Le necropoli preromane di Terni tra Archeologia e sviluppo industriale postunitario

This paper presents an analysis of an example of ante litteram preventive archaeology, connected to the discovery of the pre-Roman necropolis of Terni, with particular regard to the site of San Pietro in Campo. The excavation of the circa 120 tombs, most of which date to the Orientalising Period, took place in two distinct phases: the first excavation was carried out at the beginning of the 20th c. and the second one at the end of it. In this paper, the archaeological discoveries of the first campaign are presented against the backdrop of the cultural and historical environment of the Umbrian town between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, during which time it was characterised by an intense process of industrialization. Thanks to a systematic study of various sets of archival documents, it has been possible to, on the one hand sketch out a detailed picture of the complex and conflicting relationship between the development of the modern city and the rediscovery of pre-Roman tombs, while on the other hand recovering and analysing essential archaeological data belonging to contexts that would otherwise have been “lost”.