Current work site: Castellammare-di-Stabia, Italy
Head of expedition: Alexander Butyagin
The Expedition works on the Ariadne Villa (Villa Arianna) located outside Castellammare-di-Stabia, on the southwest shore of the Bay of Naples, Italy.
The Ariadne Villa is one of the residences in Stabiae destroyed, along with Pompeii, by the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius on 28 August 79 BC. In 1749–1754, its ruins were partly unearthed by R. de Alcubierre and K. Weber, working for the King of Naples. The excavations yielded numerous frescoes, mosaics and other objects which were handed over to the Portici palace and are currently preserved in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. The excavations were resumed in 1950 at the initiative of Libero d’Orsi, head of the local school. At present, the Ariadne Villa is a state museum run by the Superintendency of Archaeology of Pompeii. The team of the State Hermitage Museum has been working on the site since 2010 owing to the partnership and support of the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation.
Excavations are currently being performed on the thermae of the villa. Studies have been completed on the tepidarium, frigidarium and laconicum of the thermae; the summer triclinium; a small covered courtyard with a garden; the service passage and the grand corridor; the cubiculum with two alcoves and a corner of the large peristyle. The villa has some well-preserved frescoes, which have survived to the height of up to 3.5 m, and a number of floor mosaics. Thousands of fragments of painted plaster, shards of branded tiles and other finds have been retrieved. Of particular interest are hundreds of graffiti scratched on the walls and showing ships, people and other themes.
The Stabian Expedition is the first Russian archaeological expedition in Western Europe, a fine example of international collaboration in archaeology.
Contact details:
Tel: (812) 7109654
Fax: (812) 7109654
E-mail: butyagin@yandex.ru
