Urbanistic studies in Aquileia (Italy)

The project "Urbanistic studies in Aquileia (Italy)", carried out by the department of Central European Archaeology (ZEA) of the Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI), will study the diachronic urbanistic development and the cultural and economic history of this trading port at the upper Adriatic coast, using mainly non-invasive archaeological methods. Founded as a colonia latina in 181 B.C., Aquileia played a key role in the military, economical and political development of the northern provinces. Due to its topographically advantageous location on a widely branched network of rivers and canals, the town soon became the main trading hub in the upper Adriatic region. Preliminary work carried out in 2011 has yielded valuable new insights into the street grid, topography, the course of various rivers and canals as well as the urban and suburban development of Aquileia. An artisan quarter situated along a canal and a hitherto unknown, second harbour were discovered in the western suburbium. The planned project comprises a large-scale geophysical survey of the town`s western suburbium. Intensive field surveys will be carried out in three areas covering the artisan quarter, the harbour and the Byzantine town. Geoarchaeological coring in the area of the newly discovered canal and small, targeted excavations will serve to check the survey results and to study the chronology of Aquileia`s urban development. The project`s main focus will be on the analysis of the finds from the surveys and excavations. This will result in a diachronic typological catalogue of locally produced and imported wares, and will also involve a comparison of contextual excavation finds with surface finds collected by fieldwalking. The results of the project will provide a basis for new conclusions about the chronology of the town`s development, the functional use of space, the infrastructure and trade in Aquileia. An integrated interpretation of historical and archaeological evidence on the history of Aquileia can be expected to shed new light on the political and military history of the Central-European cultural sphere in the Roman and Byzantine era.

In the framework of the P25176-G19 project, studies on the ancient topography and history of Aquileia were conducted from 2013-2017. The commercial metropolis on the upper Adriatic is of great importance for the economic, military and political development of the northern Roman provinces. The work focused on the western part of the city as well as the northern, western and southern suburbs with the traffic routes. Using non-invasive modern methods of archeology (photogrammetry, remote sensing, LiDAR-analyzes, geophysical measurements, surveys, core drillings) and without excavations important new insights into the morphology and diachronous development of the Roman Colonia should be obtained.Particular emphasis was placed on the study of urban fortifications and on the analysis of infrastructural development of the city by traffic routes and canals. Aquileia was connected by an artificial channel, the canale anfora, with the lagoon or the open sea and developed by a road and canal / river network. Within the framework of the project, the continuation of the canale anfora up to the imperial city wall and the harbor installations flanking the canal were examined for the first time. A series of core drillings testifies the chronology, sedimentation and morphology of the canale anfora, which was used as the main traffic route to the 3rd century AD. Beyond the canal, outside the city wall, was at the same time a newly discovered extensive artisan quarter, which is modified in late antiquity, as part of an extension of the city wall to the intra-urban area, with a new function as a circus.For the first time in the research history of Aquileia, an intensive survey was carried out with the collection of surface finds in the area of the circus and on both sides of the canale anfora. The entire find material, over 130,000 found objects, was examined according to typological and chronological criteria. The find distributions, in combination with the geophysical measurements, give interesting new insights into the divergent use of the settlement area. On both sides canale anfora late republican / imperial port installations (1st century BC - 3rd century AD) can be distinguished from zones of late antique landfills. Within the late antique city walls, the large amounts of finds give important information on the intensity and duration of the use of individual areas. The entire fund spectrum provides an exciting new insight into the movement of goods and trade connections as well as the networking of the ancient metropolis with the world of the Mediterranean.