The site included part of the first-century city wall and three houses. The oldest of these houses was Roman, occupied until the third century; the second and third houses were Byzantine.

What caught the attention of archaeologists most was the first of these houses, which had been rebuilt several times over the years. The last reconstruction took place during the second half of the second century A,D., when the main rooms were remodeled to include rich mosaics and paintings and new rooms were added. Archaeologists were able to identify the areas of a typical Roman mansion: the vestibule; the triclinium (where banquets, receptions, and social gatherings were held); several cubicula (rooms usually identified as bedrooms that also served as reading or meeting rooms); and a latrine. They also found remains of a richly decorated upper floor comprising several rooms, including a kitchen.

But what made this particular Roman house so special were the belongings of the person who lived there in the early third century. A spectacular array of some 150 surgical instruments, made of bronze and iron and manufactured between the first and third centuries A.D., were found among the remains. This was clearly the home of a Roman surgeon. The tools, which would once have been stored in cases and boxes, form the most complete set of surgical instruments ever found from the ancient Roman world.

The archaeologists also found mortars that must have been used in the preparation and storing of drugs. The evidence suggests that the house functioned as a private clinic, or taberna medica, of the early third century, containing both study space and a medical consulting room. They dubbed it the Domus del Chirurgo -- the Surgeon's House.

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At the heart of this taberna medica was a room paved with a mosaic depicting the mythical Greek hero Orpheus. In this room archaeologists discovered most of the surgical instruments. They also found medical paraphernalia in the cubiculum next to the Orpheus room and in the entranceway. And it was there, on a wall, that archaeologists found an intriguing graffito. The inscription in Latin read:

Eutyches

homo bonus

hic habitat.

Hic sunt miseri.

This translates as: "Eutyches, a good man, lives here. Here are the miserable ones." It seems reasonable to hypothesize that the text was scratched onto the wall by a sick person being treated by a doctor called Eutyches.

Researchers believe that the doctor trained in Greece and Asia Minor where, in addition to gaining medical knowledge, he acquired cultural artifacts that he took with him to his residence in Ariminum. This would explain the presence of objects outside the city's typical trading circles. These include a panel of fish in glass paste thought to be from what is now Turkey, a bronze votive hand associated with the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus, and a statue of Hermarchus, a Greek Epicurean philosopher.

The sophisticated surgical instruments found in the house suggest that Eutyches, if that was indeed his name, had specialized in treating trauma wounds and performing surgery. It is therefore likely that he acquired at least part of his training as a military doctor in the camps, and on the battlefields, of the Roman Empire.