L’attività del Parco Valle dei Templi al Quartiere Ellenistico Romano. Le ricerche del 2014

The so-called ‘Quartiere Ellenistico-Romano’ is a part of the ancient settlement of the city of Agrigento where the archaeological excavations were focused as early as the second half of the 19th century. Recent surveys by the ‘Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temple’ was able to collect useful information to a better understanding and definition of the phases of construction, life and abandonment of some domus. New surveys were carried out in Insulae 1 and 4. In the Insula 4, a new area were brought to light some areas relevant to a thermal complex, the first known in the Roman Agrigentum. It is not clear whether it is to be interpreted as a public structure or as a rich private domus and when it was built but it was probably abandoned in the half of 5th century BCE. In the Early Medieval Period some rooms are reoccupied. In the Insula 1, the excavation shows the complexity of the stratification and the transformations of the site between the Late Republican period, when the area of the I C House was occupied by a rich domus with frescoes, and the late antiquity which sees the emergence of a workshops. It was able to acquire new data for the chronological definition of the phases and, at the same time, to clarify the functional use of the East side of the House and in particular of the ‘s’ room. Ernesto De Miro considers the room as a kitchen for the presence at the corner of a quarter circle shaped structure interpreted as a oven. After the 2014 Excavation it is clear that the room was a workshop probably for the production of olive oil. The presence of a workshop into the IC House, very close to the public area of the city, allows us to hypothesize others productive activities located into the housing settlement and open up new perspectives in the study of the district.