Archaeologists identify Roman cities by weighing several kinds of evidence together: the layout and sequence of ruins, inscriptions, artifacts found in context, terrain, and survey results. No single coin, wall, or foundation story is enough on its own. Ostia shows why: its archaeological park reports a traditional foundation date of 620 BCE, but identifies the oldest remains it cites as a tufa-block armed camp from the second half of the fourth century BCE. Those are different kinds of claims—one a tradition, the other an archaeological date—not proof that every detail of the tradition is false. The park’s account of Ostia makes the distinction clear.
What ruins reveal about a Roman city
Archaeologists begin by asking how structures relate to one another and to the landscape. Street alignments, gates, walls, public buildings, houses, shops, and watercourses can reveal an urban plan and how it changed. At Ostia, for example, the Decumanus Maximus is a major reference point for understanding the city’s layout, while its changing relationship to the Tiber and coastline helps explain the site’s development. Ostia Antica Archaeological Park describes these features.
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Appearance alone rarely establishes a building’s precise date or function. A structure may resemble a known temple, bath, or house, but archaeologists test that interpretation against its construction, associated finds, inscriptions, and position in the sequence of occupation. Roman towns were repeatedly built over, altered, and demolished; an apparently coherent street or building plan may contain phases from different periods.
Excavations at Butrint describe a dense urban sequence of construction, rebuilding, and demolition. At Aldborough, a 2023 interim report says excavation clarified a building sequence and the dating of a street grid. These examples show why archaeologists study not just what survives, but which features came first and how later work changed them. Butrint excavation methodology and the Aldborough 2023 interim report document these approaches.
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What inscriptions can identify
Inscriptions can preserve names, civic offices, dedications, public works, and events. Their value depends on reading the text and understanding where it was found, how it was used, and whether it is complete. At Ostia’s Via Ostiensis necropolis, funerary inscriptions have helped identify magistrates and other prominent local people among tomb owners. The park’s account of the necropolis describes this evidence.
Inscriptions can also contribute to dating events, but often only when combined with other sources. Ostia’s Fasti Ostienses—inscribed chronicles—have been interpreted alongside literary, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence. The park’s Ostia Post Scriptum report says this combined analysis produced a date of 1 January 128 CE for the event recorded in a fragment. The date is the result of interpreting the evidence together, not simply reading a complete date from an isolated object. Read the report on the excavation campaigns.
Texts can also help connect activity to specific parts of a city. A guide to the Pompeii excavations describes Oscan inscriptions that gave directions to defensive positions. Such evidence can illuminate how urban space was used, while also reminding us that languages and civic life changed over time. The Pompeii excavation guide provides this example.
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Pottery, coins, and other portable objects can help archaeologists characterize activity, exchange, and chronology. Their interpretation is strongest when the find’s precise location and layer are known: an object recovered in a sealed deposit can be related to that deposit and the activity it represents. A coin or sherd found without reliable context may still be informative, but it cannot by itself establish when a city was founded or identify a settlement.
The Interamna Lirenas project at the University of Cambridge combines pottery-fabric analysis with geophysical prospection, field survey, and excavation. That combination allows researchers to compare what objects suggest with the broader pattern of buried and visible remains. At Ostia, numismatic evidence has likewise been considered alongside inscriptions and literary sources. The Interamna Lirenas Project describes its multidisciplinary work.
How archaeologists find what is still buried
Geophysical survey can map contrasts in the ground that may correspond to buried walls, ditches, roads, or other archaeological features. Historic England lists magnetometry, earth-resistance survey, and ground-penetrating radar among commonly used methods. Which method is useful depends on the expected target, its depth, the geology, the area, and local conditions. Survey results indicate anomalies to investigate; they do not automatically name a building, establish its date, or explain its use. Historic England’s overview of geophysical survey explains the methods and their limits.
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Archaeologists often combine survey with fieldwalking and targeted excavation. Survey can help select where to dig, while excavation reveals stratigraphic sequence and direct relationships between structures and finds. Digging is local and disturbs deposits, so it is generally planned around specific questions rather than used to uncover an entire city indiscriminately. Interamna Lirenas provides a Roman-town example of combining prospection, field survey, excavation, and pottery study; the Butrint and Aldborough projects illustrate how excavation can clarify building phases and street-grid dates.
How the evidence fits together
| Evidence | What it can help establish | Important limit |
|---|---|---|
| Ruins and street plan | Urban layout, relationships among buildings, and construction or alteration | Appearance alone may not establish a building’s date or function. Ostia Antica Archaeological Park; University of Notre Dame; University of Cambridge. |
| Inscriptions | Names, offices, dedications, events, and sometimes dates | Texts may be fragmentary or reused and need contextual interpretation. Ostia Antica Archaeological Park; Ostia Post Scriptum. |
| Pottery, coins, and other artifacts | Activity, exchange, and chronology when recovered in context | An isolated object does not establish a city’s identity. University of Cambridge; Ostia Post Scriptum. |
| Geophysical survey | Buried anomalies and likely features across an area | Interpretation depends on site conditions and may require excavation or other validation. Historic England. |
| Stratigraphic excavation | Sequence, associations, and direct context | It covers limited areas and disturbs deposits. University of Notre Dame; University of Cambridge. |
Why Pompeii is informative but not typical
Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Torre Annunziata preserve unusually rich evidence of urban form, architecture, decoration, and daily life from the first century BCE to the first century CE. UNESCO Beni Culturali reports Pompeii’s excavated area as 44 hectares and the listed property area for the three sites as 98.05 hectares; these figures refer to different things and should not be confused. Their exceptional preservation makes the sites valuable, but they are not a template for every Roman city, many of which survive only as partial remains or buried traces. UNESCO Beni Culturali’s project page describes the property and its evidence.
For any Roman city, the strongest identification comes from convergence: a plausible urban layout, a coherent sequence of occupation, artifacts in meaningful contexts, inscriptions that fit the place and period, and survey or excavation results that support the interpretation. When clues conflict or remain incomplete, archaeologists distinguish what is established from what is still an interpretation.
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