An ancestral legend tells of the Pelasgians, enigmatic forefathers of the Etruscans. During the late Bronze Age, after long wanderings, they would have landed along the northern Adriatic shores and then settled along the Italian peninsula…

Since 2011 an archaeological project focused on the key site of Verucchio settlement, near Rimini, is carried out by the University of Pavia – Department of Human Studies, together with the local Archaeological Service and the Verucchio Municipality.

The modern village is set in a charming countryside, standing on a hilltop rich in fresh and healing water that dominates both the Adriatic coast and the Marecchia river – which in ancient times was a true ‘highway’ connecting the sea with the mouth of the Tiber river and the central Italy regions.

Verucchio was a main central place of the Villanovan culture north of the Apennines, flourishing between 9^th and 7^th centuries BC. Ongoing research on funerary costumes has shed light on the social structuring of elite groups, which managed international trades such as the ‘amber route’ – imported from the distant Baltic Sea – and developed an internal craftsmanship of wooden and metal goods of unique quality.

However, after early casual discoveries during the late nineteenth century, and semi-published 1960s and 1970s excavation trenches in the ‘Pian del Monte’ area, the settlement of Verucchio was still almost unknown. The ‘Pavia Verucchio Project’ aims thus to discover the settlement structures, the complex population dynamics and the various aspects of daily life and material culture.

The main goal of our project is to render, for the first time, the ancient landscape of Verucchio as a whole, using advanced techniques of investigation and processing of geological, archaeological and archaeometric data.

The best preserved Early Iron Age evidences discovered so far are long ditches and sunken-featured structures related to soil remediation and area delimitation. Enigmatic furrows in the soil underneath can even recall the ceremonial actions performed only a few years later by Romulus during the mythical foundation of Rome…

With your help the archaeologists of Pavia will be able to carry on the historical reconstruction of the population dynamics, and to investigate the thrilling rise and fall of this ancient site. We could also develop and strengthen educational solutions, such as 3D and even 4D reconstructions, addressed to a wider and international audience.

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