The ongoing construction of Rome’s new metro line C has enabled an unprecedented archaeological investigation at San Giovanni, which has unearthed a series of important new discoveries. As part of the Monuments in the Contemporary World series, the American Academy in Rome hosted a symposium to assess the new finds and what they tell us about the longue-durée history of the neighborhood up to the present. The half-day conference was organized in collaboration with the British School of Rome and the Sopraintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archaeologici di Roma.
Excavations for the Metro have brought to light the largest ancient water basin yet to be found in Rome belonging to a first-century farm, which grew, among other things, the newly imported prunus persica, or peach, the fruit of which was likely destined for sale to Rome’s affluent classes. Among the most unique and compelling finds are rare organic remains attesting to daily life on a Roman farm. These include baskets, a pitch fork, the leather sole of a shoe, sundry peach pits, and four petrified peach tree trunks that were hewn down in the late first century, when the activities of the farm came to an abrupt end. While ownership of the farm remains a mystery, the anagram “TL” suggestively marks a number of terracotta tiles.
The archaeologist Rossella Rea, head of excavations, provided an overview of landscape and topography in the area pre- and post-construction of the third-century Aurelian walls, which necessitated a clearing of the landscape for visibility. Anna Giulia Fabiana described what can now be understood about changing land use in the area from the Archaic to Augustan periods. Francesca Montella followed up with a detailed description of the farm, its hydraulic systems and the enormous water basin, which is estimated to have been able to hold four million liters of water. The discovery of this Augustan farm complex seems to confirm Andrea Carandini’s supposition that such complexes ringed the city before the first century. Paola Di Manzano concluded presentations on the part of the Sopraintendenza with an assessment of architectural transformations occurring between the Late Antique and the eighteenth century along that stretch of the Aurelian wall.
Professor Paolo Liverani of the University of Florence spoke on behalf of a team of archaeologists from the Universities of Florence, Newcastle, and Northumbria who are working on a collaborative project with the Vatican Museums to conduct geophysical examinations beneath Saint John in the Lateran basilica. These studies have revealed important information about the pre-Christian neighborhood. Two domus structures of the Hadrianic era are being explored beneath the layers of the Severan castrum and Constantinian basilica.
In the collision between modern infrastructure projects and the past, the past need not always be the loser; the work around San Giovanni highlights how a new agricultural history of Rome can emerge from exigencies of the present.