A necropolis with important late Roman tomb groups and an unusual 1st century A.D. tomb was uncovered at Bernate Ticino (MI) during work on the construction of the Turin-Milan High Capacity railway. This find constitutes a significant discovery as recently published and excavated late Roman tombs which provide sure data relating to tomb structure and tomb groups are quite rare, especially in the Milan area. The 1st century A.D. tomb is completely anomalous having a particular “a cassa” structure made of cobbles and a tomb group comprising glass, gold and amber. (Laura Simone Zopfi)

On the A4 motorway, a section leading to the town of Bernate-Ticino is under construction, which for a certain stretch, runs on a tangent to the AV/AC Novara-Milan railway. In 2005, twelve late Roman tombs and one early imperial burial were uncovered during the construction of this railway. In 2011, during the watching brief on the construction work, a further 33 burials were found, providing a substantial amount of new evidence regarding the use of the cemetery area and moving back the date of its origins. Only preliminary considerations can be made here as the finds have yet to be conserved and it is difficult to distinguish the exact typology of many of them, especially the metal artefacts. The cemetery’s earliest phase was attested by seven Celtic burials, which, at present seem datable to the La Tène C1/C2 (250-120 B.C.), and there appeared to be no tombs datable to the LT D, the so-called “Romanisation phase”. An interesting find in one of the burials was a probable armlet with “D” – shaped section, made of impasto pottery, associated with an unusual pair of short, stubby iron tweezers and at least three fibulae, which seem to fit within the La Tène typology. Following an episode of serious flooding, during the course of the 1st century the area was again used as a cemetery. Two cremation burials belong to this phase, one containing a Firmalampen with the stamp PRISCI. There was no other evidence for occupation across the entire area until the late Roman period, when the cemetery counts another 24 burials, in part adjacent to the area where tombs were found in 2005. Many of the burials contained grave goods that were similar to those of the previous find, with the exception of the noticeable absence of the anforette with pinched handles, characteristic of several tomb groups excavated in 2005, and the polyhedric glass-paste beads. These elements had suggested the presence at Bernate of a group of humans who came from eastern parts of the Cisalpine area (Bresciano-Veneto), or were in contact with these populations, between the 3rd century and first half of the 4th century. The absence of such elements may suggest that the burials found in 2011 were slightly earlier in date, but further confirmation will have to wait until the conserved grave goods have been studied.