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203 EXCAVATIONS AT SAN GIOVANNI, 1983 This is our seventh report to EMC on the excavations at San Giovanni. The site, which is located a little to the west of the watershed of the Lucanian Apennines 25 km northwest of Potenza and 3 km north of the village of Ruoti, was occupied by a series of villas for most of the period between the 1st century B. C. and the 6th century A. D. As the excavation has progressed the structural history of these buildings has gradually been clarified, and although analysis of the stratigraphy, still in progress, may yet lead to some minor revisions in dating, 1 we do not anticipate any major alterations in the interpretation of the building sequences. The date of the earliest structures is still a little problematical because of the fragmentary state of the remains and the lack of stratified material associated with them, but it seems most probable that they go back to the middle of the 1st century B. C. At the end of the 1st century B. C. or beginning of the 1st century A. D. much of this building was destroyed and a new structure, evidently a villa, built in its place. This was occupied without interruption until early in the 3rd century A. D. when it was abandoned for about 100 years. When it was reoccupied early in the 4th century, a substantial part of the structure rebuilt and modified. 2 The reconditioned villa lasted until ca. 500 A.D. when most of it was systematically demolished. 1The dates are derived from the study of the pottery by Joann Freed. 2An interim study of the early villa and the 4th century rebuilding was presented by Small to the 3rd Conference of Italian Archaeology, Cambridge, 5-8 January 1984, and will be published in the proceedings of the conference. 204 R. J. BUCK f, A. M. SMALL The much grander villa shown shaded on the plan (fig. 1) was built in its place. This late villa was constructed in at least four distinct phases. (i) In the fi rst, which must have followed the destruction of the previous villa almost immediately, the southern apsidal building and adjacent ranges were built (EMC XXVII 1983, 187-195). (ii) This was followed , probably after a brief interval, by the construction of a bath suite in the south east corner of the site (Rooms 42, 68, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83). (iii) At some time during the 3rd quarter of the 5th century the buildings in the northern half of the site were put up, and some alterations were made in the bath suite. This new building was partly made necessary by the collapse of the first apsidal hall in the south west corner. (iv) Subsequently various minor modifications were made to the buildings, some of them intended to reinforce the existing structures. The site ceased to be occupied in the 2nd quarter of the 6th century when the northern range of bui Idings was destroyed by fi re and the rest of the complex abandoned. In the 1983 season several different parts of the site were excavated. Some work was done in the ea rl ier vi lias in the western half of the site by students registered in the University of Alberta's summer course in practical methods in classical archaeology (Classics 475). This helped to clarify the development of these buildings. But most of the excavation took place in the late vi Ila, in three distinct (a) in the south east corner of the lower apsidal building (Room 70 on the plan); (b) in the southern passageway (Area 65) and in two of the rooms adjacent to it (Rooms 62 and 64); and (c) in the bath suite which was excavated with the help of six workmen from Ruoti, several of whom have been working for us since the beginning of the dig. (a) Room 70: The excavation here helped to unravel the complicated history of the structures in this part of the site. The north wall of the room goes back to the 4th century villa, but the room as a whole was created in the rebuilding of...

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