X ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND EXCAVATION No novelties of first rate importance have to be mentioned in Rome itself in the period under review, and the excavations which were spoken of in last year's report as still in progress have not yet been scientifically described. 1 A group of large niches supporting the side of the Capitol below the church of Aracoeli has recently been brought to light; and some interesting discoveries have been made below the Palazzo Barberini, including some small rooms with mosaic pavements of the Republican period, and another with interesting ceiling decorations. We may note, however, that the continuation of the clearing of the theatre of Marcellus has led Pernier, who wrote the official report on some work that was done in the interior in 1901, 2 to publish a number of interesting drawings preserved in the Uffizi, including an important plan by Baldassare Peruzzi, and to give a detailed bibliography which supersedes that which is to be found in his earlier article. 3 We may, therefore, turn to the immediate neighbourhood of the city. Two independent articles on the hypogaeum Flaviorum," at the entrance to the cemetery of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina bring us to the conclusion 1 For further details see The Times Literary Supplement, April 4th, 11th, 1929, pp. 275, 293. Böhringer in Jahrb. d. Inst., 1928, Anz. 111-196. Some interesting photographs will be found in Illustrated London News, January 19th and April 27th, 1929; while for further articles on discoveries in Rome itself reference may be made to Capitolium, v. (1929), 169–181 (for the excavations opposite the Teatro Argentina), 182-195 (for the tomb of the Scipios). 2 Bull. Com., 1901, 52-64. 3 Ibid., 1927,5-40. that De Rossi's dating was too early, and that the construction of the vestibule cannot be placed earlier than the middle of the second century after Christ. 1 The complicated question in regard to the presence (or the reverse) of SS. Peter and Paul at S. Sebastiano on the Via Appia in their lifetime, or the transportation of the bodies thither either directly after their martyrdom, or in 258 A.D., 2 remains still unsettled. But one difficulty will have been removed if we accept Dom Quentin's contention 3 that the date 258 A.D. given by the Depositio martyrum of the chronographer of 354 A.D., which is that of the martyrdom of S. Cyprian, really belongs to him alone, and has been transferred by mistake to the next column; so that it would really have nothing at all to do with SS. Peter and Paul. Giglioli publishes a long article on the "ripostiglio Bianchini," a curious collection of bronze statuettes of men, women and animals (the latter in pairs) together with a number of amulets. They were found at the end of the seventeenth century in some ruins near Rome (we do not know exactly where), enclosed in a bronze box which was in turn placed in a terra-cotta jar. They belonged to Ficoroni, the well-known antiquarian, but soon passed into the Pennacchi collection, then into that of Cardinal Stefano Borgia at Velletri, and finally went, with the rest of what he had amassed, to the Naples Museum, where they still are, Giglioli having succeeded in finding them all. They were probably the property of some inhabitant of eastern Europe, who hid or buried them in ancient times; for there seems to be no doubt of their antiquity, and they belong to the third century after Christ. 1 Schneider in Röm. Mitt., xliii. (1928), 1 sqq.; Styger in Rendèc. Pont. Acc. Arch., v. (1928), 89 sqq. contrast Wilpert, Pitture delle Catacombe Romane, 101, who attributes them, with De Rossi, to the first century after Christ. 2 Y.W., 1922-3, 101. 3 Rendic. Pont. Acc. Arch., v. (1928), 145 sqq. 4 Bull. Com., lvi. (1928), 5-52. A group of columbaria1 of considerable interest have been found on the so-called Isola Sacra 3 between the two mouths of the Tiber opposite Ostia, not far from the church of S. Ippolito, which lies near the right branch of the river, which was in origin a canal connecting the Tiber with the Claudian harbour. 4 In only one case is the roof preserved ; it is decorated with panels of coloured stucco, in some of which mythological scenes are painted. Those that have so far been excavated are only part of a larger group, the exploration of which is being continued. The earliest of the tombs themselves belonged to the middle of the second century A.D., and they continued to be in use throughout the third. After this they were filled and covered over by the dumping of a large quantity of rubbish consisting entirely of fragments of amphorae and dolia, but unluckily, unlike those of Monte Testaccio, not providing any chronological data. Much has appeared in the press on the clearing of the ships in the Lake of Nemi, 5 one of which has now been entirely exposed to view. The results have not altogether come up to the expectations which had been formed in advance, nor have they provided us with information in regard to the ancient trireme; for the first ship, as its shape shows, was so broad in proportion to its length that it may rather be compared to a college barge at Oxford 1 Calza in Not. Scavi, 1928, 133-175. 