The “Terramare” of Stradello Opera Pia Bianchi at Baggiovara (MO) has been identified as an early settlement that was occupied for a short time. The remains of the “Terramare” village were discovered in 1996 during a field survey, when archaeological material dating to the middle Bronze Age 2 was collected over a vast area (circa 10,000 m2). In subsequent years, the area saw the installation of infrastructures (access road, cycle path and car-parks) related to the construction of the new Modena hospital, situated just south of the settlement. During the construction work, rescue excavations took place that identified Roman and Bronze Age structures. In 2009, the excavations were co-directed by the Archaeological Superintendency of Emilia Romagna and Prof. Andrea Cardarelli and investigated the Bronze Age site, exposing structural and material remains attributable to phases 1 and 2 of the middles Bronze Age.

Twenty school students took part in the 2011 campaign as part of the “Lavoro guidato di scavo archeologico” project, organized by Modena Civic Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (director Dr. Ilaria Pulini) in collaboration with Modena town council.

On the east side of the settlement, the excavations exposed traces of the great ditch, almost 20 m wide and about 4 m deep, which surrounded it in the Bronze Age. The dwellings inside the village were attested by numerous postholes, many of which aligned along perpendicular axis, although the forms of the structures to which they belong have yet to be defined.

The archaeological materials and radiocarbon dating (CEDAD laboratory, Università del Salento, LTL5165A: 3328±45 BP; LTL5167A: 3300±45 BP) date the settlement to the early phases of the middle Bronze Age (between the end of the 17th and the 16th century B.C.)