during the month of October, almost the whole population of Rome, rich and poor, throng to this spot, where innumerable tables are covered with refreshments, and the wine is drawn cool from the vaults. It is impossible to conceive a more animating scene than the summit of the hill presents. Gay groups dancing the saltarella, intermingled with the jovial circles which surround the tables; the immense crowd of walkers who, leaving their carriages below, stroll about to enjoy the festive scene ... The hill gained a brief military significance in 1849 when it was used as the site of an Italian gun battery, under the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the successful defence of Rome against an attacking French army. Its economic significance was somewhat greater, as the hill's interior was discovered to have unusual cooling properties which investigators attributed to the ventilation produced by its porous structure. This made it ideal for wine storage during the heat of the Roman summer, and caves were excavated for that purpose. Monte Testaccio also had a religious significance; it was formerly used on Good Friday to represent the hill of Golgotha in Jerusalem, when the Pope would lead a procession to the summit and place crosses to represent those of Jesus and the two thieves crucified alongside him. Monte Testaccio is still crowned with a cross in commemoration of the event. Only after World War II was the area around the hill redeveloped, as a working-class neighbourhood. The first archaeological investigation of Monte Testaccio began in January 1872 under the German archaeologist Heinrich Dressel, who published his results in 1878. Further work was carried out in the 1980s by the Spanish archaeologists Emilio Rodríguez Almeida and José Remesal Rodríguez. See also Roman commerce Urban archaeology Terra preta References Further reading Dressel, H. (1878). Ricerche sul monte testaccio. Rome : Salviucci Rodriguez Almeida, E. (1980). "Alcuni aspetti della topografia e dell' archeologia attorno al monte Testaccio." In, JM Blazquez Martinez, ed. Produccion y comercio del aceite en la antiguedad (Madrid): 103–31. Rodriguez Almeida, E. (1984). Il Monte Testaccio, ambiente, storia, materiale. Rome: Quasar. Rodriguez Almeida, E. & Remesal Rodríguez, José (1994). Excavaciones arqueológicas en el Monte Testaccio (Roma). Madrid : Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Instituto de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales. Remesal Rodríguez J. (2019). "Monte Testaccio" (Rome, Italy), in, Smith C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global