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Journal of archaeology and ancient architecture

Tag Archives: Rome

(Italiano) Un “fiume di fogna”: il Tevere, Giovenale e la piscatrix Aurelia

Author: G. Arena

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Juvenal’s V satire describes the unequal relationship between patronus and cliens, but also offers the attestation of a female profession, that of a fishwife, and of an auroral environmental awareness, connected with the depletion of fish resources caused both by the pollution of the Tiber and indiscriminate fishing in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The data that can be deduced from the text of the satirical poet are confirmed thanks to the fruitful comparison established respectively with the inscription engraved on a marble funerary altar dedicated to a piscatrix and with the testimonies offered by Athenaeus of Naucratis and Galen of Pergamum about the spasmodic search for precious fishes by a wealthy élite resident in Rome.

Un monumento sepolcrale a tumulo lungo la via Campana-Portuense: un’ipotesi interpretativa

Author: G. Gaia

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The paper focuses on an attempt to reconstruct the context in which a monumental tomb was found in 1908 during excavation works for the construction of the new Trastevere railway station. In the same zone, the funerary epigraph of Potitus Valerius Messalla and four reliefs representing hunting scenes were also found. These elements, if associated, could provide a valid hypothesis of contextualisation of the monument under examination, which would otherwise be difficult to place in an area characterised by poorer and probably later sepulchral evidence. The dating of the tomb and the chronology of epigraph and reliefs seem also consistent between them.

La Velia da Massenzio a Mussolini. Ideologia, politica e paesaggio urbano

Authors: C. di Fazio, A. Grazian

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The contribution intends to analyse, investigating the ideological meanings in terms of urban policy, the long-term events that since the age of Maxentius have followed one another in the urban history of the southern slope of the Velia, one of the most representative and historically qualified areas of the centre of Ancient and modern Rome. The hill has been the object of successive transformations that have changed the image and value of this important public space up to the contemporary age. After the late ancient and medieval phases, the functional alterations of the area were followed by the loss of identity of the basilica of Maxentius, recognized as such only in the early 19th century by Antonio Nibby. The views, engravings and drawings from the 17th-19th centuries witness the evolution of the urban image of this part of the city, replaced in the role of symbolic centre by the new focal points of papal Rome. A renewed chapter in the history of the southern slope of the Velia opened up with the French government’s urban policy projects (1809-1814), followed by the 19th-century excavations and then by the idea of the “passeggiata archeologica” which has polarised the archaeological debate and urban planning of the post-unitary period. Finally, the opening of via dell’Impero was the last act of semantization of this sector of the Velia, according to an ideological and propagandist urban policy process that has directly involved the basilica of Maxentius, reinterpreting it in its functions.

Archeologia e architettura nell’area delle “Terme di Elagabalo”, alle pendici nord-orientali del Palatino. Dagli isolati giulio-claudii alla chiesa paleocristiana

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Cante_SaguìAt the conclusion of the archaeological investigations into the building complex on the North-East slopes of the Palatine Hill, known in the archaeological literature as “Baths of Elagabalus”, this study clarifies the main building phases of the area, from the Julio-Claudian period to the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In particular, three building blocks have been examined dating back to the Julio-Claudian age, destroyed by the fire under the empire of Nero in 64 AD, which apparently were not followed by a new building phase. The construction activities started again under Hadrian, when the area was occupied by a new building, probably for commercial activities, with spaces overlooking the street towards the Forum, included in a much larger urban project, which extended between the Temple of Venus and Rome and the monumental substructures of the Palatine. The Hadrianic building had a short life: already in the Severan period it was demolished to be replaced by a new building of still uncertain use , with a large courtyard and many rooms around, and others opened towards the street. In the first half of the fourth century AD, on the ruins of the Severan building, a new edifice was founded characterized by a large peristyle, with pools and fountains inside the columnades, and by a cruciform hall with a masonry stibadium. A well was accessible through a large staircase, and on its bottom a dolium was placed, whose function is still uncertain. In a period that could be probably placed around the Seventh century, the area – then abandoned – was occupied by a small church with a single nave, whose walls reused in the foundations a large amount of marble sculptures, probably decorating the Severan building.

Archeologia e rischio sismico

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dagostinoSome Italian MIBAC (Italian Minister for cultural heritage) memoranda apply to the archaeological sites the same seismic rules used for buildings. That appears incorrect because the state of ruin is subject to a quite different use, but also has the peculiar needs of conservation. Starting from the idea that the “archaeological built heritage” has an artistic or monumental standing and it may also represent a simple attestation of aspects of human activity in the past, this paper suggests a different cultural attitude aimed to simultaneously respect the safety of visitors and avoid actions disrespectful of the material history of the ancient built.

La meta sudans augustea: note per una sua ricostruzione

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canteTra il 2002 e il 2003 nel cantiere di scavo dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza” nella piazza del Colosseo, presso l’arco di Costantino, si ebbe uno straordinario rinvenimento. Proprio al di sotto della fontana di età flavia, nota come Meta Sudans, emersero i resti, immediatamente riconoscibili, di un monumento analogo: una fontana di epoca augustea del tutto simile a quella flavia, ma di dimensioni inferiori. Oltre ai resti in situ, lo scavo ha restituito anche diversi blocchi in marmo di Luni appartenenti alla decorazione architettonica del saliente. Questi elementi hanno consentito l’ipotesi di ricostruzione del monumento che viene presentata in questa sede.

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Between 2002 and 2003 in the excavation site of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in front of the Colosseum, near the Arch of Constantine,an extraordinary discovery was carried out. Just below the fountain of the Flavian age, known as Meta Sudans, the remains of a similar monument has been identified: a fountain of the Augustan age, very similar to the Flavian one, but smaller. Besides the remains in situ several blocks in Luni marble were also recovered, belonging to the architectural decoration of the salient. These elements have enabled the hypothesis of reconstruction of the monument, which is presented here.

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