On April 23, Professor Francesco de Angelis (Columbia), co-director of the Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA) with Professor Marco Maiuro (Rome La Sapienza, and Columbia), will present the main results of the 2017 excavation season at Hadrian’s Villa, discuss the historical significance of the findings, and announce some exciting developments of the project for 2018.
This workshop will present the results of the 2017 campaign, addressing them in the light of APAHA's previous fieldwork seasons (2014-16) at the villa. On the one hand, it will discuss the findings of the Lararium shrine, whose excavation has now successfully been brought to a conclusion. A sacred precinct located close to the villa’s Great Vestibule, the Lararium underwent several phases — of construction, use, spoliation, and reuse — from the age of Hadrian to the modern period. The workshop will explore its complex history, and discuss hypotheses about its original aspect and function.
On the other hand, the workshop will focus on the buildings that have come to light in the area called the Macchiozzo. These edifices belong to a large and hitherto unknown architectural compound located in the very core of the villa, in close proximity to some of its main ceremonial and leisure spaces. The discussion will especially investigate the new courtyard building excavated in 2017. Its architectural layout, its fixtures, and its artifacts — among which several pieces of marble furniture — raise questions whose answers will provide valuable insights in the nature of the whole area.