During a watching brief on a building site at Coquo a new area of prehistoric settlement came to light.
Investigation of the site (300m a.s.l.) involved six squares arranged in two lines (A-F) upon which the new houses were to be built. Areas A, B and F produced fragments of pottery with a dating horizon relating to the “Golasecca” culture. In area F there was a stratigraphic sequence involving four occupation phases, of which the first two were prehistoric and related to the settlement.
Phase 1: a layer of sandy loam containing charcoal.
Phase 2: a wooden structure paved with wooden planks over a cobble make up, was built above the silt layer. The excavation investigated an extensive part of the building. The two outer walls were constituted by simple straight trenches dug into the ancient ground level to a depth of 30-40 cm in order to link the two main supporting poles. The poles could either have been fixed into the ground and wedged with cobbles to provide stability or of the type with a flat end placed directly on appropriately placed even stones or slabs which provided supporting bases and therefore avoided the inconvenience of possible subsidence causing a lowering of the supporting poles of the dwelling’s wooden framework. The stone bases also protected the lower part of the pole from decay caused by damp earth. The trench was partially packed with a dump of cobbles (diam. 5-20cm) and irregular parallelepiped stones.
Within the trench the stratigraphical analysis identified the housing for a wooden beam partially buried in a horizontal position above the stones, which formed the base for a wall made of wood, loam and clay.
In a trench dug to the north of the investigated area five post holes and a floor level were uncovered. The floor had a foundation of cobbles laid in tightly packed rows. Above the cobbles was an occupation layer containing numerous fragments of pottery containers (large dolia or cylindrical/situliform jars); the percentage of finer pottery was much lower and metal, bone and stone finds were absent. The vessels were closed forms. (Barbara Grassi, Roberto Mella Pariani)