2020-09-22 M. Mandich - Signum Vortumni Project: Excavations at the Horrea Agrippiana, Roman Forum
Channel: Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
Date: 2020-09-23

Please contact the presenter at Matthew.Mandich@gmail.com for access to the full video of this presentation. 
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More information is available at
https://leicester.academia.edu/MatthewJMandich
The remains of the Horrea Agrippiana, an imposing, multi-story imperial warehouse dating to the time of Augustus, were first brought to light in the early 1900s during excavations directed by Giacomo Boni. The site is located at the base of the Palatine Hill’s northwestern slope and is bordered by the famed vicus Tuscus – one of Rome’s oldest roads that ran between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, connecting the Forum with the Circus Maximus and the Velabrum area. According to the literary tradition a statue of the god Vortumnus (the Etruscan god of change) stood somewhere on or near the vicus Tuscus, seemingly in proximity to the later site of the Horrea Agrippiana – hence the name of the project. Following Boni’s investigations the building was the subject of additional topographical and architectural studies, allowing for the documentation of multiple building phases ranging from the Augustan era until at least the 7th century AD. However, until recently, the site was not the subject of scientific stratigraphic archaeological exploration. Following promising preliminary probes carried out in 2003-2005, in 2016 The International Society for the Archaeology, Art and Architecture of Rome (ISAR) was granted an official excavation concession by the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali (MiBAC) for the Signum Vortumni Project. The aim of this project is to uncover and reconstruct the pre-Imperial topography of this important area in the monumental center. Following four seasons of excavation, the remains of several diverse structures have come to light, including a large opus quadratum building, a later Republican domus, and an early brick-built apartment or storage building. Based on the results of these excavations, this paper will attempt to reconstruct the pre-Augustan topography of the NW slope of the Palatine Hill in addition to providing insights concerning late antique phases of site use. 

About the Speaker: Dr. Matthew Mandich is Assistant Director of the Signum Vortumni Project. He received his PhD in Roman Archaeology from the University of Leicester (UK) in 2017. His thesis, ‘The Growth and Extent of Rome: From Fringe to Suburb’, used models and theories from economic geography and complexity science to re-assess, and uncover correlations between, the physical, economic, and demographic growth of the City from the Archaic to the late Imperial period. This thesis will be published by Routledge as a monograph in their series ‘Studies in Roman Space and Urbanism’. While at the University of Leicester Matthew taught on a number of modules at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, giving lectures on a wide range of topics including landscape archaeology, the Roman economy, maritime archaeology, Roman villas and gardens, early Christian churches, and the sustainability of ancient food systems. He has presented his research at numerous international conferences and has published several peer-reviewed papers. Since 2005 Matthew has worked on a number of excavation, survey, and material studies projects in and around the city of Rome, holding a supervisory role on multiple occasions. He is also the chair of the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) standing committee and a member of the editorial board for the recently launched, Open-Access Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal.