Monte Testaccio

The artificial hill of modern-day Monte Testaccio lies S of the ancient site of the *Horrea Galbana in the *Emporium area, bordered by Via Galvani, Via Zabaglia, Ex-Mattatoio Comunale and the 3rd-c. A.D. Aurelian Wall, occupying an c. 22,000 m2 triangular area (on average: 180 m N–S x 250 m E–W), with a maximum height of 49 m asl and 36 m above the surrounding street level (Rodríguez Almeida 109, fig. 40, and two suppl. maps; Maischberger). The elevation of this area was 5 to 6 m lower in antiquity. The ancient name of this artificial hill, if it had one, is unknown. The hill was created by the systematic deposition of amphora sherds to form a terraced pyramidal structure, beginning early in the Augustan era and continuing until its abandonment in A.D. 257 (Blázquez Martínez 1992, 43; Rodríguez Almeida 138-39; Maischberger 30). Rodríguez Almeida was able to produce a schematic diagram that hypothesized the development of amphora deposition on the hill in various periods, based mainly on Dressel’s 19th-c. survey and analysis of the ceramic chronology (Rodríguez Almeida 135-45, esp. figs. 54-56 and, for Dressel references, 14). According to his model, the first pyramidal terrace within the main core of the mound to the E was formed between the Augustan era and the end of the 1st c. A.D. Though recent archaeological investigations at the Monte Testaccio have not yet found sherds pre-dating A.D. 144, it is assumed that the deposition must have started when the Roman province of Baetica was integrated into the Roman economy early during the reign of Augustus, since a large proportion of amphoras uncovered on the site are Baetican olive-oil types (Blázquez Martínez 1991; Spanish excavations at Monte Testaccio). Further, by the late-Republican period the Emporium was already well developed with massive warehouses as well as a monumental tomb structure of the Rusticelii family (*Sepulcrum: Rusticelii, mid-2nd to mid-1st c. B.C.) immediately to the S of the hill'', that demarcated its limits. However, the topography of the artificial hill in A.D. 14 remains conjectural, and will not be known until the Spanish team provides further evidence for the lower levels of the mound. The results of this will provide the best test of Rodríguez Almeida’s hypothesis. Our map follows Rodríguez Almeida’s schematic diagram of the hypothetical early depositional state of the mound. Unfortunately, the Berlin model of Augustan Rome simply reproduces the modern topography of the mound and represents it as if it were a natural hill.