Progetto "archeologia urbana a Senigallia" I: le ricerche di via Cavallotti

The first rescue excavations in the historic center of Senigallia began in October 2010, in connection with the project ‘Urban Archaeology at Senigallia’. During the work of reconstruction of an eighteenth century building geophysical investigation was undertaken of its ground levels, followed by an excavation in which numerous structure attributable to the Roman colony of Sena Gallica (284-3 B.C.) came to light. A complex orthogonal network of walls, emerged, defining at least four rooms, within which were created at different times at least two wells and some functional structures, including the preparation for a torcular in brick and clay. These structures all appear to date from the III century B.C. The cardinal orientation of the walls allows some interesting hypotheses about the urban topography, which, in the later Roman phase, was oriented northeast-southwest. But the most surprising discovery was that of an earlier settlement, below the Roman structures. Almost obliterated by the later buildings, it had the same orientation, and is dated by the material found to the V—IV century B.C. The settlement is probably to be attributed to the Picene culture.