The western half of the vineyard looking south toward the amphitheater . Excavating the southern part of the vineyard. The entrance and triclinum are on the right . The workman in the foreground is removing lapilli from the vine root cavity . the summer of 1968, the UniverInuring sity of Maryland began systematic excavation of this vineyard. Work was carried on from June 20 to August 24. By the end of the summer much of the insula had been excavated and the ancient planting pattern recovered. In parts of the insula the work was extremely tedious and difficult. This was especially true of the western half where the original fill had been removed and the cavities had been badly compacted by the passage of trucks in 1955. Modern roots had destroyed the evidence of ancient roots in many places. But we were pleasantly surprised that it was possible even here to recover much of the planting pattern. By the end 51