This past summer the Gabii Project
was happy to welcome 77 team members, representing 20 schools and 7 countries. After
ten years of excavation we are still gaining new insights to ancient Gabii and
are dedicated to sharing the results of our season with the academic community
through our publications and the general public through more informal posts,
like our blog.
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| Photo model of an auxiliary room in Area I |
Area I continued to excavate the
same building from 2017, attempting to finish work in the eastern section of
the structure and extending the trench further west to investigate new walls.
The building was standing by the early Imperial period, with some evidence for
earlier walls and floors. Mosaic pavements were found in multiple rooms, but
the best preserved examples come from two room in the north east of the complex
which remain almost entirely intact. Both rooms were paved at the same time and
feature black and white geometric designs with circular and rhomboid patterns. This
floor decoration was also present, albeit more fragmentarily, in the large
central courtyard of the building. Sparse patches of mosaic are present in
multiple corners of the room, indicating that it was all paved at one point. At
the center of this courtyard there is a chalky, waterproof feature, possibly an
impluvium. To the north of the courtyard is another large room with evidence of
revetment and a few fragments of decorative marble attached to the socle. The
wide entrance into this room, the evidence for decoration, and position of
importance relative to the rest of the building indicates that this may have
served as an entertainment space.
After the third century BC there is
evidence of reorganization. Spaces within the building are blocked off,
doorways are closed, and new walls were built to further separate spaces. Most
of the rooms contained heavy deposits of post abandonment fill. One long
hallway, at the northernmost point of the structure, held fragments of figural
wall plaster, pieces of marble, and a small lead and bronze figurine head. It
is unclear if these waste materials were taken from the Area I structure and
deposited in this out of the way space, or if they belonged to some other
building nearby.
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| Audrey Pierce (U Michigan) reveals beautiful basalt pavers. |
In Areas G and H the Gabii team
further investigated the road networks of Gabii. Area G focused on a side road
extending north from the Via Gabina. Over the course of the season, multiple
levels of paving were uncovered: a late Republican basalt paving, an Imperial
basalt road, and at least five gravel roads all dating to after the mid to late
fifth century C.E. The longevity of this road shows that this route remained an
important connector for Gabii even as the functions for different sectors of
the town changed. The earliest roads were probably related to accessing the quarries
located to the north of the Via Gabina. Later iterations of the road connected
southern parts of Gabii with the imperial cemetery in Area B. While none of the
Imperial Via Gabina was removed, a large cut feature just to the south of the
road allowed us to see a cross-section of the road’s construction including an
earlier paving of the road – perhaps form the Republican period – that may be further examined in future
seasons.
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| Field Assistant Emily Sharp excavating one of the many post holes in Area C |
The excavation’s third trench, Area
C, contain the oldest material excavated this summer by the Gabii Project. More
of the Latial hut complex was uncovered, including a feature built of stone,
wattle and daub that possibly served as a boundary wall around the elite hut
complex. Towards the end of the season, two infant burials were discovered
within the limits of the compound. Both tombs included remains of an individual
under two years in age and an assortment of ceramic and metal grave goods.
These graves are suggest that the inhabitants associated with them were of elite
status; previous graves from Area C were much less elaborate and modest. Area C
hopes to expand their excavation area next year in order to continue delimiting
the boundary of this early Gabine hut complex.
Outside of the field, our finds
team processed a lot of material (stay tuned for numbers). Storage continues to
be a perennial issue, as with all sites that practice comprehensive collection,
and the finds team consolidated and more closely examined previous excavation
material to free up space. The environmental team continued their blanket
sampling of Area C material and also got exciting radiocarbon dates for some of
the Area D features. Our topography team dutifully responded to numerous calls
to shoot in stratigraphic units, created photo models, and made sure that all
of our equipment functioned smoothly, even in the difficult conditions they were
exposed to in the field. Paperless recording continues to be a success,
allowing for all members of the excavation team to have access to updated data
both in the field and back in Rome for after-site work.
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| Finds |
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| Enviro |
Over the weekends our Project
members got to adventure throughout the Italian peninsula, visiting major
cities, many archaeological sites, and even making it to San Marino (sadly no
passports were stamped on that visit). Pompeii offered a major photo op for our
students, although we question just how tired they were when the decided to
spell out Gabii, at another, slightly more famous, archaeological site. Within
the city of Rome, staff
members Andrew Johnston, Laura Banducci, and Troy
Samuels offered special guided tours of the Roman Forum and Villa Giulia
Museum. One of the final summer highlights was the Capitoline Museum’s special
exhibit “The Rome of King’s” featuring material excavated by one of the
University of Michigan’s other projects from Sant’Omobono. Students also had a
good time getting to live in Rome and explore their summer neighborhood of
Trastevere. Evening musical performances in Piazza Trulissa, the quest for the
best spritz, and frequent visits to the newly opened gelataria down the block
from the apartments (Giuffre) were some of the highlights of daily life in
Rome. While we were sad to close the books on another season in the field,
there is still much work to be done back in the states by the excavation team
in preparation for 2019.
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| Weekend visit to the Villa Giulia |
