Ricerc@Sapienza

The Monte Croce Guardia settlement, one of the most important sites of the Proto-Villanovan culture, stretches over a naturally defended hill top plateau, which overlooks a wide part of the surrounding territory from the Adriatic coast to the Apennine ridge.
In 2015 the Sapienza University of Rome - Department of Antiquity started new excavations at the site granted by the Unione Montana Esino-Frasassi and the Arcevia Municipality.
The results are remarkable: 1) several large rectangular huts and significant traces of metallurgic activity have been identified; 2) the complexity and total extension of the settlement (approximately 16 ha.) have been ascertained; 3) a reliable chronology of the settlement, whose occupation spanned from a late phase of the Recent Bronze Age to the Final Bronze Age (1200-1000 BC), has been defined.
The foundation of Monte Croce Guardia hillfort appears to be related with a wider transformation in the settlement pattern of Late Bronze Age Italy. Concurrently with the establishment of this new centre, predating settlements located in the lower areas near the mountain were abandoned, thus it is possible that these communities moved on the hilltop, choosing a more strategic location. On a general scale, this evidence indicates that the beginning of the Late Bronze Age in mainland Italy was a period of socio-economic instability that gave rise to significant historical transformations.
The aims of the new excavation project are:
A- Identify the spatial organisation of the settlement, in order to define both the demography and socio-economic structure of a large Late Bronze Age centre. These aspects in fact are very scarcely known as regards Central Italian Bronze Age settlements.
B - Compare and contrast the data from the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian sides of Italy during the Late Bronze Age.
C - Improve the knowledge of the historical phenomena of socio- economic and cultural transformations characterising Late Bronze Age Italy.