Skip to content Skip to navigation

Navigation

Mutina Archaeological Park Panels

Mutina Archaeological Park Panels  - English Version

Welcome to the Archaeological Park of Mutina

which – along with the City Park – occupies the space inside the 19th-century horseracing track in Modena.

This is currently the only place in the city where you can see the remains of the ancient town of Mutina in their original context.

The Roman structures were brought to light during the building works on what is now an underground carpark.

CaptionThe archaeological excavation was conducted under the scientific direction of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara (formerly the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Emilia-Romagna).

 

The Mutina Archaeological Park

was created by taking apart and piecing together Roman archaeological remains from the ground level, buried by alluvial deposits and found some five metres below the surface.

Almost all the structures now on display are placed in the exact same position in which they were unearthed.

The Park lies along the ancient pebble road that linked Modena and Mantua.

Alongside it, numerous burial sites may be seen, as well as the remains of two rural buildings and a tank for breeding fish.

On the first underground level of the carpark (level -1), amphorae are on display, retrieved from ancient waste pits.

Caption: The archaeological excavation was carried out by Cooperativa Archeologia of Florence and AR/S Archeosistemi of Reggio Emilia from 2009 to 2011. The Archaeological Park project was undertaken by Modena City Council - Museo Civico from 2011 to 2012, and the Park was opened on 21 July 2012.

 

The archaeological excavation

The archaeological excavation was one of the biggest in Italy: 23,000 square metres of surface and over 7 metres in depth.

Here, according to historical sources, archaeological findings had already been brought to light.

1635
During excavations to build the Citadel (the fortified barracks of the d’Este army), a section of road built with large river stones, flanked by sarcophagi, funerary stelae and monuments came to light. Some of these are now on display in the Museo Lapidario Estense.

Second half of the 19th century
During works to build the horseracing track, a number of the graves from 1630 came to light, attributed to the graveyard built to accommodate plague victims.

 

Stratigraphy

The excavation brought to light some 2,500 years of history, from the Iron Age right up to the Modern Age.

In the Modern Age (approx. - 175 cm)
A cemetery dating back to the plague of 1630 was found in the north-west part of the park.

In the Middle Ages (approx. - 270 cm)
From the 6th to the 13th century, there are no traces of human presence. From 1245, a part of the area hosted the monastery of the Hermits, which the friars abandoned at the start of the 14th century to move to where the church of St Augustine now stands.

In the Roman Age (approx. - 530 cm)
During the Republican era (2nd–1st century BC), the road to Mantua was built. Along its sides were burial sites and drainage ditches. Further along, water flows were regulated by a channelling system. Over the course of the Imperial era (1st–2nd century AD) two buildings for productive activities were added as well as artificial waste pits full of amphorae.

 Before the Romans - Etruscan Age (Approx. - 630 cm); Iron Age (Approx. - 750 cm)
The area was partly woodland, used only occasionally for agricultural purposes.

 

The Roman road

The road linked Mutina to Mantua, and was strategic in reaching the northern provinces of the Roman Empire. It was abandoned around the 5th century AD.

The unearthed roadbed is 118 metres long, and is made up of large river stones: you can still see the ruts left in them by the cartwheels. Along the sides of the road, the walkways and drainage ditches have been reconstructed.

 

Dismantling and reassembly of the road

The Roman road was reconstructed on the surface, piece by piece.

  1. A laser survey made it possible to map out the position of each stone.
  2. The stones were numbered one by one, and placed in large wooden boxes corresponding to specific segments of the roadbed.
  3. Each stone was then repositioned on the surface in the exact place it was found.

Today you can walk along the very same road that, 2,000 years ago, carried carts heading to Mantua.

 

On the outskirts of Mutina

In Roman times, this was the western outskirts of Mutina, beyond the town walls.

The landscape was characterised by an expanse of cultivated fields and rural buildings along the road to Mantua, at the edge of which stood the necropolis.

