Journal Article

Editorial

Witcher, Robert

2024

Overview

For an ancient and well-known city, there is always something new to discover in Rome. In late August, almost 5000 delegates gathered in the Eternal City for this year's annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). Whether attending academic sessions or visiting sites, monuments and landscapes in and around the city, participants were left in no doubt about the scale of archaeological work underway in Rome today. The most prominent example relates to the long-running project for a new metro line that passes beneath the heart of the ancient city. As work proceeds on completing tunnels and stations, monuments such as the Basilica of Maxentius, propped up by scaffolding, are subject to careful monitoring for signs of subsidence caused by the works below. And it is underground that the real scale of the engineering—and the archaeological intervention—becomes apparent. Construction of the new station at Porta Metronia, for example, has involved the investigation of almost 50 000m3 of archaeological stratigraphy, in some places reaching more than 15m below current street level. At this station, excavations have revealed an early second-century AD military barrack block decorated with frescoes and mosaics, a large residential complex and a terraced garden all located on the edge of the ever-expanding imperial city. By the late third century, however, priorities had changed and the whole area was levelled during the hurried construction of the defensive Aurelian Walls around the city. Work on the new metro station required the complete removal of the surviving archaeological structures, but these will now be reinstalled in situ as part of a station/museum, one of several already completed or planned. Another stop along the line, the new station at San Giovanni, already offers commuters and visitors a fascinating display of finds recovered during the building works, while the stations under construction at the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia promise even more spectacular displays. The latter, for example, will incorporate parts of Hadrian's Athenaeum, or school for literary and scientific studies, discovered in 2009 during preparatory works for the metro. Visitors, and commuters, will need to wait a little longer for the first trains to arrive. Construction of the Piazza Venezia station, budgeted at approximately €0.75bn, finally began last year with a projected completion date of 2032.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: 2nd century / 3rd century / Archaeology / Cities / Commuting / Construction / Delegates / Excavation / Gardens & gardening / Inscriptions / Lightning / Memorials & monuments / Monuments / Museums / Open access publishing / Tunnels / Visitors