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Excavation

  • Fontanelle
  • Fontanelle
  •  
  • Italy
  • Lazio
  • Province of Frosinone
  • Frosinone

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)

  • A series of structures belonging to an ancient settlement were brought to light in the level area of the modern center of Fontanelle, at the south-west of the hill, in the vicinity of the river Cosa. Of note are a group of tombs, a pottery workshop and a residential structure, datable as a group between the end of the eighth and the fourth centuries BC.

    The tombs
    The tombs may be dated to around the middle of the seventh century BC. There are two “bisoma” tombs and one “monosoma,” perhaps belonging to a single family unit. The furnishings consist of bowls, small amphorae, miniature single-handle vases in ceramic impasto ware, bronze fibulae, and impasto spindle whorls.

    The pottery workshop
    To the south of the tombs a production zone was discovered, as suggested by the remains of three kilns with over-fired walls and filled with coal, baked clay and wasters. A large part of the pottery discovered consists of vases datable between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Traces of wooden structures were found connected to the kilns, and may be related to the roofing of the workshop.

    The residential structure
    In the eastern sector it is possible to reconstruct a large rectangular wooden structure (10-11 × 5 m.), perhaps with a portico, with a fenced enclosure and small holes which may be interpreted as small wells or accommodations for dolia. The materials collected testify to a use of the site between the sixth and fifth centuries BC, and are mainly domestic, such as dolia, vases, bowls, handled cups, cooking stands, filters, spools, spindle whorls, loom weights and numerous quern. The later finds include jars in coarse cream ware and in internal slip ware.

    Above the layer containing this material there was a building of which only the foundation in stones and post-holes for the elevation in wood are conserved. The pavement level was cobbled in river stones; within it are still preserved in situ the remains of two dolia of red impasto. The materials discovered indicate a use of the building in the fourth century BC, and its later abandonment at the time of the Roman conquest of Frusino.
    (Sandra Gatti)

Director

  • Sandra Gatti - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio

Team

  • Dario Pietrafesa
  • Federico Bistolfi

Research Body

  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Lazio

Funding Body

  • Società COSAC

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