ROME, ITALY—Reuters reports that groundwater with a strong current is interfering with the search for the first mile of the Appian Way, also known as the “regina viarum,” or “queen of roads.” Constructed in the fourth century B.C. by magistrate Appius Claudius Caecus, the road connected Rome to Brindisi, a port city in southeastern Italy. The opening of the road is thought to rest more than 25 feet underground near the Baths of Caracalla. Riccardo Santangeli Valenzani of Roma Tre University said the excavation to date has cleared about 20 feet of dirt, but the pumps in use are not powerful enough to clear the groundwater if they continue to dig. Valenzani added, however, that artifacts dated from the second century A.D. through the late eighteenth century A.D., including a Roman statue and one of the earliest coins to have been minted by a pope, have been recovered. The team members will attempt to extract a core to look for evidence of the road before they backfill the site. For more about the subterranean environment of the baths, go to "The Tunnels Beneath Rome's Baths of Caracalla."
