Archeology

Archeological Park and Museum exhibit area of the Pistono Lake - Moltalto Dora

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:55:55 GMT

The exhibit space for Archeology of the Pistono Lake was inaugurated in November 2012 inside the town halls, documenting the Prehistory of the inframorainic lakes of Ivrea from the Neolithic period to the Metal Age. The culture and lifestyle of these first inhabitants of a land between mountains and water are told through archeologicalartifacts of significant scientific importance.

The exhibit develops between themed units corresponding to display cabinets and explanation panels used to help understand how and with what peoples from the Neolithic lived and in what way cultural progress influenced their daily life.

Properly inserted in the reference chronological context, the showcases present the archeological material that was found during the studies carried out at the Pistono Lake and the result of research in progress. The prehistoric settlement is characterised by the presence of a cultural horizon involved in at least two structures, of which one was residential, which can be referred to the Middle Neolithic (4900-4500 AD).

Ceramic elements make it possible to place it in the Isolino type Square Mouth Vases culture that characterises the sites near the lake, with pile-dwelling structures in Piedmont and Western Lombardy.

The municipality of Montalto Dora, along with the scientific guidance of the Piedmont Superintendence of Archeological Heritage, proposes an in-depth and dynamic reading of the site, offering the scientific community, but especially a heterogeneous public, a precious building block that is part of a reconstruction of the settlement all the way back to the Prehistoric Era.

The final project will be full of ideas that go beyond the framework of the site within its territorial context and are the inspiration for an in-depth analysis of the themes related to problems of the North-Western Italian Neolithic, with ample references that also go outside of the limited geographical boundaries. The unity of the setting for the entire communication system within the exhibit makes it possible to create a bond between the publicised territorial promotion initiative, a very important and effective aspect in order to build a coordinated image within the entire archeological, environmental and cultural information system.

Pera Cunca

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:31:14 GMT

Released by the Balteo glacier during its withdrawal (approximately 18,000 years ago) has a rounded form and at the centre a large oral cavity. Around it there are dozens of deep cup marks connected by a system of containers, some of them communicating with the central basin.

Based on the must recent publications (*), scholars attribute a cultural function to the rock, this fits quite well with the information know to us related to religious activities of the indigenous populations living in Piedmont between the end of the Bronze era and the Iron Era (between X and II century before Christ)

The artifact, which can be considered very important from a historical and scientific point of view due to its uniqueness, is inside an oak forest on the slope of a morainic hill that divides the territories of Cossano and Borgomasino, in a town called Lusenta.

For information guided visits see www.gruppoarcheologicocanavesano.it

Pons Maior and quay

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:41:17 GMT

The connections between the Northern quay of the DuriaMaior, where the Eporedia was, and the Southern one was guaranteed by the Ponte Vecchio, which even today preserves the Roman structure at the base with only two asymmetric arches, and the even more monumental Ponte Maggiore, build approximately 500 metres downstream. The remains of the structure, emerging the first time in the river bed during the flood of 1977, they were studied and documented during the work restoring the banks after the exceptional flood of 1993.

The bridge, approximately 150 metres long, was presumably built in the I Century AD and collapsed after a violent flood that occurred in an unspecified era, maybe not much after it was built.

The ten arcades of the bridge, with the four central ones larger than the side ones, were each made of five parallel stone arches, filled with a conglomerate cast and resting on eleven concrete piles with an ornamental facing of stone ashlars, based on the alignment of wood poles with metal tips, deeply fixed into the sandy riverbed. The bridge supported a paved road, with a carriageway 5 and a half metres wide, flanked by tight pavements (0.45 m) and protected by parapets exquisitely shaped like a bull.

In correspondence of the bridge, the bank along the Lungo Dora was contained and protected by a quay more than 100 metres long, at its western end there was a sewer line from the town, probably also used as a towing route for boats up to the docking.

Culture Department

Ivrea Municipality

Roman Amphitheatre

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 10:47:40 GMT

Towards the end of the 1st century AD even Eporedia was equipped with an amphitheatre, a large elliptical building destined to house ten to fifteen thousand spectators, dedicated to gladiator games, hunting shows and capital execution of “dannati ad bestias”, meaning those condemned to be torn to pieces or torn to shreds by ferocious beasts.

The complex was along the road towards Vercelli, at the South placed against an imposing wall whose purpose was to support the sloping ground.

The building was built on an embankment completely contained by the podium wall and, outwards, from a ring wall reinforced by a series of semi-circular concamerations, in part still very visible, which were used to contrast the soil thrust. The entrances opened at the two ends of the major axis.

Inside the arena there was an underground room connected by a hallway to the service rooms located under the cavea, it was used to handle scene equipment and animals using a lift, passage with a vault covered ceiling and brick floor running under the podium and connecting the various service rooms made in correspondence with the main axis. The wall of the podium ended in a long transenna decorated by bronze sheets ornate with large relief studs.

Near the ring walls you can still see signs today of the structure of an antique villa demolished to make room for the amphitheatre. Built towards the end of the 1st Century AD, immediately outside of the city and restructured multiple times during a period of approximately one Century, the old mansion had many rooms decorated with frescos, the most recent of them dated between 50 and 70 A D.

Culture Department

Ivrea Municipality

Roman Ivrea

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:42:16 GMT

The Pretoria Gate probably stood at the entrance of the current Via Palestro, but no traces of this have ever been found. Instead, it is certain that the street followed the route of the Decumanus Maximum, because during various restoration work the antique Roman paving of the ducumano was found, slightly wider than 5 metres, where many cardines minores converged.

Next to the entrance of Via Palestro, the building that houses the branch of the IstitutoBancario San Paolo was built from 1982 to 1986. During the works, excavation was carried out that brought to the light interesting traces of Roman Ivrea. There are three different building levels that go back to the Roman era from the I century to the Flavian Age. Besides the ceramic and brick artifacts, the foundations of a building, most likely used ad horreum, meaning a warehouse or a granary.

Running along Via Palestro you can reach Piazza di Città and entering Via dellaCattedrale there is an uphill road at the end of which you can observe the terracotta rocky spur that is a testimony of the presence of the Roman theatre in this area, probably built in I century AD, discovered in 1800 but then demolished and covered by new constructions.

By crossing the public gardens you reach Hotel “La Serra”, where construction works in 1969-70 revealed the remains of a segment of road, foundations of houses along it and a segment of sewers, dated back to the I century AD. The segment of road that was found was one of the cardines minores and under it there was the main sewer, connected to drains from the homes located on the side of the street. One of these connections is still in the same condition it was originally. A tunnel delimited by the thick walls was paved with bricks recovered from previous buildings.

Culture Department

Ivrea Municipality