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Archaeological dig could change what we know about the fall of the Roman Empire

December 12, 2023
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Archaeological dig changes everything we know about the collapse of the Roman Empire
Interamna Lirenas was still ‘thriving’ when the Empire was starting to crumble (Picture: PA)

Startling new finds have been made at an ancient Roman dig site which archaeologists once wrote off as ‘unpromising’.

Lacking any visible ruins, Interamna Lirenas, in central modern-day Italy, was initially thought to be a ‘backwater’ town that went into early decline at the turn of the first millenium.

But a 13-year study involving digs and radar surveys uncovered evidence suggesting it was still ‘thriving’ well into the 3rd century AD – when civil wars, barbarian invasions and political strife had started to plague the Roman Empire.

This means life for many ordinary Romans may not have gone downhill anywhere near as quickly as previously thought.


EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY DECEMBER 12 Undated handout photo issued by University of Cambridge of two footpath lining the street separating the basilica (top) from the theatre at the excavation site. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a roofed theatre, a market and a river port at the site of a Roman town in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire's decline. The Cambridge University-led study suggests that Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began around 300 years later than previously thought. Analysis of pottery excavated at the site, which is now largely crop fields, indicated that the town in Southern Lazio resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD. Issue date: Tuesday December 12, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story HISTORY Roman. Photo credit should read: Alessandro Launaro/University of Cambridge/PA Wire
The town resisted decline until the latter part of the 3rd century AD, researchers believe (Picture: PA)

Cambridge professor Dr Alessandro Launaro, who led the research, said: ‘We started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it – that’s very rare in Italy.

‘There was nothing on the surface, no visible evidence of buildings, just bits of broken pottery.

‘But what we discovered wasn’t a backwater, far from it. We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years.


EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY DECEMBER 12 Undated handout photo issued by University of Cambridge of archaeologists processing artifacts found at the excavation site. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a roofed theatre, a market and a river port at the site of a Roman town in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire's decline. The Cambridge University-led study suggests that Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began around 300 years later than previously thought. Analysis of pottery excavated at the site, which is now largely crop fields, indicated that the town in Southern Lazio resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD. Issue date: Tuesday December 12, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story HISTORY Roman. Photo credit should read: Alessandro Launaro/University of Cambridge/PA Wire
The Cambridge University-led study analysed pottery fragments (Picture: PA)

EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY DECEMBER 12 Undated handout photo issued by University of Cambridge of the excavation site. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a roofed theatre, a market and a river port at the site of a Roman town in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire's decline. The Cambridge University-led study suggests that Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began around 300 years later than previously thought. Analysis of pottery excavated at the site, which is now largely crop fields, indicated that the town in Southern Lazio resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD. Issue date: Tuesday December 12, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story HISTORY Roman. Photo credit should read: Alessandro Launaro/University of Cambridge/PA Wire
The finds challenge assumptions about the Roman Empire’s decline (Picture: PA)

‘We’re not saying that this town was special, it’s far more exciting than that. We think many other average Roman towns in Italy were just as resilient.

‘It’s just that archaeologists have only recently begun to apply the right techniques and approaches to see this.’

The site – around 130km from Rome – is now mostly crop fields, but Dr Launaro’s team found the remains of a roofed 1500-seater theatre, a market, a temple, a bath complex and a large warehouse suggesting the town was a river port.

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They carried out a series of digs and used magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) across an area spanning 60 acres.


EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY DECEMBER 12 Undated handout photo issued by University of Cambridge of a Gorgon artifix (likely 3rd or 2nd BC0 found the excavation site. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a roofed theatre, a market and a river port at the site of a Roman town in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire's decline. The Cambridge University-led study suggests that Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began around 300 years later than previously thought. Analysis of pottery excavated at the site, which is now largely crop fields, indicated that the town in Southern Lazio resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD. Issue date: Tuesday December 12, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story HISTORY Roman. Photo credit should read: Alessandro Launaro/University of Cambridge/PA Wire
The Western Roman Empire had already started to break apart by the 3rd century AD (Picture: PA)

‘The fact that this town went for a roofed theatre, such a refined building, does not fit with a backwater in decline,’ Dr Launaro added.

‘This theatre was a major status symbol. It displayed the town’s wealth, power and ambition.

‘The assumed lack of a theatre here was taken as evidence of the town’s early decline.

‘At nearby Roman towns, archaeologists saw the remains of theatres sticking out of the ground.


EMBARGOED TO 0001 TUESDAY DECEMBER 12 Undated handout photo issued by University of Cambridge of what the Roam theatre would have looked like. Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a roofed theatre, a market and a river port at the site of a Roman town in central Italy, challenging assumptions about the Empire's decline. The Cambridge University-led study suggests that Interamna Lirenas was a thriving town whose decline began around 300 years later than previously thought. Analysis of pottery excavated at the site, which is now largely crop fields, indicated that the town in Southern Lazio resisted decline until the later part of the 3rd century AD. Issue date: Tuesday December 12, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story HISTORY Roman. Photo credit should read: Alessandro Launaro/University of Cambridge/PA Wire
A 3D image showing what the town’s opulent theatre would have looked like (Picture: PA)

‘The remains of Interamna Lirenas’s amazing theatre was there all along, just completely buried.’

The team previously discovered that Julius Caesar became a patron of Interamna Lirenas in 46BC.

Dr Launaro said the town ‘would have been valuable’ to the Roman dictator as it was ‘strategically located between a river and a major road, and it was a thriving node in the regional urban network’.

Founded in 312BC, it was eventually abandoned in the 6th century AD as Germanic invaders advanced deeper into modern-day Italy.

The study was published on Tuesday in the edited volume Roman Urbanism in Italy.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.





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