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Excavation

  • Gazzo, Ronchetrin
  • Gazzo
  •  
  • Italy
  • Lombardy
  • Province of Mantua
  • Quistello

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)

  • This was the third excavation campaign in the locality of Ronchetrin at Gazzo Veronese. A 17 × 5 m trench was opened in order to further investigate the necropolis situated along the Roman road known as the “via Claudia Augusta Padana”, uncovered in 2015. A further 14 cremation burials were excavated in the sands forming the hump on the side of the road’s lateral ditch (13 were identified in 2015 and 2 in 2014). Their state of preservation was very different due to the diversity of depth in relation to the surface of the hump (that got higher towards the south) and therefore had suffered different levels plough damage. The tombs situated further south were destroyed down to the base; those to the north were better preserved, also because they were partially covered by the turf that formed in the area after the road system went out of use.

    As in 2015, the tombs, of various types, were positioned in two untidy rows parallel to the ditch, on different alignments (and in one case at a different depth). In most cases, the tombs were indirect cremations, but at least two seemed direct cremations. Most were “cassette” made of imbrices (in one case sesquipedales), which in turn – in at least two cases – could have contained a wooden box. One tomb perhaps contained a round container made of wickerwork or something similar, which had perished over time. Two burials were dug directly in the ground, two presented neither earth from the pyre, burnt bone, or grave goods suggesting it may have been robbed in antiquity. The last contained only burnt bones without the burnt soil or grave goods, but the presence of a possible bustum nearby suggests this was a single funerary context. In only three cases was the covering identified, constituted by an imbrex or sesquipedales. Due to the impact of agricultural work, which had heavily cut the necropolis ground surface, no grave markers were found. In all cases, the soil from the pyre was placed outside the “cassetta”, always within the quadrangular pit dug to contain the burial. In one case, the soil was placed on either side of the “cassetta”, suggesting a double cremation. In some burials, there were small concentrations of burnt bones on top of the bottom imbrex, perhaps once contained in small bags made of perishable material. The burnt soil was collected from each burial for the oseteological analyses of the bones and palaeobotanical/archaeozoological analyses of the plant/animal remains.

    The grave goods were very well-preserved and datable to between the late 1st century – early 2nd century A.D. The tomb groups were mainly constituted by olpai, pouring vessels, balsamari, some deformed by the heat, glass cups, lamps, and coins. Also present were two bronze fibulae, a pair of gold earrings, a small iron knife, perhaps a spindle whirl and a small bronze spatula. Chemical analyses are being carried out on the intact ceramic and glass vessels in an attempt to define their content.

  • Patrizia Basso – Università degli Studi di Verona, Dipartimento Cultura e Civiltà 

Director

Team

  • Alberto Manicardi – S.A.P.

Research Body

  • Università degli Studi di Verona, Dipartimento Culture e Civiltà

Funding Body

  • Comune di Gazzo Veronese
  • Consorzio di Bonifica Veronese
  • Fondazione Bosis
  • Università degli Studi di Verona, Dipartimento Culture e Civiltà
  • Verallia Saint-Gobain Vetri SPA

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