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Excavation

  • Piana Dell’Olmo-Le Grotte
  • Colli A Volturno
  • Vadu Porcinu

    Tools

    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)

    • New material dating to the Roman, late antique and medieval periods, came out of the surface layer. These included coins, glass fragments, sporadic bone fragments, a large piece of opus spicatum floor, no longer in situ, and a probable square column base. Worthy of note, the find of the lower part of a life-size statue of an individual wearing a toga, stylistically datable to the late antique period. The long toga is held in the left hand leaving only the feet uncovered and on the lower right hand side a capsa is shown. These characteristics suggest that the statue may have represented a magistrate or other important individual.

      The statue was worked only on the front and rested on a small base, which suggests it rested up against a support and thus would suit use either in a funerary or public context. In any case the find is of importance as it confirms the Roman presence on the site and attests the site’s importance in this period. The site was continuously occupied, apart from being briefly abandoned probably due to flooding from the river Volturno, a catastrophic event visible in the geology of the area. Subsequently a new settlement area was built over the flooded structures. This late building phase is associated with the remains of floors in beaten lime and opus signinum, with a make up constituted by a loose layer of small cobbles dating to the 9th century. The original structures were readapted to new requirements, some being reused with very different functions (the statue was abutting a wall and functioned as a step providing access to a room) and divided into smaller rooms. In particular, a room was excavated that was used as a workshop for the creation of bone objects. The above evidence dates this second construction phase to the early medieval period.

      Further tombs were uncovered and a narrow bronze bracelet, with flat section, a coin dating to the first half of the 6th century and the base of a small glass bottle were found among the bones.
      It is possible to suggest that the site corresponds to the ancient castrum Vadum Porcinum cited in the Chronicon Vulturnense.

    Director

    • Michele Raddi - Università degli Studi del Molise, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie per l’ambiente e il territorio

    Team

    Research Body

    • Università degli Studi del Molise

    Funding Body

    • Comune di Colli a Volturno

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