The 2012 Excavation Season at the Villa San Marco, Stabiae: Preliminary Field Report

In the summer of 2012, Columbia University, in collaboration with H2CU (Centro Interuniversitario per la Formazione Internazionale) followed up on its successful 2011 pilot season in ancient Stabiae as part of the “Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art” (APAHA). The Program performs stratigraphic excavations in the Villa San Marco, one of the largest and most opulent villas in Campania, investigating both the Villa as a Roman elite structure and the pre-79 AD history of the site. The goal of the excavations is to give a full archaeological account of the stratigraphy from the eruption layers of Mt Vesuvius down to virgin soil. Building on the results from the previous year, the 2012 campaign had two main research goals: investigating the Villa’s system of water-supply and drainage, and clarifying the Villa’s relationship with the road that marks its northern limit. The results were on the one hand the discovery of a work area in the northern sector of the Villa, and on the other the clarification of the temporal relationship between the Villa and the road and a better understanding of the history of the road itself