In the center of Trento a monumental pre -Roman necropolis: the discovery

It is a discovery of extraordinary relevance that will allow to rewrite the history of the city. The important funerary context has remained perfectly preserved through the millennia thanks to the alluvial episodes that sealed the archaeological deposit. The necropolis, which developed on the median portion of the alluvial conoid of the Fersina torrent, came to light at a depth of about 8 meters compared to the current share of via Santa Croce, below levels of historical, medieval and medieval attendance Roman era. Archaeological research, still underway, have made it possible to highlight 200 tombs, complete with prestigious accompanied, characterized by the rite of indirect cremation, which represent only a part of those potentially preserved in the subsoil still to be investigated.

“An incredible discovery, which shows us a new history of the city of Trento, therefore no longer just as a Roman city – comments the vice -president and provincial councilor for culture Francesca Gerosa – we know how important is the commitment to research and protect the heritage of the our roots, and this is foreseen by the laws and the Constitution, but regardless of this we do not want to subtract us and here we are working intensely to bring to light a piece of unknown history for the city. The entire area to be monitored and then evaluate which actions to undertake, also with regard to the many objects found and which are already the subject of restoration, as will also be the subsequent findings. archaeological, with those understandable of urban development “.

The discovery of the monumental necropolis of via Santa Croce opens up new scenarios and suggestive interpretative hypotheses for archaeological research, considered its location in the historic center of Trento and the rarity of this type of contexts in the territory of the Alpine arch. Also raises articulated and complex problems regarding the methods of self -representation in the funerary field of the social group of belonging of which, at the moment, the settlement context remains unknown.

The archaeological investigations are directed by Dr. Elisabetta Mottes of the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Autonomous Province of Trento and coordinated on the field by Dr. Michele Bassetti and Dr. Ester Zanichelli of Cora Archaeological Society of Trento and their research team. The coordination of the operations concerning the restoration of the mobile finds is due to Susanna Fruet of the Archaeological Heritage Office and to Dr. Chiara Maggioni of Cora Archaeological Society for the activity of microscavo and recovery of the Obuaric Vases.

In the first centuries of the 1st Millennium BC, the landscape of this area of ​​the city was characterized by the presence of the large riverbed of the Fersina stream furrowed by a network of torrential channels that were intertwined with each other, separated from sandy bars or gravelly gravelly. In a marginal area of ​​the riverbed subject to periodic floods, the monumental necropolis of which more phases of attendance were documented during the early iron age (IX-century BC) were arisen. The funeral context was to be placed between two channels that could be activated in case of full phenomena. The flooding episodes, which began already in the phases of use of the necropolis, have sealed the ancient archaeological stratification allowing the exceptional conservation of the funerary context. This circumstance made it possible to document in detail the plans of use of the necropolis and to precisely reconstruct the funerary practices of the community that occupied this area in the early iron age.

“The iron age is a period of profound transformations from a historical-cultural point of view throughout the Mediterranean, in the Alpine and Oltralpe. Times of the first Olympics that traditionally date at 776 BC and the Foundation of Rome in 753 BC. With the flourishing civilization of the Etruscans and below with the Venetians and other people of the Alps. In the archaeological during the excavation we have the opportunity to recognize the elite of a society that was evidently installed in the Trento basin and which represented its power and prestige through the deposition of emblematic objects of his privileged status “, explains the superintendent Franco Marzatico

The main feature of the necropolis, which configures it as a complex monumental schedule is the presence of funeral steles fixed vertically with a signal function that reach 2.40 m in height, organized in subparallele files with the main north-south direction. Each stele delimits the main tomb in the lithic box covered by a tumulus structure to the west, around which over time develops a dense concentration of satellite tombs.

The raw material used for the funeral steles comes from the area of ​​the East hill of Trento, the closest area of ​​the inclusion of the sworn nodular limestones of the Veronese Ammonitic Red, while the limestone rosé of the red scale was used for the construction of the lithic boxes .

The microstra -scratigraphic excavation of the tomb structures has made it possible to reconstruct the complexity of the funerary ritual. The acquired data must be implemented by interdisciplinary analyzes on the anthropological and archaeobotanical remains as well as by the study of the finds deposited as a accompanying and offer.

Inside the lithic boxes there is the land of Rogo, an intentional collection of calcized bones placed within containers in perishable material, less frequently in Obuar vessels. It is assumed that the remains often placed above the personal kit, were wrapped in a fabric, of which in some cases the fibers were kept, closed with the help of pins or fibulae. In some tombs the shape of the accumulation suggests the presence of quadrangular wooden boxes.

The funeral equipment highlighted are particularly rich and represent the indicators to define the identity, roles and functions of the social group to which they belong. Particularly significant is the presence of metal finds represented by weapons and elaborate ornament objects with amber and vitreous pastures that attest to the existence of influences and close cultural relationships with Italian environments. The scientific study of the rich archive of data provided by the exceptional necropolis of via Santa Croce will be carried out by an interdisciplinary research team which provides for the participation of entities and specialists from various Italian and foreign institutions.