 Archaeological map of the archaic center of Poggio Sommavilla | |
| Location | Comune di Collevecchio |
|---|---|
| Region | Lazio |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Periods | Prehistory, Bronze age, Iron Age, Archaic |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | yes |
| Public access | yes |
The archaeological area of Poggio Sommavilla is an archaeological site located in Poggio Sommavilla, a Frazione of the Comune of Collevecchio in the Tiber valley.
In the archaeological area of Poggio Sommavilla, archaeological finds from prehistory, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age have been found on the Tiber river terraces. Of greater consistency is the archaic period settlement whose name is not known, [1] according to the studies of the data collected it had life and development at least from the prehistoric age up to the Hellenistic age, probably up to the time of its destruction by of the Roman republican army led by the consular tribune Marcus Furius Camillus of Veii, Capena and Falerii Veteres, cities with which it had intense continuity of relations throughout its cultural history. [2]
The morphological entity of the river terrace of Poggio Sommavilla-Grappignano at the confluence of the Tiber and the Aia torrent in front of the Treja (Paleotevere), [6] [7] geologically made up of gravelly-sandy deposits, undoubtedly constitutes the area that boasts the greatest density and the most relevant deposits of the Tiber valley south of the confluence with the Nera, during Prehistory in the Paleolithic period. The importance of the natural resources of the area, which combines extensive cultivated plains with an abundance of water resources identifiable with the presence of two water courses of significant flow such as the Tiber and L'Aia in front of the Treja river (Paleotevere), as well as with the ditches of Colle Rosetta and Grappignano, it certainly had a decisive impact on habitat choices in prehistoric times. The deposits of the Paleolithic period, with stratification in all three phases of the period, identified in the localities of Grappignano and Colli Oti in Poggio Sommavilla, the lithic industry deposits, can be considered a single settlement area. [8] An area of lithic industry is attested in the Colli Oti of Poggio Sommavilla, chronologically representing all the phases of the Paleolithic, located mainly on the plateau at the top of the westernmost hill of the Colli Oti, with an estimated surface area of approx. 1000 m2. Finished lithic tools are found on the ground, many of which can be classified as scrapers, spearheads, arrows, processing matrices, as well as splinters of processing waste. [9] Lithic tools and processing flakes relating to the Middle Paleolithic have been found in an area of approx. 100 m2 of extension located on the southern slopes of the hill on which the historic center of Poggio Sommavilla currently stands, on the land Fondo Moreschi, which extends along the current Via La Valle. [10] [11]
Most of the finds are preserved in Civic archaeological museum of Magliano Sabina, at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome and at the National Archaeological Museum of Florence in Rieti and in many parts of the world, some are preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston including the Fiaschetta di Poggio Sommavilla [12] and at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen. [13] Two red-figure chalice kraters are on display at the Archaeological Museum of Parma.
Fiaschetta pendaglio amuleto [14] [15] of Poggio Sommavilla is a small brown body vase with an inscription [16] from the 7th century BC. belonged to a woman, and found in 1895 in the funerary objects of Tomb III in the Necropolis of the archaic center of Poggio Sommavilla.
From the fantastic animals engraved in the finds of the necropolis of the archaic center of Poggio Sommavilla, very close analogies emerge with the materials from the Capenate and Faliscan areas. With these we discuss clear contacts with Etruscan ceramics, geometric ceramics - dating back to an older phase - and contemporary Etruscan-Corinthian ceramics: common elements appear both in the choice of subjects and in the rendering of the zoomorphic friezes. Tomb 3 of Poggio Sommavilla released a grave goods characterized by decorative plant units and attributable to a single local workshop, equiniform figures prevail, similar ones were found on ollas in the Giglio necropolis of Magliano. [17]
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Media related to Area archeologica di Poggio Sommavilla at Wikimedia Commons