This season’s excavations at the “Terramare” site of Santa Rosa ( Poviglio, Reggio Emilia) explored the crossing from the Small Village to the Large Village, continuing the investigations undertaken in 2015-2016. A large sector of the “Terramara” ditch was opened which, from the edge of the Small Village, crossed the deepest part of the ditch itself and then reached the Large Village.

Across the entire area, the upper layers provided occupation evidence dating to between the late Recent Bronze Age and the early Final Bronze Age, therefore coeval with the collapse of the “Terramare” system. This occupation, characterised by scarce archaeological material scattered in the colluvial deposits and sub-surface stagnant water, seems to indicate a general degradation in the settlement’s structures, by then on the verge of being abandoned.

Based on the postholes found this season, together with those found during previous campaigns, the late Recent Bronze Age bridge can be reconstructed as being formed by five rows of postholes 10 m wide and 32 m long, thus very different from the others identified at the southern edge of the Large Village, which were much smaller. Therefore, the bridge linking the two villages was a large structure that required a substantial effort to build, and is coherent with the massive defensive works begun in this period as part of the restructuring of the entire village.

The particularly dry weather in 2017 facilitated the exploration of the deepest part of the ditch up against the Small Village, which was hampered by the presence of spring water during previous seasons. It was thus possible to establish the fluvial nature of the deposits, which accumulated here between the late Middle Bronze Age and the late Recent Bronze Age, first carried by a weak water flow and later by large scale flooding. A row of postholes came to light within the first phase deposits, probably relating to the earliest crossing identified last year.