Area 1

This area was selected because the GPR survey showed a macellum, or market for meat and other goods, here, and we hope to learn how this commercial space was connected to the city’s infrastructure, such as its street, water, and drainage systems. The structure, which measured about 29 x 17 m in size, consists of an octagonal perimeter surrounding an open space with two small concentric structures at its center, presumably the tholos (round structure) and a base or fountain.

The five visible lateral rooms measured roughly 3 x 3 m, while a central space was slightly larger.

2022

In 2022, excavation efforts concentrated in the northern area, where the GPR showed a series of six rooms. The team opened a trench measuring 15 x 6 m to expose the central space and two flanking spaces, probably the entrance corridor and two shops.

The walls of the shops and corridor were constructed of opus vittatum with rubble foundations extending over 3 m deep. The construction technique suggests a date of construction in the 4th century, but there were traces of an earlier phase in brick. The entrance corridor of the 4th-century building had been widened from its earlier dimensions.

Not apparent on the GPR survey was a large structure built of tuff ashlar blocks to the north of the macellum. The foundations of the central corridor also rested on tuff blocks that bonded with this structure, demonstrating its earlier date. From the narrow space exposed within the limits of the trench, an unusually large quantity of animal bones, many showing butchery marks, were recovered, which is fitting with the building’s proximity to the macellum, whose structure abuts and partially rests on top of it.

2023

During 2023, excavations in Area 1, the macellum, focused on two trenches located to the north and south of the area that was excavated in 2022.

In the north, a 4 x 10 m trench revealed four distinct spaces, labeled Rooms 7, 8, 9, and 10 moving from west to east. These rooms were delineated by north-south walls constructed of large tuff blocks that were the continuation of similar walls found in the 2022 trench. Excavation concentrated in Rooms 7 and 8, the two larger spaces.

Room 8

Room 8 (4 x 5.5 m) was the space between the two large walls at the center of the trench. In the northern half of the trench was an extensive concrete floor preparation and pavements in opus spicatum and large peperino slabs laid above it. A basin was preserved in the opus spicatum that appeared to pertain to industrial or production activities. All of these pavements had been cut dramatically on their southern halves by an extensive (ca. 3 x 2 m) cut that contained an extraordinary quantity of fourth- and fifth-century AD ceramics (mostly tablewares, cookware, and storage vessels) and animal bone, some of which showed butcher and cut marks.

Room 7

Room 7 (4 x 2.25 m) lay to the west of Room 8. In the southern limit of this space was a square shaft built with large tuff blocks. Excavation across the room revealed a large deposit of clean fill that covered a series of six large tuff blocks laid east to west on top of the same kind of blocks laid north to south. These formed a channel or drain (60 x 32 cm) connecting to the square shaft in the south.

The southern excavation trench focused on the central portion of the macellum. It measured 10 x 3.15 m and comprised three rooms (11, 12, 13).

Room 11

In Room 11 (3 x 0.80 m) was a concrete wall foundation (3 x 0.75 m). This wall, interpreted as the foundation of a monumental structure (tholos) in the market’s courtyard, curved slightly as it ran north to south. The foundation had four vertical cuts for formwork on each side, one reaching a depth of 2.47 m. On top of this foundation, a poorly preserved brick wall (60 x 50 x 25 cm) was discovered.

Room 12

In Room 12 (4 x 3.15 m) was found a surface of peperino slabs extending the length of the trench. In the medieval period came the installation of a new floor above this. A mixture of pottery, glass, and bone, shows that this area was occupied between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Of particular interest was the discovery of three parallel cuts and grayish fills, possibly related to horticultural or gardening activities.

Room 13

Room 13 (3.10 x 2.70 m), the macellum’s central basin, was surrounded by three walls constructed of brick and tuff stone, while the fourth wall remained unexcavated beneath the northern scarp. The basin was originally furnished with an opus sectile surface. A robbed lead pipe to supply water to the basin was also evident. During later modifications, a waterproof plaster (cocciopesto) covered the surface and walls of the basin. Several cuts in this flooring attest to the many later medieval activities in this area of the market.

2024

In 2024, excavations in Area 1 were divided into two trenches. One trench, measuring 5 x 10 m, focused on the western area of the macellum (Rooms 14, 15, and 16), while the second trench, measuring 8 x 7 m, further explored a structure in the area north of the macellum, located between it and Falerii’s decumanus (Rooms 17, 18, and 19).

Room 14

Room 14 was situated within the courtyard of the macellum and contained a significant destruction layer related to the end of the building. Below this destruction layer, one cut contained numerous bone fragments. Most notable, however, was a row of five tuff blocks that formed the upper course of a Republican wall cut by the fourth-century opus vittatum macellum wall. Large quantities of black gloss ware, including tableware and large plate fragments; architectural terracotta fragments; and an arula emerged from nearby.

Room 15

Room 15 was located in a triangular room visible on the GPR. There was a large concentration of bone materials. The section of the northern trench scarp visible within this space revealed a doorway connecting the triangular room and a taberna to the north.

Room 16

Room 16 was located within the macellum’s western exterior space. Two earlier walls made of tuff blocks had been cut by the foundations of the macellum’s western wall. The foundation cut of one revealed many fragments of black-gloss ware, thus suggesting a Republican construction date, as well as a loom weight.

A second trench in Area I was opened to further explore the so-called “northern building” that had been partially excavated to the north of the macellum in 2023. It was hoped that the trench would reveal the structure’s northern limits, the decumanus to the north of both it and the macellum, and the functional relationships among all these structures.

Room 17

Room 17 was a western shop within the northern building. It contained a vertical shaft made out of concrete that intersected the tuff drain that was excavated in 2023 to the south. The imprint of a terracotta pipe in the concrete might suggest that the shaft was at some late point used as a latrine. The fill of the shaft yielded numerous coins and an intact miniature amphora.

Room 18

Room 18 was the area north of the “northern building.” Along the northern limit of excavation, the basoli paving stones of Falerii’s decumanus came to light. In the center of its exposed length was the base for a streetside fountain. Just to the east, a masonry ramp had been constructed leading from the street to Room 18. This ramp must have allowed wheeled carts or animals to enter the “northern building” and perhaps the macellum beyond it. A gutter of reused roof tiles and tiles once containing a lead pipe ran between the street and the northern building. At some point, the street, the ramp, the pan tile gutter, and the imbrex pipe bed were all cut by the construction of a large circular feature, ca. 2 m in diameter, made of courses of tuff blocks. This contained large quantities of animal bones and large building rubble that date to the medieval period.

Room 19

Room 19 was the central area of the “northern building,” the continuation of the area excavated in 2023. It contained an extensive plaster floor or floor preparation that belongs to a phase in which the floor level of the “northern building” was raised, perhaps in conjunction with the construction of the ramp along the road. The utilitarian nature of the floor and the basin suggests a productive or otherwise utilitarian function, which also may have connected the macellum to the decumanus.

3D model of Area 1, the macellum