Pietramara project. Archaeological excavation of the rock church and necropolis

Pietramara Project. Archaeological excavation of the rock church and necropolis of Pietramara (Bassano in Teverina – VT).

Responsible for the research:

Salvatore De Vincenzo in codirectorship with Giancarlo Pastura

Start date: 2018

End date: Undefined

Brief description and objectives of the research:

The territory of Bassano in Teverina, despite the strategic role conferred to it by its position as a hinge between the Tiber valley and the routes of penetration to central Italy and the large amount of archaeological evidence, has long remained on the margins of scientific research. Only in recent years, thanks to an agreement stipulated between the Municipal Administration of Bassano in Teverina, the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Metropolitan Area of Rome, the province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria and the University of Tuscia (DISTU Department), excavation activities have been started in the Pietramara locality, where reconnaissance had returned traces of intense frequentation referable already to the Roman age. In particular, referring to this era, of note are the kilns for the production of bricks found along the banks of the Tiber and the rock monuments in the Casole area.

The excavations, however, conducted with the collaboration of the Bassano Archaeological Group, have revealed an ecclesiastical-type structure associated with a necropolis characterized by the use of anthropomorphic tombs, which allow it to be chronologically framed in the early medieval period. It is, therefore, a church that arose in function of an extensive necropolis area, but, contrary to what is reported in scholarly traditions, it is positioned in a place far from the one where, later, the castrum of Bassano would develop. One can speak, in this case, of a real rural church, at least at the time of its foundation, recognizable today in an apsidal structure of modest dimensions. In the midst of the medieval age, however, it continued to be officiated while maintaining its funerary character and remaining, therefore, a place of reference worship for the local population, which promoted its maintenance and architectural renovation works, such as the addition between the 11th – 12th centuries of the small bell tower.

The site is also particularly interesting for the presence of numerous “pestarole,” i.e., basins dug into the tuffaceous boulder for productive purposes. In Pietramara there are single ones, with drainage channels, connected to each other, of various shapes, in some cases protected by a structure made of wooden poles driven around and covered by a roof, certainly attributable to seasonal work related to agricultural-farming production connected to the use of liquids, probably wine or water.

The next excavation campaigns will allow us to understand not only the chronologies of the individual artifacts, but also the settlement dynamics of this sector of the Bassano countryside, which in light of the information gathered so far appear particularly active in the period between the 8th and 12th centuries.

Possible collaborating bodies and institutions: Project in agreement with the Municipality of Bassano in Teverina (VT) and the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria.

Type of Funding and Call:

The project is funded by the Municipality of Bassano in Teverina (amount of funding: 12,000 euros for the biennium 2021-2022).