2 A few inhumation burials are found in them, and the contemporaneity with the urns is in one case clear from the inscription of the tombs which speaks of aediculae cum ollis et sarcophagis (p. 147). 3 The island, though formed in the first century A.D., is not mentioned until the fifth (Aethicus, Cosmogr., p. 20); and its name is first given by Procopius (Bell. Goth., i., 26.). 4 Cf. C.I.L., xiv., 85 (the inscription of Claudius at Porto) fossis ductis a Tiberi operis portus caussa emissisque in mare inundationis periculo liberavit. Dessau (ib., p. 6, n. 5) points out that, as Pliny's panegyric on Trajan dates from the year 100, there can be no reference to Trajan's harbour in it; for that was not begun until four years later. 5 A short general account of the lake and the ships is given by Montecchi, Nemi, il suo lago, le sue navi (Rome, 1929), but it is not entirely free from errors. than to any craft intended for rapid navigation. 1 As to their constructors, the presence of lead pipes inscribed with the names of Tiberius and Caligula shows that there was a permanent water supply from the land, while the name CAISAR, which was found on a bronze grille in 1828, must, one would think, belong to the time of Claudius, when this intentional archaism was in vogue. 2 The smaller objects found include some replicas of the fine bronze heads of animals which were found over twenty years ago, and are now preserved in the Museo delle Terme. A long article by Galieti3 on the temple found on the acropolis of Lanuvium 4 maintains that it had only one cella and not three, and that remains of an older temple can be identified. Lugli, in a careful study of Hadrian's villa, 5 has followed out a suggestion thrown out by Winnefeld in regard to the existence of earlier structures in the northeast portion of the villa (the so-called Hospitium), and has been able to reconstruct the plan of a villa of the time of Sulla, altered and enlarged in the latter half of the first century B.C. and again under Augustus, which occupied the site of the so-called Palazzo, its garden having been the so-called Cortile delle Bibliotece. Marucchi has studied further the ancient sun clock at Praeneste cut on the south wall of an ancient building, perhaps the Junonarium, & which is now the cathedral. 1 An excellent photograph will be found in the Illustrated London News, Sept. 21st, 1929, p. 502, where it has, it is true, pointed ends. 2 Unfortunately the grille itself, though it was purchased from Fusconi in 1818 and placed in the Vatican Library, cannot now be found. 3 Bull. Com., lvi. (1928), 75-118. Y.W., 1922-3, 107. 5 Bull. Com., lv. (1927), 139-204 (with plans by Gismondi). 6 Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli (Jahrb. d. Inst., Ergänzungsheft, iii.), Berlin, 1895. Not. Scavi, 1928, 175-180; cf. his original article in Ann. d. Inst., 1885, 286 sqq. 8 C.I.L., xiv., 2867; cf. Ovid, Fast., vi., 61 sqq. inspice Tibur | et Praenestinae moenia sacra deae, | Iunonale leges tempus. It is noticeable that two of the four marks that are now to be seen on the wall indicate the third and ninth hours of the month of June-a fact which would certainly appear to be strongly in favour of Marucchi's identification. A hoard of 560 denarii of the end of the Republic and the Augustan period (all but II belong to the first century B.C.) was recently found at Aquileia, 1 while in the cathedral of Grado an important inscription from Altinum was found to be used as building material, 2 recording the repair of two (originally private) bathing establishments which had passed to the municipality at the cost of 800,000 sesterces. After the destruction of Altinum by Attila in 452 A.D., its ruins obviously served as a quarry for building material; but in the Church of S. Marco a mosaic pavement has recently been found which possibly goes back as far as the fourth century A.D. At Parenzo in Istria both outside and inside the cathedral, built by Euphrasius considerable remains of the pavement and walls of an earlier church have been found, 3 which cannot of course be earlier in date than the edict of Milan (313 A.D.). At Collalbo in the Trentino (the name of which before the war was Klobenstein) above the valley of the Isarco, a prehistoric station, already known, has been further excavated. The ground was prepared, as at Glastonbury, by throwing in a number of tree trunks; and in one place a rectangular hut foundation also made of tree trunks was discovered. The objects found range from the Bronze Age to the second century в.с. 4 At Fiesole a group of chambered tombs was found in 1910 in the Via del Bargellino, overlooking the valley of the Mugnone, and another has since been discovered. 5 1 Brusin in Not. Scavi, 1928, 261-282. 2 Altinum, id. ib., 282-294. * Tamaro in Not. Scavi, 1928, 411-412; cf. Boll. d'Arte, ser. 2, i., 139 sqq. 4 Ghislanzoni in Not. Scavi, 1928, 294-323. 5 Magi in Not. Scavi, 1928, 325-332. |