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  • Tetto Chiappello
  • Tetto Chiappello
  •  
  • Italy
  • Piedmont
  • Province of Cuneo
  • Caraglio

Credits

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Periods

  • No period data has been added yet

Chronology

  • 650 BC - 600 BC
  • 5000 BC - 4500 BC

Season

    • The preliminary work for the plantation of a beech wood on the ridge at the border between the municipalities of Valgrana and Caraglio, in the Maritime Alps at 1020 m a.s.l., exposed a substantial amount of archaeological material dating to the middle Neolithic period (first half of the 5th millennium B.C.). The material included pottery fragments with meander-spiral decoration attributable to the culture of the _Vasi a Bocca Quadrata_, flint flakes and waste from the working of smooth green stone. During the first excavation campaign, a stone “cassetta” was found at the edge of the area with Neolithic stratigraphy. Made of wide stone flakes, its base was circa 50 cm in diameter. Inside was a globular vase with a short neck, which an examination in the laboratory of the Superintendency revealed contained neither burnt bone nor grave goods. There were no traces of any covering (stone slabs, pottery vessels etc) for the “cassetta” or the vase. This type of structure is similar to examples found in cemeteries in the Cuneo area, while the vase form is similar to funerary urns at Chiavari (Genoa). This find may be interpreted as a ritual offering, or better, a burial monument dating to the middle Iron Age, reproducing the structure and characteristics of a tomb.

Bibliography

    • M. Venturino Gambari, F. Rubat Borel, 2010, Valgrana-Caraglio, località Tetto Chiappello. Urna dell’età del Ferro deposta in cassetta litica, in Quaderni della Soprintendenza Archeologica del Piemonte, 25: 212-213.