Metodologie a confronto per lo studio di un paesaggio funerario medio-adriatico: resilienza o discontinuità di una necropoli nella Valle del Nevola tra l'età del ferro e l'età romana?

The territorial surveys of the University of Bologna ongoing since 2017 along the Nevola Valley, in the northern Marche region, led to the identification of a Picenian necropolis of the Orientalizing age (7th-6th century BC) composed of funerary monuments with an annular moat and original tumulus, or partial accumulation, of coverage. Besides determining the discovery of the site, of particular significance for the knowledge of the pre-Roman population and the Picenian presence in this sector of the ager Gallicus, the integration of aerial photography and geophysical prospections (geoelectric and geomagnetic methods) has favoured the preliminary characterization of the buried deposit and directed the subsequent excavation operations, preparatory also to the procedure of preventive verification activated by a project of new construction in the immediate vicinity of the necropolis. The excavations, carried out under ministerial concession, have confirmed many aspects that had been suggested by the non-invasive techniques and allowed a first definition of the chronological evolution of the funerary area, which has known an important phase of use even during the middle-imperial Roman age, after an apparent hiatus of about 600 years. The tomb structures excavated up to now, mainly in the “cappuccina” style, in tile coffin and simple pits, and related grave goods, attest to a particular vitality between the II and IV centuries AD. Their disposition with respect to the Picenian monuments opens reflections on the continuity or discontinuity of occupation and on the value attributed to the context with the structuring of the dominion of Rome in the territory initiated in the 3rd century BC, with particular regard to the policies of submission of the indigenous cultural component. Although still preliminary, the collected data seem to testify the existence of a complex and important funerary landscape, also for topographic position, hinged, at least during the Picenian age, on large monuments that had also a function of territorial markers. The analysis started on the cemeterial nucleus of Roman age, later added to the original one, poses problems of chronological gaps and suggestions concerning the possible resilience of a place as a burial and memory site. Associated with this are considerations about the perception of forms, symbols and values of the most ancient funerary landscape by the Roman settlers, and more generally about the survival of the cultural landscape through the centuries and the societies settled here. From a methodological point of view, the comparison between non-invasive diagnostic techniques and archaeological excavation has triggered a valuable process of mutual feedback of data, which still continues in the light of ongoing research. Further food for thought concerns the capabilities and limits of the non-invasive survey methodologies used in relation to the targets of the research, verified, albeit only partially, by the excavation.