Preservation in situ and urban stratigraphy. The Trajan’s Forum in Rome,

The historical area of Trajan’s Forum presents all of the complexity of historical stratifications and, in parallel, the damages suffered by an area of significant archaeological and urban importance, resulting from numerous interventions undertaken with little or no care, and often without precise programmes or suitable projects. The campaign of excavations, carried out between 1998 and 2000, redirected attention to a number of overlapping, post-classical structures of significant historical interest, built over the course of the centuries and demolished during the previous century in the name of excavations or the isolation of monuments. While this intervention maintained the Via dei Fori Imperiali, it completely eroded the areas adjacent to it, further reducing the connective fabric between the few surviving ‘modern’ monuments, drawing attention to the vaster issue related both to the future use of these enormous ‘gaps’, and their connection with the historical city. The conclusion of this recent phase of excavations and the episodic and improvised organisation of the excavated areas themselves, together with the partial in situ conservation of a series of post-classical structures, represents an attempt to propose a diachronic reading of the city’s urban development. This essay will attempt to highlight the multidisciplinary dimension that must characterise the preservation of the urban environment. Is it correct to consider the completion of an excavation as the conclusive moment of a phase of research? Is it possible that the isolation that continues to characterise the individual areas investigated has, on the contrary, rendered vane the original intention of creating a spatial continuity between the open spaces of the Imperial Era, even though, in the presence of further sedimentations, they now represent the prevailing historical facies? The numerous critical elements that characterise this issue constitute the principal objective of the study, whose aim is that of providing, by examining a concrete example, keys for analysis and suggestions for future research.