The 2011 Field Season at the Villa San Marco, Stabiae: Preliminary Report on the Excavations (original) (raw)
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FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 259, 2012
In the summer of 2011, Columbia University, in collaboration with H2CU (Centro Interuniversitario per la Formazione Internazionale) started an archaeological project in ancient Stabiae: The “Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art” (APAHA), a program that is projected to run for five years. During this time, the project will perform stratigraphic excavations in one of the largest and most opulent villas in Campania, the Villa San Marco. This villa, along with Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the rest of Stabiae, was buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. In the 18th century, when archaeological interest in the lost Campanian cities began, it was among the earliest structures to be uncovered. Excavated by the Bourbons to extract artefacts and wall paintings, it was then immediately reburied. A program to bring the villa back to light started in the 1950s and continues to the present day, but only with the aim to uncover what the Bourbons had already seen. APAHA is the first program ever to perform stratigraphic excavations in the Stabiae villas, investigating the pre-79 A.D. history of the site. The project’s goal is to understand the architectural history of the villa, as well as any existing older habitational layers, giving a full archaeological account of the stratigraphy from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius down to virgin soil. The project will also excavate in the street that delineates the northern section of the Villa San Marco with the aim of understanding the interaction between private and public space. Since the street is an extension of the Stabiae city-grid plan, part of the goal of these excavations is also to investigate the connection between the villa and the settlement of Stabiae.
FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 286, 2013
In the summer of 2012, Columbia University, in collaboration with H2CU (Centro Interuniversitario per la Formazione Internazionale) followed up on its successful 2011 pilot season in ancient Stabiae as part of the “Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art” (APAHA). The Program performs stratigraphic excavations in the Villa San Marco, one of the largest and most opulent villas in Campania, investigating both the Villa as a Roman elite structure and the pre-79 AD history of the site. The goal of the excavations is to give a full archaeological account of the stratigraphy from the eruption layers of Mt Vesuvius down to virgin soil. Building on the results from the previous year, the 2012 campaign had two main research goals: investigating the Villa’s system of water-supply and drainage, and clarifying the Villa’s relationship with the road that marks its northern limit. The results were on the one hand the discovery of a work area in the northern sector of the Villa, and on the other the clarification of the temporal relationship between the Villa and the road and a better understanding of the history of the road itself.
Preliminary Field Report of the 2014 Excavations and Ceramics at the Villa San Marco, Stabiae
The third and final excavation season at Stabiae of the Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA) in 2014 intended to reach a better understanding of the architectural development of the Villa San Marco. To that end, two trenches were excavated. The first was located in a small, enclosed garden (viridarium) close to the atrium, suggested to be the Vil-la's original core. This room is one of only a handful where two different architectural alignments meet (that of the Villa's main part and that of its bathing complex) and where it is possible to excavate without removing mosaic flooring. In the adjacent architecture, signs of restructuring are visible, suggesting alterations to the arrangement of rooms. Those alterations notwithstanding, the results of the excavations showed that little rebuilding had occurred in this part of the Villa, except for a change to a system of drains related to a wall alteration. The second trench was located just north of the threshold of the Villa's tablinum, where the threshold connects two sections of the Villa that have a different socioeconomic character: an undecorated working sector to the north and a decorated domestic sector to the south. Here as well the trench promised to be rewarding for investigations into architectural development. Together with the atrium, the tablinum is thought to have belonged to the Villa's original construction. A surprise in this trench was that the tablinum foundation did not show signs of Republican-era construction. Another surprise was the discovery of a wide and deep wall, either the outside face of a large, out-of use cistern or the foundation for a demolished loadbearing wall.
Villa San Marco at Stabia. Dynamics of decay and perspectives for deepening and safeguarding
Procedia Structural Integrity
The site of Villa San Marco in the archaeological area of Stabiae, offers a wide repertoire of degenerative situations with multiple levels of criticality and complexity and a differentiated stratification. Damage related to the known eruptive events of Vesuvius are the substratum to phenomena of deterioration activated by excavations of the Bourbon period, restoration and protection interventions that were not always adequate and efficient and by widespread abandonment conditions at the end of the excavation. Flora, anthropic environment, water, atmospheric agents, slope instability, seismic phenomena, combine with the technological characteristics of this architectura l complex, triggering degenerative processes at different speeds and intensities. A study initiated in collaboration between the University of Florence and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii aims at the knowledge of the degenerative dynamics of the site in order to develop risk management and control systems aimed at safety of use and maintenance. Investigations disseminated in the villa and detailed on specific portions have begun to create a clearer picture of conservation issues. The digital documentation of the structures has been flanked by a phase of on field investigation aimed at an assessment of the degenerative phenomena, at the analytical verification and at the interpretation of the structural instability. The research perspective is to define a multi-scale survey approach that allows to extract data useful for the quantification of the risk, through a systematic understanding of the vulnerabilities of the elements involved (walls, columns, blocks, decorated surfaces, earthen layers, etc).
Groma, Issue 6, 2021
In recent decades, archaeological research has increasingly made use of geomatic techniques to document ancient spaces and sites. The topographical research carried out in 2018 by the University of Bologna at Villa San Marco and the adjacent thermal complex in Castellammare di Stabia adopted the terrestrial laser scanner technology. It allowed the restitution of a three-dimensional model for an in-depth study of the architectural structure of the building and its construction phases, as well as the production of an updated planimetry of both complexes and wall elevation orthophotos useful for understanding the conservation status of the monument.
FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 381, 2017
The third and final excavation season at Stabiae of the Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA) in 2014 intended to reach a better understanding of the architectural development of the Villa San Marco. To that end, two trenches were excavated. The first was located in a small, enclosed garden (viridarium) close to the atrium, suggested to be the Villa’s original core. This room is one of only a handful where two different architectural alignments meet (that of the Villa’s main part and that of its bathing complex) and where it is possible to excavate without removing mosaic flooring. In the adjacent architecture, signs of restructuring are visible, suggesting alterations to the arrangement of rooms. Those alterations notwithstanding, the results of the excavations showed that little rebuilding had occurred in this part of the Villa, except for a change to a system of drains related to a wall alteration. The second trench was located just north of the threshold of the Villa’s tablinum, where the threshold connects two sections of the Villa that have a different socioeconomic character: an undecorated working sector to the north and a decorated domestic sector to the south. Here as well the trench promised to be rewarding for investigations into architectural development. Together with the atrium, the tablinum is thought to have belonged to the Villa’s original construction. A surprise in this trench was that the tablinum foundation did not show signs of Republican-era construction. Another surprise was the discovery of a wide and deep wall, either the outside face of a large, out-of use cistern or the foundation for a demolished loadbearing wall.