Rome in the Bronze Age: late second-millennium BC radiocarbon dates from the Forum Boarium

Evidence of Bronze Age settlement in Rome has, for the most part, been conspicuous by its absence. The later development of the city has precluded most excavations from reaching a depth sufficient to encounter any such deposits, and early finds have been mostly recovered from secondary deposits. A series of boreholes below the church of Sant'Omobono have revealed in situ deposits of anthropic activity, which date to the late second millennium BC, interspersed with thick alluvial deposits. This new data from the Forum Boarium demonstrates that early settlement activity in Rome was not restricted to the summits or slopes of the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, but also included activity on the banks of the Tiber.