More recently, non-invasive work using magnetometry and Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) has generated plans of the subsurface remains of the Roman town. The interim results of the FNP presented here build on this remote sensing program to provide more detailed understanding of the site’s development over its full history. We describe results from an initial campaign of test pits (2021) and two years of open-area stratigraphic excavation (2022–23). Pursuant to our aims of exploring a range of urban spaces, trenches have been excavated across the intramural area, guided by the remote sensing results. Four areas of excavation are discussed below, including a macellum (Area I), an urban domus (Area II), a commercial area along the via Amerina (Area III), and a series of tabernae beside the forum (Area V). A final area discussed (Area IV) represents a restudy of unpublished excavations undertaken by the Soprintendenza.