L’abitato di Castiglione (Roma): Risultati archeologici e paleoambientali sulla base dell’analisi spaziale e funzionale dei materiali

The Osteria dell’Osa-Gabii-Castiglione area is located approximately 20 km east of Rome, with the ancient volcanic crater of Castiglione at its centre, presents very well-defined morphological and environmental characteristics. So far, the site of Castiglione, in the inner belt on the eastern side of the crater, is the only known Bronze Age site. A flat area on the shore or in the immediate vicinity of a lake or marshy area, close to a series of springs, sheltered from the north-eastern quadrant winds by the high rocky ridge and favourably exposed to the west in terms of insolation, was chosen for the settlement. At the beginning of the Iron Age, the settlement was almost completely destroyed by the setting up of a necropolis. With regard to the Bronze Age settlement, no structures were found, but only a few impasto pottery concentrations and faunal remains, with some vessels partially recognisable and apparently in situ. The best preserved areas correspond to the margins of the settlement, located towards the lake basin. An attempt was made to reconstruct the types of activities that took place there and to interpret the organisation and use of space through the functional analysis and distribution on the ground of all the artefacts found in the settlement. These data will be compared with similar contemporary contexts. The pottery analysis made it possible to date the settlement to the final phase of the Middle Bronze Age, although an older phase cannot be excluded, while it does not seem to continue into the Late Bronze Age. Some information for the reconstruction of the settlement’s features can be obtnained from the study of natural and environmental data. Based on the recognisable extension on the ground, the settlement must have been a village of huts, where a few dozen people lived. The characteristics of the area suggest a predominantly agricultural economic model, integrated by cattle breeding practices. The sustenance of the herds could have been provided by the fallow arable land and the meadows located within 2.5 km of the settlement. The practice of transhumance to the more distant pastures of the Tiber plain, the Colli Albani and the Prenestini mountains cannot be excluded.