Italy
Gabii – 2014

For the most part, the 2014 season focused on the areas already partly excavated the previous year, although the surface area was slightly enlarged: in total, 290 m² were explored. It is now possible to reconstruct the development of the area more accurately.

In the south sector, a number of walls and other features provide evidence for an initial urbanisation which took place during the 4th-3rd centuries BC (M 11, M 30, M 24…). Between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the sanctuary of Juno Gabina underwent a phase of monumentalisation in common with other sanctuaries in Latium (Fortuna Primigenia in Palestrina, Hercules Victor in Tivoli…). Walls made from large blocks of Gabii stone were erected in the northern part of the excavation zone (M 1 and M 4) for the construction of the south-east corner building of the sanctuary. An east-west oriented road lines this building on its south side and separates it from another building further to the south. This general pattern was maintained in later phases, through transformations which affected both the sanctuary and the residential buildings. In the Augustan period, imposing walls in opus caementicium were built in the corner building and formed backfilled chambers, possibly for the installation of an upper level. During the 2nd century, a large entrance with doors on pivot stones was opened onto the road from the south wall of the sanctuary’s corner building. This building was partly reorganised, through the installation of a floor paved with large slabs of Gabii stone, and the construction or modification of a stairs. The building to the south of the road remained in use. The centre of Gabii, grouped around the sanctuary, was also still active.

During the 3rd century, the sanctuary went into decline and all municipal activity appears to have ceased. The east-west road was no longer maintained.

Between the end of the 3rd and 4th centuries, the monuments were gradually dismantled and destroyed. This area of the town and the associated sanctuary were eventually abandoned. However, occupation of the site was not interrupted, its nature simply changed. Soon afterwards, the area was used for funerary purposes. A number of the burials identified in 2013 were excavated during the 2014 season. The necropolis was the final occupation phase of this sector of the town, which was later gradually transformed into agricultural land.