Archaeological Context

One of the most important centres of the Iron Age of the Northern Picenum area is the hill of Novilara (43° 51′ N - 12° 55′ E) (Figure 4.2.1.1) in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino. In

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fact, the Novilara site is characterized by an abundance of grave goods, systematically excavated starting from the end of the 19th century, good conservation status of the skeletal remains and, lastly, by a considerable amount of scholarly literature (Brizio, 1895; Beinhauer, 1985; Delpino et al., 2016, in press).

Figure 4.2.1.1 | Geographic location of the Novilara site: a) archaeological fieldworks area during the campaign of 2012, b) example of burial found during 2012-2013 (woman's grave n. 10, 7th century BC).

As mentioned above, the necropolis of Novilara has been known in literature since the late 19th century. The first excavations, in an almost clandestine way, were carried out in the1873s by the Count Bonamini in the so-called “Servici area”. Afterwards, an archaeological survey was practised in the 1891s by Ciro Antaldi (curator at the Oliveriano Archaeological Museum of Pesaro, Italy), Eugen Ludwig Bormann (German-Austrian historian), and the archaeologist Gian Francesco Gamurrini, who published the discovery in the magazine "Notizie degli Scavi". Later, between the 1892s and the 1893s, Edoardo Brizio conducted a systematic archaeological investigation in two different areas: the so-called

“Molaroni area” and the “Servici area”. He discovered 263 burials with related grave goods (dating back to the 8th and 7th centuries BC), then exposed at the Oliveriano Archaeological Museum (Brizio, 1895; Beinhauer, 1985). The archaeological investigations were resumed in

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the 1912s by Innocenzo Dall'Osso (Delpino et al., 2016), but all the grave goods of the 30 burials found, transported to the National Archaeological Museum of the Marches (Ancona, Italy), were forever lost in the 1944s, during the aerial bombardment that struck the city of Ancona.

In the 2006s a new research began, because of some major works related to the enlargement of a motorway. The Archaeological Superintendence of the Marche region highlighted how it was likely to recover interesting stratigraphic units close to the tunnel entrance of the new lane of the A14 highway. Thus, the Superintendence required that all the excavation procedures were followed by a group of archaeologists, and that, in case of interesting archaeological findings, the regulation of the”article 90 of the d.lsg. 42/2004”

would be applied. In October 2011, the presence of some filled pits - possible graves - was noted. The archaeological investigations began in March 2012 with a small group of archaeologists and anthropologist under the supervision of the archaeologist Chiara Delpino.

The excavation focused both on the northern and southern slope of the Novilara hill, for a total area of 12,550 m². Since the works for the enlargement to three lanes of the highway have never been stopped, the excavation strategies were determined with the “Autostrade S.p.a.” company, according to the construction necessities. Thus, the entire area was divided into excavation districts, alternatively parallel or perpendicular to the entrance of the tunnel, and this approach permitted both to never stop the enlargement works and to allow the application of a rigorous excavation methodology. Later, the area was divided into 5x5 meters excavation squares, named with letters and numbers, in order to easily determine the spatial collocation of the archaeological assemblages recovered.

During the archaeological excavations of the 2012s and the 2013s, 150 new burials have been discovered, dating back to the 8th and 7th centuries BC (Figure 4.2.1.2). The burials were generally in a good conservation status. Just in restricted areas, where a more important natural erosion phenomenon took place, profound ploughings had already brought to the surface some skeletal remains and grave goods. The burials showed unitary burial practices:

all the skeletons recovered were crouched on the right side with flexed legs (Delpino et al., 2016). Only the arms and the rotation of the chest showed some degree of flexibility, but it is hard to determine if this was the consequence of a deliberate behaviour or solely a random effect. The mandible was almost always connected to the cranium and in several situations, the mouth was tightened. This fact could be due to the presence of bandages, as the orderly aspect of feet seems to indicate as well, that the feet, in fact, were often placed side by side or

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one over the other (Delpino et al., 2016). The burial site consisted of pits almost always occupied by a wooden structure with a lid that, decomposing, left in the ground some blackish charcoal lenses (meaning some minor thin lines of deposit), reddish secondary clays or whitish lenses. Some pits were even filled, on the top of the lid, with some marine gravel (Delpino et al., 2016).

Figure 4.2.1.2 | Map of the Novilara necropolis. Within the necropolis, some areas clearly appear to have been more densely used and others show small, scattered groups of graves (for example the “Group 1” and the “Group 2”).

In all the burials, with a slight preference for the ones reserved to female individuals, some grave goods were found next to or above the body, witnessing a well-defined burial practice.

The simpler and more ancient goods were composed by few personal bronze ornaments, such as fibulae of different measures and types, some fictile (clay) objects, like small two-handled cups, kothons and ollettes. The more complex grave goods consisted of several personal objects, as utensils, pottery, ornaments, and clothes. Making a distinction between male and female burials, these latter ones were better structured and richer. The male burials mainly contained bronze and iron weapons and razors, while the female one’s contained pottery, spools and sewing weights, personal ornaments such necklaces, fibulae, brooches and rings

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often decorated with amber stones and clothes. Obviously, not all the grave goods were so rich, defining a certain degree of social structure within the community.

Among all the skeletal remains of which we determined the age, 80% belonged to adults, while 20% belonged to infants, children, and adolescences (Delpino, in press). Within the necropolis, some areas clearly appear to have been more densely used and others show small, scattered groups of graves (Figure 4.2.1.2). From an archaeological perspective, the burials repartition potentially shows that the necropolis’ funerary space was structured following family or clan-related groups. For example, the “Group 1”, one of the two burial clusters here presented (Figure 4.2.1.2), is clearly segregated from the other. The presence of a homogeneous number of graves of men, women, and children of all ages (newborns, infants and children), buried with wealthy grave goods dating to the middle of the 7th century BC, seem to indicate the existence in this period of familiar units of an elevated social status (Delpino, in press). In fact, one of the wealthiest infant burials found in the necropolis (burial 58) is part of this group. Moreover, the discovery of the grave (burial 57) of a young woman buried with a peculiar funerary practice (her grave pit was lining with marine pebbles) may suggest a female exogamy, yet to be tested by genetic data. In the “Group 2” here presented (Figure 4.2.1.2), the burials are distributed following a semi-circular pattern that resembles the grave mounds of other Italian Iron Age cultures, settled in central Italy from Tuscany to Abruzzo regions (Dalla Fina, 2015). In addition, in this graves group, both adults and infant were buried in equal extent.