This was the fourth campaign of excavations dedicated to exploring the crossing between the Small Village and the Large Village of the “Terramare” site of Santa Rosa di Poviglio, concentrating on the western edge that had not previously been reached.

At the edge of the Small Village, the excavation examined the contexts relating to the latest phases of the stratigraphy. The N-W segment of the bridge and the large postholes that came to light, some place obliquely to reinforce the structure, were of particular interest. The ditch and numerous wells adjacent to the bridge were also fully explored.

The data from the 2018 campaign and that from the previous ones, showed that the bridge appeared to originate from a rise reinforced by numerous cobblestones at the foot of the scarp of the Small Village with a complex rectangular structure with reinforced sides. the archaeological material from this context confirmed that the structures belonged to the latest phases of the Late Bronze Age. In crossing the ditch, at least four rows of posts were arranged over an overall width of c. 6 m. On either side of this arrangement, there were two more rows of posts, on a different alignment from the bridge posts. There interpretation is uncertain, but they could constitute panels to protect the bridge.

One of the numerous pits in the ditch contained, under a layer of large cobblestones, the complete skeleton of a baby pig. The circumstances of its discovery show that it was certainly a ritual deposition. Indeed, based on the radiocarbon dating it dates to a very late phase of the LB2, on the threshold of the crisis that would determine the abandonment of the settlement of Santa Rosa and more generally the collapse of the “Terramare” civilisation. An evocative interpretation would be to associate the votive offering with the drought that had manifested itself locally with the lowering of the water tables and subsequent excavation of wells in the ditches to try to reach the deeper ones.

Lastly, at the end of the campaign, three core samples were taken to then north of the site, in order to make a detailed analysis, based on the palaeo-botany, of the palaeo-environmental context of the “Terramare” site and its relationship with the palaeo-riverbed of the river Po.