Excavations at Vagnari 2017 Maureen Carroll Since 2012, our excavations at the Roman imperial estate at Vagnari in Puglia (Fig. 1) have concentrated on the northern edge of the village (vicus) of the estate where we have explored a large tile-roofed and stone-built structure (North Building) about 25 m in length, part of another large structure to the south (South Building), and a winery or cella vinaria Fig. 1. Location of Vagnari (red dot) in south-east Italy (Puglia, ancient Apulia). (Fig. 2). These buildings were in use in the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries A.D., but some of them were considerably older, particularly around the South Building and east of it. The primary focus of fieldwork in summer 2017 was to clarify the chronology of the earliest phase of the imperial village and to investigate settlement evidence predating the acquisition of the land by the emperor. The existence of a settlement pre-dating the establishment of the vicus is indicated by the presence of two circular storage pits (Fig. 2, blue) cut into the natural clay and chalk which had been used secondarily to dispose of animal bones, loom weights, iron objects, and pottery, the latter dating from the 2 nd to the mid-1 st century B.C. In some places, sherds of grey gloss pottery, dating to the second half of the 2 nd and the 1 st century B.C., was retrieved immediately above the natural soil. It is not possible to assign any definite building remains to this phase of occupation. The theme of storage continues in the next phase of the site, the period in which the territory of Vagnari almost certainly came into imperial hands. At least nine storage pits dug into the natural soil are attested (Fig. 2, red), several of them in alignment along walls. Three probable post-holes were also revealed. The ceramics in the fill Fig. 2. The excavated vicus buildings, 2012 2017. The highlighted features pertain to the excavations in 2016 and 2017. Blue storage pits, 2nd 1st century B.C. Red storage pits and postholes, early 1st century A.D. Green stone walls, early 1st century A.D. Purple stone-built drain, 1st century A.D. Turquoise stone wall, 1st century A.D. Brown base of a robbed out stone drain, 1st century A.D. Pink stone drain, 1st century A.D. Orange dolia (dark orange), robbed-out dolia (light orange), late 1st early 2nd century A.D.? Yellow brick-built drain, 2nd century A.D.?
although they do not join up and it is unclear what the building was to which they belonged. Both walls were later added to (with much less careful masonry) or had poorly constructed walls abutting them, indicating that the original building served as the core of later extensions and additions. Other relatively early features excavated in 2017 include incomplete stretches of a further stone wall and stone-built drains. A southwest northeast orientated stone wall (Fig. 2, turquoise) survived in two foundation courses; it was built over two Augustan storage pits (Fig. 5). Fig. 3. The remains of two regional red slip plates (ca. 50 B.C. A.D. 50) at the bottom of a storage pit. of these pits suggest that this first phase of the imperial vicus dates to the early 1st century A.D., very possibly the reign of Augustus (Fig. 3). Not only these pits contained pottery of this date. Soil deposits directly underlying the floor of the cella vinaria also contained this material, indicating that the vicus extended further to the west and that the winery must be of later date. In addition, sherds of Italian terra sigillata (ca. 50 B.C. A.D. 50) found in the fill of a construction cut of a stone wall on the eastern edge of the excavated area (Fig. 2, green) give us a good indication that in the Augustan period buildings with stone foundations were being erected in the new vicus. This northwest southeast orientated wall, and another with a southwest northeast alignment, are both shown in green in Fig. 2 (see also Fig. 4). They are very carefully constructed with well-mortared sandstone blocks on a levelling layer of rubble or sand on the bottom of the construction cut. They are virtually identical and belong to the same phase, Fig. 4 View from the east of a well-built wall of the early first century A.D. (see Fig. 2, green). Note the later poorly built extension on the right (north). Fig. 5 Once stones from the foundation of this robbed out wall (Fig. 2, turquoise) were removed, an Augustan storage pit (at the end of the wall, dark circle) was revealed. View from the southeast. The three uncovered drains have a slightly different orientation (southwest northeast and west east), and they are constructed differently and are not situated at the same depth. One of these drains (Fig. 2, brown) was built over an Augustan storage pit and was, in turn, cut by the later construction pit for a mortar basin containing a wine dolium in the winery floor. The drain was made with a broad base of flat and even stones on which the walls of the drain were laid. The flat stones, therefore, served both as a foundation for the drain walls and as the paving of the drain floor. The addition of the winery and the insertion of dolia in its floor (Fig. 2, orange) not only interrupted this drain, but also a second one to the west (Fig. 2, pink). This latter drain, inserted into deposits of the early 1st century A.D., was built by erecting stone walls and then paving the floor in between with irregular, mortared stones. A short stretch of this drain was excavated in 2013; it sloped to the west. A third drain (Fig. 2, purple; Fig. 6) abuts the wall of early 1st century date to the east of it, and so it must
This predates the establishment of the vicus of the imperial estate. In the early 1st century A.D., new buildings with well-built walls were erected; deposits containing material of the early 1st century A.D. are found in the western and eastern part of the excavated area. Also of Augustan date is the material retrieved from a series of storage pits, although it is unknown how much time had elapsed between the opening of the pits and their backfilling with refuse. At any rate, the pits attest to a storage system, an important feature for the vicus, the administrative and distributive centre of an imperial estate. Fig. 6. Stone wall of the early 1st century A.D. (top of photo) abutted by stone drain (right, purple on Fig. 2) that was blocked up, with water diverted to a brick drain (left, yellow on Fig. 2). View from the west. At a slightly later date, alterations to the settlement took place, with a stone wall and a stone drain being built over the storage pits. Diagnostic artefactual evidence allows us to determine approximate chronological parameters for this phase. The pottery from the underlying storage pit indicates that the wall is post-augustan (Fig. 5). It was later dismantled, and a bronze coin of Vespasian (issued by Titus) was found on top of the remains of its foundations, indicating that the building to which the wall belonged was taken down after A.D. 74. This may be the period in which the winery was added to the vicus, the basins for the dolia having cut through two drains of the 1st century A.D. and making them obsolete (Fig. 2, orange). Fig. 7. The walls of the stone drain (here removed) rested on a bed of pebbles (see Fig. 2, purple); the drain floor consisted of flat stones. have drained water and waste from the building to which the wall belonged and directed it to the west. The walls of the drain were built on top of a flat foundation of pebbles, and the drain floor was paved with flat stone slabs (Fig. 7). This drain was later blocked, and a new brick-built branch of the drain then diverted water to the north and further down the slope (Fig. 2, yellow). Parts of this brick drain were excavated in other trenches in 2012 and 2015. Chronological Overview We now have a relative sequence of events which allows us tentatively to propose several phases of activity on the site. Occupation of the site in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. is attested by the storage pits filled with refuse and by the pottery found in various locations immediately above the natural subsoil. Fig. 8 Irregular hole cut into the mortar floor of the winery to remove a dolium. View from the south. It is not yet clear precisely how long the winery was in use, but, at some point, some of the dolia were either completely removed or smashed, leaving only the base or the bottom third of the vessel in place (Fig. 8). Our work in 2017, therefore, has shed light not only on the earliest phases of occupation at Vagnari, but also on the end of the settlement and the robbing and final destruction of it.
