Results from the 2023 Season of Excavation at the Roman Villa of Vacone, Italy by the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project (20 min)

Presenters

Tyler Franconi, Brown University; Giulia Bellato, University of Cambridge; Dylan Bloy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Gary Farney, Rutgers University, Newark; Andrew McLean, Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology, Tarragona; James Page, British School at Rome; and Candace Rice, Brown University

Abstract

The 2023 season of excavation in Vacone revealed important new details about life on the site both during and after the Roman period. Our excavations focused on four areas of the site: the bath complex, the peristyle, the vaulted storeroom, and two large reception rooms located between the eastern portico and peristyle. Excavations in the bath complex revealed the presence of a third, deeper terrace level that was renovated in the early first century C.E. to include the bath complex and a newly discovered area that was probably part of a kitchen. This terrace was then filled in during the late first century C.E. and brought to the same level as the rest of the central villa terrace, onto which the mid-imperial villa then extended. Excavations in the peristyle area revealed the first significant evidence for post-Roman occupation on the site, consisting of a series of post holes and a plaster floor with pottery dating to ca. 500 C.E. This was built on top of the collapsed peristyle, where columns, capitals, and other architectural elements filled in a deep pool that formed the center of the villa. Excavations in the vaulted storeroom revealed more evidence for early medieval workspace dated to the seventh century C.E. on top of a probable Roman cella vinaria. The large reception rooms on the eastern side of the site preserved new mosaic patterns that opened onto the central peristyle. Overall, the 2023 excavations resulted in a more clear understanding of the phasing of the site’s occupation as well as its afterlife.