AIRC -- Oxford -- Stanford Excavation in the Roman
Forum
The American Institute for Roman Culture, Inc.
(IRC) completed its first season of excavation in the Roman Forum,
July 1- August 7, 2003. The Italian Ministry of Culture (Italian Ministero
per i Beni ed Attività Culturali) has given the IRC permission
to explore and document an important commercial zone, known as the
area post aedem Castoris (the area behind the Temple of Castor and
Pollux), as well as the related area on the adjacent Vicus Tuscus.
This is an auspicious beginning for the IRC, as permission is almost
impossible to obtain and rarely conceded to foreigners.
CLICK HERE
FOR THE OFFICIAL 2003 DIG SITE
Participating institutions
- Oxford University , Institute of Archaeology
- Stanford University, Department of Classics
Co-Directors
- Dr. Darius A. Arya
- Dr. Andrew Wilson
- Dr. Jennifer Timble
Background
The Forum in Rome was the
heart of the ancient city and the Roman empire. It constituted the
political, religious, commercial, and legal center of the city.
The section that the IRC excavation includes is one of the central,
high-rent shopping districts, located behind one of the Forum’s
most prestigious and noteworthy temples, the Temple of the Castors
(the patron gods of the Roman knights), surrounded by important shrines.
Plentiful inscriptional evidence has described the area to be explored
as a place in which luxury goods, such as jewels, incense, and dyes,
were sold (Papi 2002).
The IRC excavation complements previous exploration in the vicinity,
tying into important work of other scholars and foreign institutions,
including “La Sapienza” l’Università di Roma,
the Norwegian School in Rome, the Finnish School in Rome, the British
School in Rome, and the American Academy in Rome.
Goals
The project will analyze the commercial activity
in the Forum through stratigraphic excavation and explore the interactions
of the commercial, religious, and political spaces there. Through
detailed documentation of the various building phases, the participants
also will address important topographical issues in an area filled
with important shrines and monuments whose exact whereabouts have
remained elusive.
First Season
The dig will consist of 4 trenches
section in front of the Oratory of the Forty Martyrs
row of shops identified on fragment 18a of the Forma Urbis (a marble
plan of the city of Rome)
trench along the Vicus Tuscus
“arch” on the Vicus Tuscus
General bibliography
A. Claridge, Rome (Oxford,
1998).
E. Papi, “La turba inpia: artigiani e commercianti del Foro
Romano e dintorni (I sec. A.C.- 64 d.C.),” JRA 15.45-62, 2002
M. Steinby, Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae (Rome 1993-1999) VI
vols, with articles on various sites, including, Aedes Castoris, Lacus
Iuturnae, Porta Romana, Scalae Grecae, Signum Vortumni.
L. Richardson, Jr., A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
(Baltimore 1992).
Support the dig
To learn more about how to
contribute to the IRC projects, including the current excavation,
please go to our
donor page or contact our development
office at development@romanculture.org.
Contact
For more information about the excavation project,
please stay tuned, as we will update the website during the course
of the excavation.
For further information, please contact Darius A. Arya at dar@romanculture.org.
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