Hadrian's Villa: the "Macchiozzo". Preliminary Report of the Excavations (2014–23). Part II: Structural Features: Brick Stamps, Mosaics, and Paintings

From 2014 to 2023, Columbia University’s Advanced Program of Ancient History and Art (APAHA Tibur) conducted nine field seasons in the area of the “Macchiozzo” at Hadrian’s Villa. The excavations brought to light three large residential buildings—a medianum building and two courtyard buildings—of the Hadrianic period, along with copious data on the long-term life of the complex. The report is being published in three installments. Part II presents the fixed elements: brick stamps, tessellated mosaic floors, and colorful wall and ceiling paintings. The in situ brick stamps are consistent with the buildings in this area being constructed as part of a larger unit within the villa; a new type of orbicular brick stamp produced in the claypits of the Domitii in 128 CE is proposed. Twenty Hadrianic mosaic floors have been revealed; the similarities are particularly striking with the floors of the Hospitalia, but also with some of the mosaics of Ostia―especially those of the House of Bacchus and Ariadne. The closest comparisons for the paintings on the walls of the Medianum Building, still largely in situ, and the four painted ceilings found in a state of primary collapse in the same building, are also found in Ostia, in the House of the Priestesses (Insula delle Ierodule).