Whilst we assumed in 2016 that an earthy deposit with patches of ash and charcoal that overlay the natural clay and chalk was the remains of a beaten earth floor of early date, it is now clear that this deposit represents a later destruction horizon. It is in this deposit that the fragmentary slabs of marble paving and the window glass were found, along with iron objects, and large quantities of pottery, including complete bowls (Fig. 9; see earlier reports). The pottery of this horizon, in fact, generally dates to the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., and fragments of pottery of mid-5th century date in the fill of a robber trench of a stone wall indicate clearly that vicus structures were being quarried for their stone and building materials, almost certainly for the new, smaller village that was established at this time on the other side of the ravine, as excavations by the University of Foggia in 2001/2002 indicated. The pottery mixed with the backfill and the smashed dolia in the former winery was not copious, but it confirms that in the late 4th and 5th centuries A.D. there were salvage operations ongoing in the vicus. the exploitation of territories following the Roman conquest (see Appian, Civil War 1.7)? A further aim of future fieldwork will be to determine how the economy of the Roman imperial estate was diversified with a wide range of industrial and agricultural activities for the profit of the emperors. A particular focus, with funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, is the study of the dolia from the Vagnari winery and the export and trade networks between eastern Italy and the Adriatic basin. Project Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/ research/vagnari Acknowledgements I should like to thank the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia for the excavation permit and Dr. Mario de Gemmis-Pellicciari for permission to work on his land. The British School at Rome was a valuable partner in supporting this research. I warmly thank the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust for funding the work on the dolia and wine production; the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies and the Rust Family Foundation for work on excavated materials; and the University of Sheffield for its support. I would like to thank also my fieldwork director, Jonathan Moulton, and the assistant supervisor and finds registrar, Kelsey Madden, for their invaluable input. I am grateful to Coralie Clover for her assessment of the ceramics as well as Matt Fig. 9 Several whole bowls and lids, along with window glass, were found in the destruction horizon. Outlook In the next field season, we will be opening trenches to explore more of the earliest settlement phases and to investigate the southern, thus far unexcavated, part of the winery. It will remain an important research aim to determine the relationship between the early and later phases of the settlements, to what extent a change in ownership from private(?) to imperial proprietors affected the developing settlement. Might the pre-imperial settlement here be the result of the (not always lawful) acquisition of public land (ager publicus) by powerful elites and senatorial families from Rome who grew rich on The 2017 Vagnari Vicus team (from left): Molly Stevens, Kelsey Madden, Jonathan Moulton, Nick Travaglini, Nicole Phillips, Tom Rose, Madeleine Nelson, Colby Lorenz, Amy Brogan, Brianna Sands, Wayne Oldfield.
Stirn and Rebecca Sgouros for their work on the archaeobotanical material. Last, but certainly not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to the students and volunteers from the UK, Canada, the U.S.A., and Australia who worked enthusiastically on the site. Bibliography M. Carroll (2014), Vagnari 2012: New Work in the vicus by the University of Sheffield, in A.M. Small (ed.), Beyond Vagnari. New Themes in the Study of Roman South Italy. Bari: Edipuglia, 79-88 M. Carroll (2016), Vagnari. Is this the winery of Rome s greatest landowner?, Current World Archaeology 76: 30-33 M. Carroll and T. Prowse (2014), Exploring the vicus and the necropolis at the Roman Imperial estate at Vagnari (Comune di Gravina in Puglia, Provincia di Bari, Regione Puglia), Papers of the British School at Rome 82: 353-356 M. Carroll and T. Prowse (2016), Research at the Roman Imperial Estate at Vagnari, Puglia (Comune di Gravina in Puglia, Provincia di Bari, Regione Puglia), Papers of the British School at Rome 84: 333-336 T. Prowse and M. Carroll (2015), Research at Vagnari (Comune di Gravina in Puglia, Provincia di Bari, Regione Puglia), Papers of the British School at Rome 83: 324-326