New Research in the Etruscan Port of Spina (Ferrara): Landscape Reconstruction and the Excavation of an Embankment

The University of Bologna’s archaeological mission at the Etruscan port of Spina has been active since 2020 and aims to collect data to contribute to the reconstruction of the geomorphological and environmental framework of the area during the 1st millennium BCE, as well as to enhance our understanding of the settlement’s structure and its transformation over time. Thanks to an international research team, non-invasive investigations have been carried out across a 30 km² area, and excavations have commenced in a peripheral sector of the main settlement core. These excavations are providing new data on the embankment that bordered the settlement to the west and its surrounding environment, with the goal of understanding the structure’s design, the motivations behind its construction, and its relationship with the dwellings and infrastructure it was intended to protect.