Insula Occidentalis: le Case sulle Mura. Casa del Bracciale D’oro, di Marco Fabio Rufo e di Maio Castricio: i Nuovi Scavi

The history of the excavations and studies on the houses of the Insula Occidentalis finds a significant example in the two publications that involved the House of Marco Fabio Rufo, for its central position and as an urban terminal of the important Via di Nola, as it is affected by all those elements that characterized the survey in this part of the city (Grimaldi 2006, 2014)

Since 2004 a research has been started inside and outside the houses covered by the Research Project entitled Insula Occidentalis: the houses on the walls of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University directed by Umberto Pappalardo and Mario Grimaldi, divided into two various aspects, on the one hand a reconstruction of the previous excavation data and recontextualization of the paintings removed in the Bourbon period (Aoyagi, Pappalardo 2006) and on the other, a new campaign of archaeological investigations through the realization of stratigraphic tests conducted inside the garden of the houses of the Golden Bracelet, Marco Fabio Rufo and Marius Castricius.

The oldest stratigraphies date back to the first decades of the 1st century BC. and attest to the use of this stretch outside the walls in relation to the use of the Porta Occidentalis and the extra moenia sanctuary area dedicated to a female divinity (Minerva Italica).