Jun Yamada: Oratorio and xenodochia in Early Medieval Rome － Underground Excavation Research Reports of Angel Hospital at San Giovanni in Laterano Square.

In some letters of Jerome, he referred Centers of Christian charitable assistance for the poor and pilgrims as xenodochia, and this fact indicates that such Christian centers has already existed in the 4 - 5th century. Today, San Giovanni Hospital (Azienda Ospedariela San Giovanni - Addolorata) locates on the west side of San Giovanni in Laterano Square in Rome, and the predecessor of the hospital was named Angel Hospital (Ospedale d'Angelo) which was established in the first half of the 14th century. Although in the early 1960s, in the basement of Angel Hospital, Santa Maria Scrinari found an oratorio, a small chapel with some frescos of the 4 - 5th century, there is still room to examine her incomplete researches. After half a century, we resumed Scrinari's excavation. Our first excavation research was conducted from 2013 to 2015, and now we are conducting the second excavation and restorations of frescos which we discovered newly. The aims of this presentation are to describe the archaeological and iconographical features of the oratorio underneath Angel Hospital, and to consider the possibility that the hospital could be the oratorio belonging to a Christian charitable assistance institution in the 4 - 5th century in Rome, like a xenodochia testified by Jerom's letters and other materials.