Large drainage ditches collected waste from urban activities. The agrarian landscape featured ditches and canals, but also pastures, vineyards and willow trees, which were useful as support for the vines.

Caption: Mutina, a reconstruction of the urban landsacpe. Reconstructive drawing by Riccardo Merlo.

 

Productive activities

The structures uncovered in this area belonged to suburban constructions used for productive purposes.

Activities related to agriculture, vine cultivation, sheep farming and animal husbandry were carried out here. This is testified by some of the remains you can see in the park:

—           the rural buildings, of which the perimeter walls may be seen

—           the circular tank used to breed fish for consumption

—           a rectangular structure buried in the ground where manure would be gathered (midden) with which to fertilise crops.

An entrepreneur from Mutina
Farming was one of the most widely practised and profitable activities at the time. Thanks to his profession as a textile entrepreneur, Lucius Rubrius Stabilion the First was able to enjoy a certain degree of wealth, as shown by the monumentality of his funerary stele, and to join the association of the Apollinares: a major college concerned with the Imperial cult.

The stele was located in the necropolis along the Via Emilia, at the junction with Via Pelusia.

It is currently on display in the Roman Lapidary section of the Civic Museum (Palazzo dei Musei).

 

Rural constructions: the north-east building

The foundations of two rural constructions were found in the park area.

The square-brick pillars belonged to part of a building dedicated to production activities. They formed the base for a porticoed roof: a stable or perhaps a barn.

 The building dates back to between the 1st and 4th century AD.
Over the years, it was rebuilt several times. It also had a residential part decorated with stuccos, plaster and mosaic floors.

 The pillars
Each row consisted of four bricks placed around a smaller central square one.

 

Rural constructions: the south-east building

 The foundations of three rooms, marked out by pillars supporting a portico or canopy roof, remain from this building.

According to surveys, this building was constructed in the middle of the 1st century AD, and enlarged over the following century.

 

The necropolis from the Imperial Age

As in every Roman city, tombs lined the main roads outside the town walls in Mutina.

The funerary monuments displayed along the road to Mantua date back to the first century AD.

The tombs were placed each within a fenced patch of land, 11–20 m2 in size. 

The measurements of burial plots were often engraved on stones or included in the funerary inscription. The stele of Cnaeus Nonius Philocrates, for instance, shows the pedatura (‘footage’), i.e. the measurements of ownership of the burial area, in fronte (along the road) and in agro (towards the countryside).

Epigraph:
IN FR(onte)P(edes)XII IN AG(ro)P(edes)XIV

The burial area measures 12 feet (around 3.60 m) at the front, and 14 feet (around 4.20 m) towards the countryside.

 

Stories of the ancient Mutinenses

The inscriptions engraved on the funerary monuments tell glimpses of the lives of the ancient Modenese. Mostly freedmen and freedwomen were buried here, former slaves set free by their masters or thanks to the proceeds of their occupation.

  1. Stele base
  2. Lucius Muttienus Priscus dedicated this stele to his companion Baebia Prisca, to two of her children, Verecundus and Priamis, and to the freedmen and women of the family.
  3. Publius Domitius Docilis was a freedman, probably in search of greater visibility, of whom we know nothing else.
  4. Maria Sperata put down the stele for herself, her patron and companion Publius Marius Fuscus and for their children Oriens and Prima. (copy)
  5. Marcus Albius Labeo was born a free man. He was not originally from Mutina, as the inscription states he was a member of a tribe, i.e. an electoral district different from that assigned to the Mutinenses. (copy)
  6. Statius Gavidius Primus was a freedman whose wife, Magia Maxima, was instead born free.
  7. Quintus Ferronius Maius was the freedman of a woman.
  8. Sepunia Secunda, born free, dedicated the stele to herself and her brother Titus Sepunius Postumus, a centurion of the Legio XV Apollinaris, stationed in Pannonia.
  9. Sextus Peducaeus Eutychus was one of the wealthiest freedmen and the author of a dedication to his favourite slave (delicium): the only figure of whom there is still also a portrait. (copy)
  1. A couple of anonymous memorials stating the measurements of the funerary patch. (copy)
  2. Cnaeus Nonius Philocrates was a freedman of the gens Nonia, very influent in Mutina insofar as they were linked to the production and trade of wool and fabrics.

