The Velia hill is one of the most significant and historically qualified areas of the center of ancient Rome. However, its adequate knowledge has been inhibited by the numerous transformations that have characterized its history up to the contemporary age. So, archaeological research and excavation project focuses on a peculiar site close to Roman Forum. Literary, epigraphic and iconographic sources, already collected, systematized and analyzed by the PI of the present research project in several monographs and articles published and discussed in the last twenty years, suggest a wide range of archaeological and topographic issues that are crucial for the reconstruction of the urban history of this important part of the ancient city.
First of all, some key problems ought to be underlined: the definition of the neighborhoods called Velia in many ancient sources; its road structure strictly connected to the delicate issue of identification of the Via Sacra route; the definition of the urban phases marked by important monumental programs of the Imperial Age; the recognition of a series of ancient sanctuaries of high religious, political and ideological importance; finally, the structuring of the functional and social physiognomy of an area so close to the Roman Forum and during the centuries interpreter of different settlement, commercial, monumental and representative vocations.
A focused program of stratigraphic investigations and historical research, with a complete survey of the previous excavations and discoveries, will allow to acquire new documentary elements for a better understanding of the various topographical and historical problems. The scientific value of the program will be enriched by the comparison with the great discoveries made in the last decades in the adjacent areas of the Palatine, with which the area in exam has historically constituted a coherent urban system connected to the eastern neighborhoods of the city.
As evidenced by dealing with the objectives and the method, the proposed research project stems from the desire to deal with an analytical, integrated and systematic approach, a topographical and historical question on which, although the scientific debate is still alive, a unified and coherent perspective in terms of archaeological research has been lacking. In fact, the philological reconstructions based, mainly, on the dossier of the written sources have not yet found an opportunity for verification and comparison in the field: this condition generates a serious knowledge deficiency, that we propose to fill with the creation of a dossier that integrates the known documentation (bibliographic, archival, documentary) in the context of the results of the archaeological surveys on the ground.
The setting of the "Velia Project" thus suggests a new research path that moves, firstly, from the systemization of known data, heterogeneous in quality and quantity, never collected and analyzed in an overall perspective and in a programmatic way. It is therefore proposed an integral vision of the archaeological problem, which we try to solve by combining the principles of historical research with the potential of modern tools and methodologies of investigation in the field (from geophysical prospecting, to core sampling, to direct detection). Allowing the planning of precise tests with respect to the useful archaeological sediments, make a fundamental contribution to the advancement of knowledge. The potential for the development of the research theme is inherent in the method approach, integrated, transversal and interdisciplinary, able to provide consistent scientific answers to historical-urbanistic issues and to open new scenarios of investigation that can give a different perspective for understanding of the missing piece in the reconstruction of the monumental center of ancient Rome.
The "Velia Project" will be an important opportunity to advance knowledge, on the terms of topographic configuration and historical-urban evolution of a very central urban area strongly characterized of ancient Rome, which between the Archaic and the Imperial era was invested by radical transformations with significant ideological, political and social meanings.
The results of the first and second excavation campaigns have already shown interesting and completely new data, contributing to the advancement of knowledge about the area.
The carrots carried out in the pronaos and on the southern front of the Temple of Venus and Rome, for example, have returned elements that encourage to reconsider the geological development of the sail on this side. According to the new information, in fact, on the side towards the Colosseum the profile of the Velia hill seems, actually, significantly different (for dimensions and morphology) from that hitherto hypothesized.
Other news of absolute importance derives from the archaeological explorations carried out under the Basilica of Maxentius, in the site of the cd. horrea piperataria where investigating the archaeological stratigraphy a severian age phase has been intercepted and the remains of a monumental structure, more ancient and completely unpublished, have been discovered.
New data from preliminary investigations open up completely new scenarios, both archaeological and historical.
The aim of the project is to carry out a transversal and systematic study, combining traditional research with the use of new technical approaches, to reconstruct the development and transformations of the site of course, but also of the entire Velia district in terms of urban history, addressing its historical, architectural and topographical changes.
A research based on long-term historical analysis and with an urban view, which aims at the recompositing of the architectural and topographic characteristics of the area (see also the importance assigned to the restitution of a model, also three-dimensional, geological, topographical and monumental) is until now unpublished among the studies about roman topography.
Further researches and excavations may reveal more elements useful to deepen the historical and archaeological understanding of an area that allows us to add new pieces to our knowledge of the history of ancient Rome.
The scientific objective underlying the progress of the studies and the development of the research program lies in the intent to focus and explain the relationships between the investigated monumental complex and the historical and topographical context of reference value.