The history of a forgotten town: Comacchio and its archaeology

Abstract

Comacchio today is a small town in the province of Ferrara, on the south side of the present estuary of the river Po (fig. 1). It is an early medieval settlement, well-known because of the presence in this territory of a several Etruscan cemeteries. These cemeteries (particularly those at Valle Trebba and the Valle Pega) were mainly explored during the major drainage works, which, early in the last century, made it possible to reclaim large parts of ground from the marshes of the lagoon. These cemeteries provide the best material evidence in this territory of an important emporium which existed between the 6 th and 3 rd centuries BC, also documented by ancient sources 1. Even if mentions of post-Roman contexts including objects of special interest 2 were frequent, the very first excavations which investigated medieval contexts were not undertaken until the 1960s at the site of the origins of Motta della Girata (fig. 2). SAURO GELICHI, DIEGO CALAON, ELENA GRANDI, CLAUDIO NEGRELLI The history of a forgotten town: Comacchio and its archaeology 1 The bibliography concerning early Comacchio is great, but this is not the right occasion to reconsider it; for the excavations see: N. Alfieri, «La ricerca e la scoperta di Spina», in Spina. Storia di una città tra Greci ed Etruschi, eds. F. Berti, P. Guzzo, Ferrara, 1993, p. 3-19. This exhibition catalogue contains updated and useful information about the cemetery, the settlement and its history. 2 We are referring to the discoveries, some of which are dated to the early medieval period, carried out during the drainage works of Valle Ponti (west of the modern Comacchio town), where numerous stone fragments of liturgical furniture came to light that are now dispersed in different private collections, see: P.

Seventh to eleventh century CE glass from Northern Italy: between continuity and innovation

“…The importance of Comacchio as a Late Antique and Early Medieval trading centre is also demonstrated by the recovery of the port structures and warehouses of Villaggio San Francesco (80.000 m 2 ), Comacchio's dedicated harbour area, which became a transfer point between the inland Po Plain waterways (towards Pavia and Milan) and the Adriatic/ Mediterranean Sea routes (Gelichi 2012;Gelichi 2017).…”

“…An Italian archaeological team under the scientific direction of Professor Sauro Gelichi from Ca′ Foscari University of Venice, and Dr. Luigi Malnati, from the "Soprintendenza dei Beni Culturali dell'Emilia Romagna" investigated the area beside the Cathedral of San Cassiano (DMS 44°41'44.8"N 12°10'53.7"E; Comacchio Cathedral and Piazza XX Settembre) containing the remains of a craft workshop with both evidence of metal and glass-working. Two preliminary reports have been published since then (Gelichi et al 2008;Gelichi 2009); followed by two more reviews in recent years (Gelichi et al 2012;Gelichi 2017). The workshop was a significantly sized building (8 × 4 m, c. 120 m 2 ) combining wooden elements with brickwork and foundations made from brick rubble (Fig.…”

“…2). Four chronological phases were identified between the sixth to the eleventh centuries CE for the building (Gelichi et al 2012), but the workshop was active only between the second half of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth centuries CE (Gelichi 2017, 155).…”

“…The presence of a kiln together with many vessel fragments, glass-working debris, glass-working crucibles with molten glass attached to their base, leave no doubt that at least glass-working had occurred in the workshop. After this period, the kiln was not in use: glass-working activities might have been moved elsewhere to supply material for the building of the new cathedral but, at the moment, there is no evidence where (Gelichi et al 2012). During the eighth century, a substantial reorganisation of the area occurred: all the workshop's activities ceased, and the area was converted into a cemetery.…”

Ecologia della Venetia prima di Venezia: uomini, acqua e archeologia

“…La quantità di legno necessario (e la forza lavoro) per tutte le lavorazioni è incredibilmente alta, tale da richiedere una chiara politica di gestione delle foreste. Per dare un esempio numerico, utilizzando il porto di Comacchio di VIII secolo, si consideri che in un settore scavato presso il Villaggio San Francesco 62 , si sono indagati 16 mq di pontile/banchina, con il rinvenimento di circa 25-30 grandi pali, corrispondenti a loro volta a 15/20 alberi abbattuti. Si è calcolato che il porto di Comacchio abbia avuto una estensione massima di 75.000 mq.…”