On 21 September last, a joint excursion was made by DIBA members with the
Netherlands Italian Association of Rome, of which DIBA Board Member Claudia de
Regt is the President, to the Archeological site of the ancient city Satricum. The site is
located in Le Ferriere near Latina and archeologists from the Universities of Groningen
and Amsterdam have been working there for 48 years now.
The tour was guided by Marijke Gnade, Emeritus Professor Archeology of pre-Roman
cultures in Central Italy of the University of Amsterdam, who is the Director of the
archeological site. Prof. Gnade showed the participants the remainders of the Mater
Matuta temple, discovered by Dutch archeologists and containing elements of several
temples, one built over the precedent temple. Several huts, dating from the 8 th and 7 th
century B.C., have also been discovered, as well as graves of the Volsci tribe, which
occupied Satricum in the 5 th century B.C., and a procession road with a length of 600
meters. The focus of the archeologists has now shifted to a Roma villa dated from the 1 st
Century A.C. and inhabited during the subsequent four centuries.
The visit ended with a pleasant lunch in a trattoria nearby.
The DIBA Board
