A New Bronze Age Productive Site on the Margin of the Venice Lagoon: Preliminary Data and Considerations

Cecilia Rossi, Rita Deiana (), Gaia Alessandra Garosi, Alessandro de Leo, Stefano Di Stefano, Sandra Primon, Luca Peruzzo, Ilaria Barone, Samuele Rampin, Pietro Maniero and Paolo Mozzi
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Cecilia Rossi: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per il Comune di Venezia e Laguna, Palazzo Ducale, Piazza San Marco 1, 30124 Venezia, Italy
Rita Deiana: Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35139 Padova, Italy
Gaia Alessandra Garosi: Se.Arch. Srl, Via Copernico, 8, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Alessandro de Leo: Se.Arch. Srl, Via Copernico, 8, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Stefano Di Stefano: Se.Arch. Srl, Via Copernico, 8, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
Sandra Primon: Freelance Geologist, 30124 Venezia, Italy
Luca Peruzzo: Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Via Gradenigo 6, 35129 Padova, Italy
Ilaria Barone: Interdepartmental Research Center for Cultural Heritage, University of Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35139 Padova, Italy
Samuele Rampin: Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Via Gradenigo 6, 35129 Padova, Italy
Pietro Maniero: Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Via Gradenigo 6, 35129 Padova, Italy
Paolo Mozzi: Interdepartmental Research Center for Cultural Heritage, University of Padova, Piazza Capitaniato 7, 35139 Padova, Italy

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: The possibility of collecting new archaeological elements useful in reconstructing the dynamics of population, production and commercial activities in the Bronze Age at the edge of the central-southern Venice Lagoon was provided between 2023 and 2024 thanks to an intervention of rescue archaeology planned during some water restoration works in the Giare–Mira area. Three small excavations revealed, approximately one meter below the current surface and covered by alluvial sediments, a rather complex palimpsest dated to the late Recent and the early Final Bronze Age. Three large circular pits containing exclusively purified grey/blue clay and very rare inclusions of vegetable fibres, and many large, fired clay vessels’ bases, walls and rims clustered in concentrated assemblages and random deposits point to potential on-site production. Two pyro-technological structures, one characterised by a sub-circular combustion chamber and a long inlet channel/praefurnium, and the second one with a sub-rectangular shape with arched niches along its southern side, complete the exceptional context here discovered. To analyse the relationship between the site and the natural sedimentary succession and to evaluate the possible extension of this site, three electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and low-frequency electromagnetic (FDEM) measurements were collected. Several manual core drillings associated with remote sensing integrated the geophysical data in the analysis of the geomorphological evolution of this area, clearly related to different phases of fluvial activity, in a framework of continuous relative sea level rise. The typology and chronology of the archaeological structures and materials, currently undergoing further analyses, support the interpretation of the site as a late Recent/early Final Bronze Age productive site. Geophysical and geomorphological data provide information on the palaeoenvironmental setting, suggesting that the site was located on a fine-grained, stable alluvial plain at a distance of a few kilometres from the lagoon shore to the south-east and the course of the Brenta River to the north. The archaeological site was buried by fine-grained floodplain deposits attributed to the Brenta River. The good preservation of the archaeological structures buried by fluvial sediments suggests that the site was abandoned soon before sedimentation started.

Keywords: Bronze Age; Venice lagoon; pyro-technological structures; fired clay vessels; electrical resistivity tomography (ERT); Frequency Domain Electromagnetic Measurements (FDEM) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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