L’area sepolcrale della Terramara di Santa Rosa di Poviglio (RE). Contesto, materiali, Riti

During the 2000 field season, several fragments of calcined human bone were recovered in the excavation of a modern ditch around 300 m to the east of the edge of the terramara of Santa Rosa. These brought to light the location of a funerary area related to the site. During the following years (2001 and 2002) a 7000 sq m area was investigated in detail through trenches and excavation pits. The archaeological structures recovered were related to a soil that was also in use during the Iron Age and Roman period and was later buried below Medieval alluvial deposits. The archaeological evidence consists of four cinerary urns, two secondary deposits of parts of a single skull included in two different pits, and several holes of different shapes, many of which containing organic material. Furthermore, the buried soil is cut by irrigation ditches and includes, dispersed in it, several calcined human bones fragments, very few animal bones and some pottery sherds. The cinerary urns - two of which are related to an anomalous burial ritual - contain the remains of two adults and two children. Three phases are distinguishable in the use of the area, ranging from the Middle to the Recent Bronze Age: during the earliest phase, the ditches were excavated to irrigate the area, which was devoted to an agrarian use; after that, the four cinerary urns were deposited; later, probably after the dispersal of pyre remains on the surface of the soil, the holes were opened in part to host wooden posts, and two of them included skull fragments, deposited as votive offer.