The Roman Forum, as it appears to the modern-day visitor, is largely the result of the archaeological investigations carried out from the late 19^th century through the first decades of the 20^th. We are fortunate to still possess the majority of the documentation produced in that fervid yet far-off period of activity: drawings, photographs, essays, notes, as well as boxes and boxes of findings; all documentation which has largely remained unpublished or barely studied, just as the results of the excavations themselves have remained unpublished or barely studied.

As part of our institutional dedication to safeguarding and promoting the site, the Parco archeologico del Colosseo has gathered this precious information and expanded the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary project begun more than thirty years ago by the archaeologists of the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome: the latest technologies have been enlisted to help us re-examine and study the documentation of past excavations, in an effort to restore an ever greater sense of wholeness and completeness to the Roman Forum.

The results obtained from this initial phase of research have been positive and the conference scheduled in the Curia Iulia is intended as a point of arrival and of departure for future studies.