This pair of volumes offers supplementary reports from the on-going excavations at the north-east slope of the Palatine and Colosseum valley directed by Clementina Panella. Each of the twelve chapters is written by a student and often represents his or her thesis, in all or in part (both tesi di laurea and graduate theses are represented among the chapters). The reports address narrow, specialized aspects of the excavations and are best read in conjunction with the synthetic accounts published elsewhere by Panella and Saguì (C. Panella, Scavare nel centro di Roma. Storie uomini paesaggi (2013), with further bibliography). The five chapters in the first volume are quite diverse, whereas the second volume presents seven chapters each detailing ceramic or glass finds from particular excavation contexts. A third volume, still in press and not reviewed here, will address ceramics and related material from the mid- and late Republic.
Silvia Fortunati (vol. 1, ch. 1) analyses thousands of fresco fragments recovered from two locales within ‘Area II’ (the editors’ preferred designation for the area at the north-east corner of the Palatine associated with the Curiae Veteres). Detached from the walls and seldom larger than three centimetres in their largest dimension, the fragments fall into two sets: one represents linear decoration on a white ground, typical of service areas and latrines. Fragments in the second group depict vegetal and floral borders, a typical motif of Fourth Style painting. Dated by Fortunati to the Hadrianic period, the fragments in the second group evidence the continuity of Fourth Style painting after 79 c.e. in a non-Pompeian urban setting.
Lino Traini and Giovanni Mannelli (vol. 1, ch. 2) present a basin built within the Severan warehouse (referred to throughout both volumes as the ‘Terme di Elagabalo’). The basin was used during the building's construction either to prepare lime or hold water. After its functional lifespan was over, the basin was filled with construction debris, including fragments of amphorae that had been repurposed to carry water or mortar on the site. This closed deposit was sealed by the mosaic floor of the warehouse. Traini and Mannelli explore the stages of lime use (material preparation, seasoning and mortar mixing), but cannot assign the basin a specific rôle in on-site lime production.
Cecilia Giorgi (vol. 1, ch. 3) documented a late antique balneum inserted into the south-east corner of the Severan warehouse with a 3D laser scanner. After a brief description of the baths’ architectural features, Giorgi focuses on the process of scanning and creating a digital model of the balneum. She concludes by analysing the advantages and limits of the technique for archaeological documentation. The chapter would have benefited from the digital presentation of its own supporting documentation: reducing a sophisticated model to a sequence of small-scale figures does little to support Giorgi's points concerning the laser scanner's ability to document rapidly three-dimensional spaces with millimetre-fine, true-colour surface detail.
Giovanni Caratelli (vol. 1, ch. 4) studies another late antique modification to the Severan warehouse: the insertion of a three-lobed dining-room adjacent to the bath complex documented in ch. 3. Caratelli documents the extant architectural features of this space, which has been known to archaeologists since the nineteenth century when it was thought to be a church. Following the work of R. Mar, Scienze dell'Antichita 13 (2006), 157–98, Caratelli concludes that the central apsidal space features a stibadium with a sigma-shaped water feature and thus that the tri-partite room functioned as a triclinium associated with a late antique domus or collegium.
Giulia Giovanetti (vol. 1, ch. 5) explores evidence for the collection and use of snow and ice in antiquity. Inspired by a subterranean storage chamber for the snow used to chill beverages consumed in the triclinium discussed in ch. 4, Giovanetti compiles ancient literary sources as well as evidence for post-antique snow and ice storage facilities in Lazio. The comparatively small size of the Palatine chamber, with a capacity of approximately two hundred litres, suggests that it functioned only during banquets and was not a primary storage site for large quantities of frozen water.
Unlike the varied topics covered in vol. 1, the subject matter of vol. 2 is more cohesive: seven chapters, organized chronologically, address ceramic or glass finds from particular archaeological contexts. The first three chapters by Cecilia Gualtieri, Viviana Cardarelli and Giusy Castelli detail ceramic finds recovered from a trio of Neronian contexts. Ceramics from contexts of Domitianic, late antique and medieval date are detailed in chs 4, 6 and 7 by Simona Bellezza, Marta Casalini and Laura Orlandi respectively. Glass finds from the high imperial and medieval periods are recounted in chs 5 and 7 by Barbara Lepri. Ceramic finds are quantified by ware, form, place of manufacture and date; glass finds are organized by type, vessel shape and chronology. Other small finds — coins, faunal material, metal objects — are mentioned only in passing. These reports are clearly intended to supplement the primary archaeological reports already published by Panella and Saguì, and as such each focuses upon the documentation of data rather than its interpretation. One regret is the omission of the high imperial ceramic finds from this volume. Their inclusion would have permitted careful readers to trace the shifting ceramic types at the site from the Neronian period through to the sixth century.
It is laudable to see the details of major archaeological investigations published, especially this rapidly, yet these volumes would have benefited from some simple editorial additions. The site plan presented by the editors (fig. 1, p. xi of both volumes) would be far more useful if it highlighted the location of each specific archaeological context discussed in the subsequent chapters. Readers would also benefit from a brief bibliography highlighting the fundamental archaeological reports that predate these volumes; these are absolutely necessary to contextualize the data-driven chapters of vol. 2. And nowhere do the editors explain why these twelve thesis projects were chosen for publication; the over-arching logic that determined their selection (individual merit? theme?) is left unsaid.
As a last aside: those looking for information on the Maxentian imperial regalia recovered from the site will not find it here; it is presented in C. Panella (ed.), I Segni del potere (2011), reviewed by Simon Corcoran in this volume.
