Research: Nazzano: a trading centre on the Tiber between Etruria and the Italic area
My project aims to investigate the pre-Roman settlement of Nazzano using a multidisciplinary approach, taking into account all available data (archival, literary and epigraphic sources, material culture related to funerary, settlement and sanctuary contexts, topographical research, archaeometric analyses).
The site, which was already sporadically inhabited between the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, saw the emergence of a stable settlement during the 1st millennium BC, closely linked to the nearby port on the Tiber. For this reason, one of the main focus areas of the project will be topographical research related to the role of controlling communication routes in the Tiber area, as a link between Etruria, Umbria, the Faliscan and Capenate territories, Sabina, Rome and Latium Vetus, according to a multiplicity of both terrestrial and fluvial routes, with a relative focus on the cultural and economic contacts that can be inferred between the two banks of the river.
The analysis of the urban structuring process, in parallel with the study of burial grounds, the production aspects of pottery and the phenomenon of “Romanisation”, will be compared above all with other sites in the nearby Tiber area, in particular the centres of Capena and Falerii, with which I have already had the opportunity to examine some of these issues during my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and my postgraduate studies in School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage.