Unearthed in Rome’s New Subway: Extinct Elephants and Persian Peach Pits
- 6 years ago
Unearthed in Rome’s New Subway: Extinct Elephants and Persian Peach Pits
At the San Giovanni station, which is expected to open early next year, archaeologists found bits of ancient capitals, decorative marble elements, petrified peach pits from ancient Persian cuttings
and 16th-century terra-cotta plates from a nearby hospital.
So it seems apt that a modern engineering achievement — the construction of a new subway line in the city
— has given archaeologists a unique opportunity to study this ancient world in extraordinary detail.
A certain amount of documentation exists from the Line B excavations, Ms. Rea noted, "but we don’t have anything from Line A." A glimpse of what may have been lost underground was captured by the
imagination of the director Federico Fellini, whose 1972 film "Roma" includes a segment about the building of the subway in which roomfuls of frescoes disintegrate when they are exposed to air.
Naples, by contrast, has been featuring renowned contemporary artists in its subway system to create what one critic described as a "catacomb of beauty."
When the station was opened to the public for one day last April, the response was overwhelming, a sign that Romans are keen to rediscover their past.
At one of the sites last December, Ms. Morretta came across tracts of one of Rome’s oldest aqueducts, which is now being studied.
Another significant find was a military barracks from the second century, found during
the construction of the Amba Aradam station, which is expected to open in 2022.
At the San Giovanni station, which is expected to open early next year, archaeologists found bits of ancient capitals, decorative marble elements, petrified peach pits from ancient Persian cuttings
and 16th-century terra-cotta plates from a nearby hospital.
So it seems apt that a modern engineering achievement — the construction of a new subway line in the city
— has given archaeologists a unique opportunity to study this ancient world in extraordinary detail.
A certain amount of documentation exists from the Line B excavations, Ms. Rea noted, "but we don’t have anything from Line A." A glimpse of what may have been lost underground was captured by the
imagination of the director Federico Fellini, whose 1972 film "Roma" includes a segment about the building of the subway in which roomfuls of frescoes disintegrate when they are exposed to air.
Naples, by contrast, has been featuring renowned contemporary artists in its subway system to create what one critic described as a "catacomb of beauty."
When the station was opened to the public for one day last April, the response was overwhelming, a sign that Romans are keen to rediscover their past.
At one of the sites last December, Ms. Morretta came across tracts of one of Rome’s oldest aqueducts, which is now being studied.
Another significant find was a military barracks from the second century, found during
the construction of the Amba Aradam station, which is expected to open in 2022.