Riscavare Verucchio. La ripresa delle indagini nell'insediamento di Pian del monte

The year 2011 saw the beginning of a new season of excavations in the archaeological site of Verucchio (near Rimini, north Adriatic coast), carried out by the University of Pavia – prof. Maurizio Harari, and the Archaeological Superintendency of Emilia-Romagna. Verucchio is mostly known for its rich Iron Age necropoleis so far, yet much remains to learn about the coeval settlements. In the “Pian del Monte” area, the south side of the hilltop characterized by the presence of ancient springs and small waterfalls, scattered and almost unpublished remains were found since 1600 by local amateurs and, from the late XIXth century, also by the work of several archeologists such as Edoardo Brizio, Gherardo Ghirardini and Ugo Rellini. After the Second World War, the archaeological exploration of the settlement area was resumed, mainly due to the efforts of the Superintendent Gino Vinicio Gentili and his staff, with many relevant discoveries such as three Iron Age bronze shields found next to a deep well that was filled with votive offerings, many settlement structures (huts, pits, trenches), including two buildings with stone foundations of the late Classical and Hellenistic period, both built over the Villanovan layers underneath. After an initial geomagnetic prospection campaign carried out in 2011, since 2012 our new stratigraphic explorations in the Pian del Monte settlement area had to relate to the old trenches of the 60s and 70s, interlaced with the late-Classical structures and the intact Villanovan layers. The study of the archive documentation (namely only photographic negatives and few drawings) allowed us to recognize traces of stone structures of unknown function and period and to locate the secondary deposition of two aniconic cippi (generally used in Verucchio as funerary stones). Our new excavations are currently documenting the imposing stone foundations of the main late-Classical building, and discovering an articulated and well preserved stratigraphy dating back to the late 9th and 8th centuries BC, with pits, foundations and perhaps land remediation activities. Through our work, made of constant dialogue between the past, the old excavations and the new discoveries we are attempting to rewrite part of the history of this important Villanovan settlement, while defining more precisely the complex dynamics of its development and its abrupt crisis.