Early modern excavations
In the winter of 1778 Gavin Hamilton visited Villamagna, where he noted that there were some magnificent ruins. However, he claims that the site had already been excavated and left for Ostia. During the nineteenth century there were at least two further excavations, undertaken with the permission of the cathedral, to which the property belonged, but they are reported to have failed to uncover the hoped-for statues.
Season 2006
The 2006 season at Villa Magna allowed us to identify the sumptuous productive quarter of the villa, where we exposed most of the marble-floored wine pressing room with its great vat and dolia, as well as a number of the other service rooms in the area. At the church, a clear view was obtained of the 12th-century Cosmatesque pavement, while the sequence was excavated down to 13th-century levels. A four-week fall season of field survey allowed a much better understanding of the landscape of the villa and the size of its holdings. The groundwork has thus been prepared for a project which, as the geophysical survey makes clear, has the potential to run for a very long time indeed, well beyond the 5-year parameters of our current plan, training students in an international context in both archaeological technique and site conservation and presentation. The full field summaries and intermediate reports are available on fastionline.
Survey 2006–7
As part of the Villa Magna project, a campaign of archaeological survey was conducted in 2006 in the areas around the Villa and the monastery of S. Pietro. The multidisciplinary nature of the project and our desire to develop a comprehensive historical and archaeological understanding of the site necessitate a survey, which will be read in conjunction with the excavations and the geophysical survey.
The area surveyed comprised an area of 25 square kilometres, lying for the most part in the Comune of Anagni, crossing very slightly over the borders into the Comuni of Gavignano, Montelanico and Sgurgola. The terrain is varied, including parts of the Northern flank of the Monti Lepini, hilly areas, plateaus and valley bottoms, ranging in height between 171.4 and 345.3 m above sea level. The area is permeated by springs, both from the foothills and parts of the hydrological systems of the River Sacco and Rio Santa Maria, and a system of canals and channels for water management. The geology includes the limestone formations of the Lepini, banks of pozzolana and redeposited rock of volcanic origin, in the foothills, as wells as alluvial deposits and terraces of travertine. About 70% of the terrain is uncultivated or used as pasture land or farms, part of which is being developed for residences. The remaining areas are occupied by an industrial zone, which is growing.
142 areas within 3.5 km of the villa with conditions of good visibility were surveyed. They were examined by surveyors in parallel lines at regular intervals, ranging from a minimum of 1 surveyor per 10 m and a max of 1 surveyor per 30 m who recorded quantity and typology of archaeological materials and structures or particular concentrations of objects, which were designated sites. Diagnostic materials were recovered, and representative samples of pottery were collected.
The processing of these data is targeted at identifying the settlement patterns around the site of Villamagna, both in a synchronic and diachronic sense. The aim is to determine the spatial and historical relationships between the site and its context. The survey has yielded new information about the infrastructure and means of access to the site of Villamagna. In the field adjacent to the current road to the Casale, basalt paving stones have been identified in a secondary context, which signal the line of a Roman road, probably that rebuilt by the emperor Septimius Severus in 207, as a well-known inscription attests. The modern road follows part of this track, which probably crossed the River Sacco at the modern bridge, next to which a square structure with the springing of vaults has been identified (Site 31).
The distribution of the other sites identified allows us to retrace the areas of occupation, both rustic and elite (villas), clarifying choices of location, means of access and investments in the terrain. A cistern in opus caementicium (Site 24) and a terrace in Cyclopean masonry (Site 25) along the slopes of the mountains suggest the ancient need to collect and conserve water along the slope which otherwise has no superficial water source, as well as to exploit the terrain for production and construction. Conversely, many sites are located in prominent places in the panorama, near water sources. Two of the most significant of these structures date to the Imperial Roman period, one, to the West of Villamagna, is identifiable by its hydraulic system carved into a bank of pozzolana, including three galleries and supplied by a spring (Site 14). The other, to the North of Villamagna, is recognisable in the large quantity of pottery and construction materials, including marble, glass and mosaic tesserae, in the area bordered by the River Rio Santa Maria (Site 17).
Study of the materials continues. The network of these sites will be analysed in a diachronic sense, looking at the chronology of the ceramic material, with the aim of identifying episodes of continuity and rupture in different periods, in particular between the end of the Republican and the beginning of the Imperial period. What effect did the creation and extension of the imperial praedium of Villamagna have on the territory?
We have much less information about the archaic period and the medieval periods, partially because of the relative inconsistency of the materials collected. Nonetheless, the results of the survey already constitute a substantial addition to our knowledge with respect to the previous survey, published in 1969 for the VI volume of Forma Italiae. 50% of our sites were previously unidentified. This figure should demonstrate the potential of topographic research in this area.
Excavation Season 2007
In the summer of 2007 we will again divide the excavation between that of the Roman pars rustica, which we hope to complete this year, with, perhaps, a view of its still-hidden lower storey, and the medieval church and its monastery precinct. In front of the church, the deep cemetery will be excavated by our physical anthropologist Walter Pantano, who will use this opportunity to train students in the techniques of cemetery excavation, while conducting a seminar in the recording of human skeletal materials in the evening. A deep sounding in the valley below the main site will test the depth of the colluvial stratigraphy and provide a first glimpse of a paleobotanical sequence: as yet no midden deposits for the inhabited monastery have been found, and we hope that this may reveal an area of dumping. The graphic documentation of the architectural remains and their important ornamental veneers will also be undertaken. The British School geophysics team will complete the survey of the site initiated last summer, which has already revealed extensive villa buildings, including a series of huge apsidal rooms. A team from the Consiglio Nazionale di Ricerca will carry out a traditional Total Station survey of the site as well as a Differential GPSsurvey so as to have a full record of the landscape in three dimensions. These will be added as layers to our GIS recording system. This work-in-progress is being carried out by our collaborators in the commercial British unit L – P : Archaeology