Archaeo-mobility. Integrating Archaeological Heritage with Everyday Life

Abstract

Underground mass-transit is the logical solution for the growing demand of mobility that presses the urban space of historical cities, but it has to deal with the palimpsest of the numerous layers the history of many cities is made of. The construction of subway lines is a unique opportunity to develop a contemporary and active display of the archaeological heritage and return it to the dynamics of urban life. Some projects in this direction have been attempted, too often crashing against bureaucratic and economic difficulties, or against inadequate methods for investigating and managing the archaeological heritage. New metro lines in Athens, Thessaloniki, Sofia, Istanbul, are showing pros and cons in techno-economical and cultural terms while interest and care for the heritage is growing everywhere as well as the awareness of handling it as a resource. Unfortunately, in most cases archaeological remains are simply extracted and arranged in banal museum-like displays while taking into no account the high potential of involving the urban context. Italy has the largest and most stratified archaeological heritage of the world and at the same time one of the smallest metro systems, but in the last two decades a vast program of upgrading has been developed, introducing important advances in archaeological investigation methods, excavation planning and architectural integration. Naples is nowadays world-renowned for its Art-stations, but in the Municipio station currently under construction, the collision of infrastructure and archaeological strata is managed with continuous adjustments to give a spatial response to the extraordinary finds as they are discovered in Europe's largest archaeological excavation site. New Line C is under construction in the very centre of Rome intersecting outstanding remains together with crucial urban nodes with stations in places like Colosseum or Imperial Fora; projects now under discussion are expected to set new standards in archaeo-mobility.