Assonet - Underwater Archaeology

ROMAN VILLAS

by Mario Mazzoli - A.S.S.O. - published on MONDO SOMMERSO - 1993, February

The Albano or Castel Gandolfo lake is the crater of an ancient volcano which, in addition to the waters which fill it, houses the remains of ancient civilazations. It is situated in the province of Rome, at an altitude of three hundred metres, on the Colli Albani hills and it has an elliptical shape and a surface area of about six square kilometres. The name, Lacus Albanus in ancient times apparently derived from the city of Albalonga which was situated in the neighbourhood. With a perimeter of ten kilometres and a known maximum depth of one hundred and seventy metres, the lake is part of an area of romantic beauty and extraordinary archaelogical importance where, it is said, the Roman civilization began. It is very near to another lake which is inseparably linked with the history of rome and which is adored by students of naval architecture and underwater archaelogy: Nemi.

On the Albano and Nemi lakes naumachie were held which were spectacles introduced by Caesar in 46 BC, representing naval battles. The latter were held as late as 1661 by Alexander VII. Remains can frequently be seen of ancient structures which were scattered all over the area of the lake and the Albani Hills; in particular, some villas were built on the shores. However, the effluent of the lake, excavated by the Romans at the beginning of the 4th century BC, is among the most important works. The Romans horizontally penetrated the creater of the volcano with the intention of keeping the level of the lake below a certain level, even if legend dates its construction back to a prophesy by the Delphian oracle which stated that Veio would be taken by the Romans only when the waters of the lake reached the sea.

It is within this context that, during the entire 1991-1992 winter, our group from ASSO carried out some underwater archaelogical research in an area which proved worthy of the maximum consideration. It was indivituated during visual prospecting of the area carried out by oure Marco Vitelli and Riccardo Zampieri. After Vitelli.s report, a request was sent to the Latium Archaelogical Monuments Service, in the person of Ms. Maria Luisa Veloccia, for permission to carry out research work. She once again demonstrated her trust in us and enabled us to extensively prospect the area.

Right from the first immersions, we realized that the finds were very complex. Leaving aside the cold and the poor visibility, we found it necessary to clear a rather large area before seeing or tracing anything. As is the custom of ASSO, we began by activating the O of "Organization" in our initials; we assessed a need for about fifteen divers a day and fixed logistical and reference structures, electricity, etc.

As on other occasions, operative solutions came about, opening up other relities for us. This would seem normal but it does not happen all that frequently. Jealousy among organizations, conflicts of interests, the precise responsibility which the Monuments and Fine Arts Service assigns to the older of the permit, a person and not an association, constitute only a few of the deterrents against various structures collaborating together.

In this case our main collaborators were: Alta Marea, underwater club well-established in the Castelli Romani area, which we had been acquainted with for some time abnd which had proved willing to support operations of this type; the Castel Gandolfo Council thick, thamks to the architect, Mr. Fiandesio, concerned itself with logistical support (pipes, yard hut, electricity link, immersion interdiction, administrative problems, etc.); and Luca Mercatucci, who is studyng for a degree in archaelogy and who jioned us in the surveys and bibliographical studies.

After visual prospecting carried out over an area measuring three hundred and fifty metres, we concentrated on the part which seemed to us to be the most significant. We cleared away the refuse which inevitably bedecked it and, after having verified that we were not damaging the environment in any way, we removed the seaweed, which was about four metres high and covered the sea bed between the bathymetric depths of - 1 and - 6 metres.

The waste disposal operation lasted three weekends which was followed by setting out the underwater corridors with nylon ropes, moorings and buoys, with the purpose of assigning very precise working areas to each couple of divers who, working with the breast line method, positioned everything they came across, reporting the data on pre-printed polyester A4 format cards.

This organizational choice was established by various fatctors, such as scarce visibility, the extremely variable level of the sea bed, the frequency of archaelogical finds, even though fragmented, and the need to have a refernce structure fo the three-dimensional items inside the field and irradiation outside the field. the positionig of the datum points and the main archaelogical points was carried out with the assistance of a topographical station, "bringing up to the surface" the points necessary for linking underwater and surface surveys. This resulted in a rectangle measuring 80 x 50 metres divided up into 15 corridors measuring 5 x 50 metres which stretched from - 1 to a maximum of - 24 metres.

The area had also been covered with a Garrett XL 500 Pulse metal detector, presented to us by the official importer, EB Elettronica of Montaletto di Cervia, as we were acting as sponsor. Bearing in mind the volcanic nature of the land, we did not expect exciting results but, also thanks to the possibility of zeroing the instrument, "demineralizing" the land, we traced some pieces of metal. Unfortunately none of these could be defined as archaelogical because they were barrel rings, pieces of cars, metal refuse and a diver's lead belt.

After a thorough survey we carried out some sounding, using a water-driven suction pipe, designed and made by Bernardino Rocchi, which confirmed the presence of archaelogical building material, essentially from the Imperial period, such as oil jars, tiles, antefixes and marble fragments. Some finds, positioned and photographed on site, were removed from the sea bed and deposited in the Marble Laboratory of the Archaelogical Monuments Service for Latium at Villa Adriana (Tivoli) for cleaning and studying.

The remains of a life-size marble statue of a man stood out amongst these finds as well as a right fore-arm and hand in marble, some antefixes with "palmette" and a woman's face, parts of brickwork and foundations, some piece of columns; which could all be dated back to around the first Imperial period. Some seals were found on building material; for example, a tile is marked:

(..)AE BAX

and an oil jar is marked:

(.).EVI BA.

It can be understood from the site, after this preliminary intervention, that is an important structure which has never before been surveyed and which would seem to date back to the first Imperial period. We say "would" because a large part of the material refers to that period but there is no lack of Republican items and fragments of archaic ceramics.

Everything we found is now being studied by the Archaelogical Monuments Service for Latium and constitutes only the starting point for later campaigns. The next work should in fact, better define this complex underwater reality, in the hope that it can be carried out by leaving the equipment and buoys on site.
This last aspect seems to be marginal but, in terms of productivity, it becomes substantial. Finding the ropes of surface buoys cut and having to assemble and dismantle the suction pipe every time, noticing traces of the deposit having been mishandled certainly does not make for serene and productive work.

We also discussed this at an "off.the -cuff" meeting called by Mr. Mocchegiani Carpano (Assistant Director STAS, Technical Underwater Archaelogical Service) at the Ministry for Cultural Assets. We had confirmation from him and the Carabineri police that very close surveillance will be carried out on the lake so that protection of the patrimony is also an operational reality visible to everyone. In no uncertain manner ASSO is counting on this direct protection and on the strenghtening of checks because, only in this way, can we hope that the study, carried out over a large area, could be a feasible reality with the productivity and serenity its derserves.

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