The 2019 archaeological fieldwork reports see the culmination of several BSR supported projects that have been reported in these pages over the past years. The Lateran Project, a long-running collaboration between Newcastle University, the Università degli Studi di Firenze, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and the BSR had its final season in 2019 and has published this summer The Basilica of Saint John Lateran to 1600 (L. Bosman, I.P. Haynes, P. Liverani, British School at Rome Studies series). The success and significant findings of the project, led by Professor Ian Haynes, encouraged the team to extend this study across the eastern part of the Caelian Hill, which has been made possible through a 5-year Advanced Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), the first field season of which is reported in the following pages.

For the past years the Portus Project, led by Professor Simon Keay, has focused its research on the Claudian Harbour, supported by the ERC funded Rome's Mediterranean Ports Project and the University of Southampton. The research has continued in 2019, concentrating on the western end of the northern mole and has been expanded to include a maritime geophysical survey of the River Tiber, led by the 2017–2019 Assistant Director for Archaeology, Dr Peter Campbell. The survey has applied advanced technology to record the underwater heritage in the Canale di Fiumicino (‘Fossa Traiana’) and the stretch of the river Tiber between Portus and Ostia Antica. The fieldwork has also been able to address some of the questions raised by the recently published volume, The Isola Sacra Survey. Ostia, Portus and the port system of Imperial Rome (S. Keay, M. Millett, K. Strutt, and P. Germoni, Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs).

In recent years the fieldwork reports (PBSR 81–83) have also provided updates of the ongoing excavations at Segni, conducted by the BSR together with the Museo Archeologico of the Comune di Segni. The first volume Il ninfeo di Q. Mutius a Segni (F.M. Cifarelli, ed., Rome: Edizioni Quasar) relating to this joint research programme was published this summer, providing an important contribution to the study of architecture in the late Republican period of Latium.

The projects reported in the following pages (Fig. 1) have a shared theme of having been underpinned by detailed geophysical surveys, many of which were conducted by the BSR and University of Southampton (Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (PBSR 85) and Interamna Lirenas (PBSR 80), Monte Rinaldo (PBSR 86–87)). This aspect of the archaeological research at the BSR continues to expand with surveys undertaken for colleagues over the past year at Marzuolo (Tuscany), Vulci, and Fregellae (Lazio). Through the support of the British Academy and a generous donor to the BSR it has been possible over the past year to expand our research into 3D visualisation, with the addition of a laser scanner and photogrammetry software. The aim is to combine our subsurface geophysical research with the recording of standing archaeology, with the potential to have a complete visualisation of the data, broadening our understanding of the sites. Initial research has begun this year in Rome at Piazza Sant'Anastasia on the southwestern slope of the Palatine, and we look forward to reporting on this project in the future.

Fig. 1. Location of the archaeological fieldwork projects in Italy.