After being closed for 40 years, the Domus Tiberiana in the archaeological park of the Coliseum will reopen in the second half of 2021. The tour, the park’s director Alfonsina Russo said on Wednesday, will include a room that is currently being excavated, an ”intact location which has not been touched neither during excavation work at the end of the 1800s nor in the 1900s”.
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| Domus Tiberiana – View from the Regia area [Credit: Parco archeologico del Colosseo] |
Excavation work over the past few weeks has already revealed many things ”regarding the different periods during which this location was occupied”, said Russo.
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| The republican domus found on the western side of the hill during the last excavations [Credit: Parco archeologico del Colosseo] |
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| The pool discovered since 2005 in the Horti Farnesiani area [Credit: Parco archeologico del Colosseo] |
Work started on the first layer from the 1600s, relating to the Farnese family that perhaps used this place as a dump, then the 1200s, which a mass grave with the remains of an entire family, ”seven people perhaps killed by an epidemic or a traumatic event”, to then reach the 7th century with coins found there dating back to that century and, finally, the 4th century AD, with a ”lamp that is still intact, found inside a niche in the wall”, the director explained.
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| The paintings of the domus found on the western side [Credit: Parco archeologico del Colosseo] |
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| Detail of the wall mosaic that decorated one of the oldest houses incorporated in the Domus Tiberiana [Credit: Parco archeologico del Colosseo] |
The visit will start from Clivio della Vittoria from which several areas of the palace can be admired. The rooms, explained Russo, will be set up to showcase this once luxurious home – the ”everyday life, economy and the religion” of the great imperial palace erected by Tiberius on the western part of the Palatine Hill.
Source: ANSA Med [January 13, 2021]
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