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Excavation

  • Castelletto Monastero
  • Cantone Chiesa
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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 excavations north of the forepart extended the trench opened in 2009 that had intercepted two orthogonal walls and uncovered, on one side a structure at a right angle to the church, at the point where the building met the forepart, and on the other more tombs relating to the lay cemetery area.

      The intervention identified walls USM 119 and 120, north of the church, as parts of the 19th century cemetery. Running along the western side of the trench was a brick wall with the remains of an entrance that would have had a single wing door (17th-18th centuries) and a rectangular building on a north-west/south-east alignment, whose function remains to be identified. Datable to between the 15th and 16th century, it was built on layers of rubble and had been covered by late 18th century dumps used to raise the ground level in this area.

      The late 12th/13th-14th centuries saw the development of the latest medieval cemetery phases (phase 3), subsequent to the construction of wall USM 122 and the forepart preceding the church; the tombs identified in 2009 relate to this phase. These were burials in earth graves, dug on different alignments without an ordered layout. Along the side of wall USM 122 running east to west, there was a group of infant burials (ranging from individuals of a few years of age to foetuses).
      This development was preceded, in the 12th century, by the construction of wall USM 122, with a sloping eastern face, in which there was a cart entrance with double door, for which the postholes were found. To the west of the cart entrance, was a road with a compact surface of cobbles and brick/tile, which from wall USM 122 continued to the west but was cut by the modern intervention to reclaim the cemetery area. The construction of wall USM 122, in phase with the building of the forepart, intercepted the intermediate cemetery phase (phase 2), characterised by earth graves, oriented east-west, in a well ordered layout but with overlying burials in the grave cut itself. This cemetery phase corresponds with the church’s construction, between the end of the 11th and the 12th century. The burials respect the alignment of an ancient road, also made of compacted cobbles and brick/tile which, coming from the north-west led towards the church façade.

      The earliest cemetery phase (phase 1) showed a different organisation of the burials, which were generally aligned north-east/south-west, in parallel rows. The tombs, partially covered by the road described above, were deeper and not on the same axis as the church. This may have been a group of early medieval burials.
      Excavations south of the second church concentrated on a structure whose position suggests that it was the monastic infirmary. The north and south perimeter walls were preserved, visible for over 10 m. They bordered a space of about 5 m, and to date represent the earliest, perhaps Romanesque, evidence for this sector. The structure presented modern alterations (it was divided into two rooms and then in the 20th century took on a rustic aspect) and late medieval restructuring when the floors were lowered and a paving was created using circular sections from a brick/tile column.

      During the same campaign, cleaning in the garden next to the east cloister revealed two connecting structures at a right angle to each other, similar to the cobblestone walls of Romanesque date previously identified as the intersection between the east and south cloisters.

    • Eleonora Destefanis - Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici 
    • Gabriele Ardizio - Università del Piemonte Orientale, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici 

    Director

    Team

    • Davide Casagrande
    • Fabio Ombrelli
    • Dottorandi dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza” (sede in consorzio, Università del Piemonte Orientale)

    Research Body

    • Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

    Funding Body

    • Comune di Castelletto Cervo
    • Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Biella

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