The Aventinus Minor Project (AMP) team, Professor Elizabeth Wueste, Professor Giulia Facchin, and Professor Pier Matteo Baron ( AUR department of Archaeology & Classics), have produced their first research publication based on findings from desk research and a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey conducted in 2021.

The remote sensing (RS) anomalies revealed by the GPR survey have revealed that the project excavation area is potentially rich in buried structures potentially correlated with ancient visible remains (i.e., the Servian Walls and Santa Balbina church). Ìý

About the AMP project

The Aventinus Minor Project (AMP) is a community archaeological excavation project focusing on one of the rare unexcavated areas in Rome in the Aventine neighborhood, between the Circus Maximus and the Baths of Caracalla. This open field is owned by the Istituto Santa Margherita, a Catholic convalescent home run by the Congregazione Suore Francescane dei Sacri Cuori. The Instituto is located in the convent attached to the Church of Santa Balbina, which is itself one of the earliest Christian churches in Rome, dating to the 4th century CE.

Preliminary research suggestedÌýthat the field has never been systematically excavated using modern methodology and technologies. Because of this limited exploration, which is exceedingly rare in the dense topography of urban Rome, there may be an intact stratigraphy sequence of 2,700 years, from the modern period back to Rome’s foundation in the 8th century BCE. Early cartographic and topography work indicatedÌýthat the area contains a portion of the Republican Servian Wall and an Imperial house belonging to Lucius Fabius Cilo, consul in 203 CE.

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