The archaeological area of the ancient city of Gabii (Gabina) near Rome is located about 20 kilometers from Rome, at the 12th mile of the ancient Via Prenestina, on the southern edge of the Castiglione crater, an eccentric body of the Alban Hills complex occupied until the end of the 19th century by a volcanic lake known as “lacus Buranus or Sanctae Praxedis” or also as Lake Castiglione.
The ancient center of Gabii fits into the scenario of the great Latin centers at the time of Rome’s birth and ranks, together with Tibur and Praeneste, among the cities that controlled the lower Aniene valley and the accesses to the Sacco and Liri valleys, and as such, constituted a political and cultural epicenter of fundamental importance in Latium vetus.
In such a context, the remains of the ancient city assume an importance derived from the sacredness of these places, closely connected with Latin civilization, within which lies the birth of Rome itself.
Gabii also constitutes one of the most significant and important archaeological sites in the territory of the Municipality of Rome, and a large sector of this area, including part of the ancient urban center and some of its most direct dependencies—covering about 70 hectares—has been acquired by the State Property and assigned for use to the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Rome in order to realize a suburban archaeological park.
The site of Gabii, due to its characteristics, represents today an extraordinary research context. From past excavations, it is possible to note that beneath the farmland soil, the main structures and buildings of the ancient city are still largely preserved. In fact, after the site’s abandonment in the mid-11th century, the area—used for agricultural purposes—has not been subject to construction or transformation interventions, which in other areas have irreparably erased traces of past settlements.
Therefore, the design of a targeted investigation program can allow the acquisition of new information about the urban history of the Roman era with certain impacts also on the knowledge of the settlement history of Rome itself (the urban history of Gabii, at least until the mid-Republican age, seems to mirror that of the Urbs).
