An entire Roman town has been unearthed by archaeologists in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire’s decline.
A research team led by the University of Cambridge uncovered the remains of a roofed theatre, a market, and a river port under what is now largely crop fields in Southern Lazio.
The study suggests Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began 300 years later than previously thought – with analysis of pottery at the site indicating it resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD.
Originally founded as a Roman colony in the 4th century BC the town it was abandoned around the year 500 CE. It was scavenged for building materials and, over time, its remains were completely lost from view. Until recently, the site was an uninterrupted stretch of farmland, with no recognizable archaeological features.
In 2022 researchers successfully produced the first images of the ancient site, using geophysical methods that allowed them to look beneath the surface of the earth and map the layout of the entire settlement, which spans 25 hectares.
Roman town was a bustling economic and social centre
The resulting pictures have already thrown up a few surprises. Earlier scholars had previously imagined that the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas was something of a sleepy backwater, but the large marketplace and theatre instead suggest that it was a bustling economic and social centre in its own right.
At its peak, the town is believed to have housed 2,000 people.
“We started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it,” said Dr Alessandro Launaro, the study’s author and Interamna Lirenas Project lead at Cambridge’s Classics Faculty.
“We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years.
“We’re not just saying that this town was special – it’s far more exciting than that.
“We think many other average Roman towns in Italy were just as resilient. It’s just that archaeologists have only recently begun to apply the right techniques and approaches to see this.”
He added: “Based on the relative lack of imported pottery, archaeologists have assumed that Interamna Lirenas was a declining backwater.
“We now know that wasn’t the case.”
The research team conducted a series of digs and carried out a magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of about 60 acres.
The survey near the River Liri revealed the presence of a large warehouse of 40 metres by 12 metres, a temple and a bath complex.
The researchers are confident that these structures served a river port between the late first century BC and the fourth century AD.