Nuove ricerche nel territorio di Civitavecchia. Un progetto per Aquae Tauri

Inspired by the surveys carried out by the ‘Società Storica Civitavecchiese’ at La Ficoncella, in the territory of Civitavecchia, in 2016 the ‘Soprintendenza ai beni culturali’ involved in the research the Universities of Bologna and Rome Sapienza. In 2017, thanks to the contribution of the Municipality of Civitavecchia, archaeological investigations started, under the direction of the University of Bologna with the collaboration of the University of Roma Sapienza and the support of local institutions and associations. This initiative, called Acheloous Project, is a unique opportunity to review the knowledge about Civitavecchia and its surroundings, a territory that in last decades has been subjected to works that have deeply changed its feature, and for which an overview is still lacking. Here we present a synthesis of the knowledge and the first results of the research, starting from a reflection about the city center of Civitavecchia and its port up to the late Antiquity, and from a re-reading of the written sources in comparison with the archaeological and topographical data. We also present the results of the remote sensing, diagnostics and archaeological excavations in the site that the historiography refers to the territory of Aquae Tauri, a center that would be reduced in relation to the progressive development of Centumcellae during Roman times. The archaeological prospections and excavations in the area show the great potential of this site, characterized by the presence of hot and healthy waters.