Laboratorio archeologico via Appia Antica 39. Un paesaggio di confine tra la città e il Suburbio di Roma

The archaeological laboratory of the University of Ferrara, which is in the first extra-urban stretch of the ancient via Appia at the so-called tomb of Geta, investigates a crucial area of passage between the ancient city of Rome and its cultivated territory. The area was connoted with a religious and mythical sense in antiquity, but, at the same time, it is still unknown from an archaeological point of view. In any case, the laboratory does not have exclusively scientific purposes: the excavation site is deeply linked to the socio-political dynamics that characterise the area – which is currently in a heavy state of degradation aggravated by the illegal occupation of public plots of land – and is part of a wider project aimed at regenerating the urban area. In this sense, the active participation of the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods gravitating around the Appia Park becomes the key to a process of shared value assignment between archaeology and local communities. This participation is stimulated through social surveys and an unconventional enhancement of the site, through architectural and artistic planning dedicated to the area. The goal is the creation of a ‘heritage community’ directly involved in the processes of transformation, as well as in the planning and protection of an area that has remained too long forgotten. The first excavation campaign, which was designed based on the results of previous geophysical investigations, conducted with geomagnetic and ground penetrating radar instruments, brought to light a multi-layered burial context from the imperial era, with great archaeological potential.