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Excavation

  • Tezze di Arzignano
  • Valbruna
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    Credits

    • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

      MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

      ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

      AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

    • AIAC_logo logo

    Summary (English)

    • The settlement pattern in the lower Agno-Guà River Valley (15 km to the west of Vicenza) in Roman antiquity has never been systematically investigated, although extensive ruins presumed to belong to a large Roman settlement were uncovered twice at località Valbruna, a rural lowland in the environs of Tezze di Arzignano, after catastrophic flooding by the Agno River in 1795 and 1882.

      Throughout the 20th century, various sporadic finds of Roman materials have also been reported from an agricultural estate at Valbruna located the area that was flooded in 1882. The multimethodological research project conducted by the University of Kentucky between 2010-2010 was aimed at locating any extant remains of the ancient settlement. It was based upon a re-examination of the archaeological record and a geophysical survey integrated by a study of the pottery recovered from the site. The area selected for this survey was an active field, measuring 120 m north-south by 30 m east-west, which had yielded abundant Roman cultural materials together with osteological and faunal remains.

      Among the buried anomalies revealed by the gradiometer and GPR data, a rectangular feature (corresponding on the surface with a concentration of Roman roof tile fragments and mosaic tesserae) has been interpreted as a portion of a substantial building.

      Another significant anomaly has been tentatively identified as an ancient roadway. Even though these two features are not exactly orthogonal, their orientation is comparable to that of the buildings uncovered in 1795. The overall dimensions of this building and its functions are uncertain. Finds of Roman tombs in its vicinity raise the possibility that it may have been situated near a burial ground. Several pit-like anomalies found at a lower depth than these structures have affinities with prehistoric features datable from the Neolithic to early Iron age but cannot be conclusively interpreted without further testing. A study of the pottery suggests that the site was continuously occupied from the late 3rd- mid-1st centuries B.C.E. until the 3rd century A.D.

    • Paolo Visonà - University of Kentucky 

    Director

    Team

    • Piera Allegra Rasia – Università degli Studi di Venezia - Ca’ Foscari
    • Silvana Lora
    • George M. Crothers
    • Luana Toniolo - Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia

    Research Body

    • University of Kentucky

    Funding Body

    • Comune di Arzignano, VI
    • Foundation for Calabrian Archaeology (Parker, Colorado, USA)

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