Vatican Museums

Thursdays in the Museums on 16 November will be open not only to scholars and university students, but also to a broader, non-specialist public who will thus have the opportunity to get to know close-up the technical and scientific work typical of a site set up on ancient monumental areas.

The conference, entitled “Lateran Posterula”. Archaeology and restoration of a section of the Aurelian Walls will also be an opportunity to become familiar with apparently obscure terms, starting with Posterula, which refers specifically to a secondary gate in the ancient Lateran wall layout.
The meeting will include an illustration of the restoration works (executed with traditional materials and methods) and consolidation works (instead carried out using innovative techniques) of the section of the Aurelian Walls included within the extraterritorial area of the Lateran.
The intervention, which began in 2021 and has lasted for over a year, has also enabled an archaeological survey near the “Lateran Posterula”, clarifying some architectural aspects of the Castra Nova Equites Singulares – the barracks of the emperor’s equestrian guard – and the formulation of new hypotheses on the evolution of the ancient Lateran passage.

The conference, to be introduced as usual by the Director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, will include talks by the directors of the archaeological excavation, Sabina Francini and Leonardo Di Blasi, both archaeologists in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Silvio Screpanti, Deputy Technical Director of Infrastructures and Services of the Governorate of Vatican City State, will then illustrate the technical aspects of the safety and structural consolidation project. This will be followed, to conclude, by the contribution of Vitale Zanchettin, Superintendent for Architectural Heritage of the Museums, who will present the new data to emerge from the restoration.