Archaeology
Archaeology means passion, an interest for the past that means discovering our origins and our culture.
Piacenza and its province offer visits, interactive activities and didactics labs in museums and archaeological sites for primary and secondary schools. Archaeological approaches also for adults.
Archaeological itineraries in the province of Piacenza:
The Padana Plain is not as old as one can think: in the Tertiary period it was formed by a wide sea inlet, as it is witnessed by the fossils and shells recently found.
In the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic ages (IX century – V century B.C.) hominids lived on our mountains, while the Neolithic age saw the start of farming (4500 B.C.): in Olza, next to Fiorenzuola d’Arda (Val d’Arda), there are traces of the first villages built on piles and so it is in Casa Gazza and in Sant’Andrea, next to Travo (Val Trebbia) and in Val Tidone.
Next to Travo, some flint knives and a piece of cobbled paving are evidence of the human presence during the Copper Age (2700 – 1800 B.C.).
In Val Tidone, in Piana di San Martino, next to Rocca d’Olgisio, many findings can be dated back to the Bronze and Iron Ages (from IX century B.C.).
After the Iron Age, the Etruscan period is documented by the precious ‘Etruscan Liver’ (a bronze sheep liver once used by the priests to foretell the future) that was found in 1877 in Settima, next to Gossolengo.
At the end of IV century B.C., Gauls and Romans moved from the other side of the Alps to Emilia where, in 218 B.C. they founded a colony called Placentia. In the same year the Second Punic War took place along the Trebbia River: the Carthaginian armies, led by Hannibal and settled on the river left bank in the nearby of Tavernago (Agazzano), fought against the Romans who were settled on the other bank next to Niviano and Ancarano (Rivergaro). The battle was very hard and the Romans, led by the consuls Publio Cornelio Scipione and Sempronio Longo, were crushingly defeated. A legend tells that Hannibal, who during the Punic War stayed for a long time in the countryside of Piacenza, left a wounded elephant in the local farmers’ care. Since no Carthaginian came back to take this animal, the local population got used to its presence and started to take advantage of it to till the soil and as a mean of transport. Because of this legend, the coat of arms of Gossolengo still represents an elephant.
Our archaeological itinerary starts in the Archaeological Museum in Piacenza that is located in Palazzo Farnese and preserves some relics dated back to the Palaeolithic and Neolithic Ages. A room is dedicated to the objects of the Copper and Bronze Ages: two beautiful knives found next to the Po River in Castel San Giovanni, ceramics, pottery and objects made of bronze or bone found in a village on pile in Chiaravalle della Colomba. Among the funerary objects five precious swords made of bronze that were thrown into the Po River as votive offerings for the river god.
The most important and rare object preserved in this museum is the Etruscan Liver, a sheep liver made of bronze, found in 1877 in Ciavernasco next to Settima (Gossolengo). Used by the Etruscan priests to foretell the future, this is the unique copy still existing.
Experts think it was made in Northern Etruria between the end of II and the beginning of I century B.C.
The Val Tidone Archaeological Museum is located in the basement of Rocca dal Verme, seat of the Town Hall of Pianello Val Tidone. It was born in 1999 thanks to the cooperation between the Regional Archaeological Office and the volunteers of Pandora Archaeological Association. This museum preserves fossils found in Val Tidone that illustrate the Pianura Padana origins and formation, objects dated back to Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages and also Roman remains (I century B.C. – late Roman Empire). Pandora Association discovered the remains of a settlement dated back to II and I millennium B.C. and of a medieval church in Piana di San Martino, a part of a Roman mansion next to Arcello and another one next to Trevozzo, a Roman grave in Ganaghello. This Association also worked together with the Regional Archaeological Office during the excavations in the area of the present graveyard in Pianello: some remains of a Roman settlement (I century B.C. – I century A.D.) together with a High Middle Ages necropolis came to light.
The charming castle in Travo has got in its inside the Archaeological Museum of the Middle Val Trebbia: opened in 1997, it preserves many prehistoric, Roman and medieval objects, all of them found by the Cultural Research Group ‘La Minerva’ together with the Regional Archaeological Office. The first settlements in Val Trebbia are witnessed by the discovery of blades, splinters, points and scrapers made of flint or jasper belonging to the Palaeolithic Age (at about 150,000 years ago), relics from the Mesolithic Age (IX – V millennium B.C.) and from the Neolithic one (above all cups, bowls, vases, bottles with decorated long necks, jars).
Other objects are dated back to the Copper , Bronze and Iron Ages, evidence of Ligurian and Celtic settlements. The museum preserves also some Etruscan relics, among them the most important one is an arch-shape buckle (VI century B.C.).
The Neolithic site in S. Andrea, next to Travo, is one of the most important sites in Northern Italy: it’s a huge area on the left bank of Trebbia River, where they discovered the foundations of big rectangular houses together with many pits used as coal storages and many relics such as: cups, bowls, whorls to spin linen and handmade flint objects.
The main characteristic of Travo Archaeological Park (Neolithic site in S. Andrea) is the presence of many well-preserved houses with wooden sloping roofs covered with ditch reeds: a perfect reproduction (for dimensions, dispositions of volumes and materials) of the old huts. For further information concerning the main events and the interactive activities for schools, please visit the Archaeological Park web-site: www.archeotravo.it .
In Val Chero you can visit the Archeological Site in Veleia: originally a Ligurian settlement, it became in I century B.C. a Roman town. In 1747 the ‘Tabula Alimentaria Traianea’ (II century A.D.) came to light. This bronze board, that quotes the landed properties of the area, is the most important document of the Roman history. In 1763 another bronze panel describing the ancient laws, the ‘Lex Rubria de Gallia Cisalpina’, was discovered. The archaeological remains tell that Veleia, once a famous centre because of its therapeutic waters, had the layout of the typical Roman towns. Firstly they met the spa with ‘frigidarium’, ‘tepidarium’ and ‘calidarium’. Then there was the ‘antiquarium’, used as storage for agricultural products, and walking along the narrow streets paved in cobblestones they saw the ‘pistrinum’, the corn and the oil mills. The shops and houses foundations are still visible. In the middle the forum, once surrounded by columns and statues, next to it the basilica and in front of it a temple, a well and the amphitheatre. In the basilica there were twelve statues dedicated to the Julius – Claudia family and the ‘Tabula Alimentaria’. The typical house was the ‘domus’ for just one family characterized by the arrangement of the rooms all around the lobby. The ‘Antiquarium’ is in a small building, wanted by the Duchess Maria Luigia, inside the archaeological site: it preserves architectural materials, sculptures, inscriptions and funeral objects such as buckles, rings, bracelets, lances, iron swords and ceramics.
In summer the archaeological site becomes a suggestive setting for theatrical pieces (1.2.3).