Caption: Portrait on the stele of Sesto Peduceo Eutycho (No. 9).

 

The late-antique necropolis

The Imperial age necropolis was gradually abandoned from the 3rd century AD. Along the roadside, other burial sites found their place, grouped perhaps by family nuclei.

 In Late Antiquity, with the rise of Christianity, new burial practices spread. Christian burials became commonplace, characterised by the rite of inhumation and the use of different types of burial structures, especially coffins and sarcophagi made from re-used material and suitable for accommodating more than one corpse.

 

The reuse of materials

Almost all of the stelae displayed in the Park and lined up on the eastern side of the road, according to a hypothetical reconstruction of the necropolis from the Imperial era, had been dismantled and relocated horizontally so as to cover other tombs.

On the other side of the road, a set of tombs from the Late Antique period was reconstructed as found in the excavation, in which the stele of Sextus Peduceus Eutycho and that of Cnaeus Nonius Philocrates (copies) were reused as covers.

Caption: A number of burials from the Late Antique period reusing funeral stelae from the Imperial period. The monuments are displayed in the Archaeological Park in the exact location they were found.

 

Welcome to the Archaeological Park of Mutina

which – along with the City Park – occupies the space inside the 19th-century horseracing track in Modena.

This is currently the only place in the city where you can see the remains of the ancient town of Mutina in their original context.

The Roman structures were brought to light during the building works on what is now an underground carpark.

CaptionThe archaeological excavation was conducted under the scientific direction of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara (formerly the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell’Emilia-Romagna).

 

The tanks

The tanks were part of the production facility of the north-east rural building. The rectangular structure was possibly a midden for gathering manure, serving the agricultural activities. 

In the circular tank, fish destined for the dining tables of the ancient Modenese were bred, as shown by the discovery of carp or pike scales, as well as plants for baiting and supporting fish eggs. The steps provided access to the bottom of the tank for maintenance purposes.

Caption:
The circular basin excavated was 14 metres wide and is on display in the Archaeological Park in the exact location of the find. Reconstructive drawing by Riccardo Merlo.

The visit continues below in the underground carpark (level -1).

 

The tanks

The use of the circular tank as a fish farm dates back to the 1st century AD. However, by the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the facility had been converted into a waste pit.

The walls of the pit, as in the other drainage ditches found, were completely lined with amphorae: today you can see them on display in a large showcase on level -1 of the underground carpark.

Among the other findings:

Lagenaria Siceraria (Calabash):
The only gourd present on the Old Continent before the discovery of America: some of its seeds were found here, perfectly intact.

Pastinaca:
A plant of the Apiaceae family, rich in butyric acid, and thus used as an additive in fishing baits, particularly those for carp.

Pianta della famiglia delle Apiaceae, ricca di acido butirrico usato come additivo nelle esche da pesca, in parti

Ceratophyllus:
Stagnant water plants rich in nutrients, which is why they are used as support for carp eggs in fish farms.

 

Amphorae

The amphorae were found in pits used as waste dumps between the 1st and 3rd century AD. They were laid out neck downwards, so as to better consolidate the soil.

A hole made near the lower tip served to facilitate the flow of water.

Some still feature stamps, graffiti and painted inscriptions indicating the quality, quantity and producers of the goods they contained. Amphorae were in fact used to transport wine, oil, fruit and highly sought-after products such as garum: a fermented fish sauce much loved by the Romans!

Come up to the surface to see the Mutina Archaeological Park.