A princely tomb in central Italy: a planned discovery

The article presents the unprecedented discovery of an extraordinary new site for Italian archaeology at Corinaldo, near the Adriatic coast in northern Marche. It concerns a Picenian necropolis of the Orientalising period with large funerary monuments bordered by circular ditches, the excavation of one of which has yielded a high-ranking tomb dating back to the 7th century BC. The contribution describes the important discovery with attention to the methodological assumptions that determined it and that constitute the most original element of the work. In fact, the new acquisition took place within the framework of a procedure of preventive archaeology, with the adoption of non-invasive survey and exploration methods that led to the identification of the site and then facilitated the planning of archaeological operations and excavations. The archaeological context is also of undoubted importance in its specificity and characteristics, as it represents an extremely rare example for the northern Marche region of a funerary monument with an annular moat and probable burial mound typical of the apogee phase of the Picenian culture, opening up new perspectives on the history and population dynamics of the area. The research thus contributes to illuminating wide-ranging aspects of Picenian culture in this part of central Italy, while also highlighting the growing symbiosis between academic research and development-led archaeology in heritage conservation and planning processes throughout Italy.