Gabii

Summary overview

Gabii is an ancient city of Latium, located 18 km due east of Rome in central Italy. Located on the southeast side of the extinct volcanic crater of Castiglione, the site of Gabii is situated between the stream of the Fossa di San Giuliano to its east and the stream of the Osa to its west. To the south of the site is the line of the ancient Via Praenestina, a consular road of the Roman Republican period. The earlier road, known as the Via Gabina, connected Rome to Tibur. South of the line of the consular road lies another volcanic feature, the crater of Pantano, on whose northern extreme was a marshy area in antiquity.

History of excavations

The first 'excavation' known in the area of Gabii is the unscientific work of the art dealer and painter Gavin Hamilton (Hamilton 1901) in the late eighteenth century. Based on accounts in his own correspondence, Hamilton conducted excavations in the area of Gabii that recovered a large cache of high-quality Roman portrait sculpture and inscriptions. Hamilton believed he had excavated the forum of the city, as is reflected in a reconstructed plan published by E.Q. Visconti, but the matter is still debated (Visconti 1835). Many of Hamilton's 'finds' passed into the possession of the Borghese family at Rome and a number of pieces were relocated to the Louvre in Paris. For scientific excavation, we must fast forward to the twentieth century when excavations led by the Spanish Academy at Rome carried out extensive work on the sanctuary of Iuno Gabina located on the rim of the volcanic crater of Castiglione (Almagro Basch and Gorbea 1982). In the 1970s the site saw work on its 'eastern sanctuary' as well as field survey across the former urban area (Guaitoli 1981). A new field survey employing geophysics was carried out by the Gabii Project (University of Michigan) in 2007 and 2008, revealing the remains of an extensive system of quasi-orthogonal city streets beneath the surface (Becker, Mogetta, and Terrenato 2009). This survey served as the groundwork for an extensive series of excavations begun by Nicola Terrenato in 2009 and continuing. The excavations have revealed an almost one-hectare portion of the ancient city center. Other ongoing work at the site includes work of the local office of the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma focused on the areas known as the 'area urbana' and 'Hamilton's Forum', work by a German team interested in the city walls (Helas 2010), and work by Stefano Musco and Marco Fabbri on an archaic elite compound on the rim of the volcanic crater.

The Barrington Atlas Directory notes: Castiglione