TRA LE CAVE E IL DELTA DEL PO VIE DI TRASPORTO E DINAMICHE DEL COMMERCIO DELLA PIETRA

Abstract

The paper presents the first results of a wide-ranging research project aimed at investigating the forms of supply, transport and
use of different lithotypes in the ancient region of Venetia et Histria, corresponding to the northeastern sector of the Italian peninsula,
during the Roman period. The study was supported by a series of extensive sampling of architectural and building material
carried out at two sites in the Po Delta area. A large number of samples was taken at the National Archaeological Museum in Adria,
formerly a Roman municipium, and at the settlement of San Basilio, a road mansio along the Via Annia. Archaeometric analyses
made it possible to define the lithotypes of the samples taken and to compare these data with the reference database related to the
stone supply basins from the Veneto-Friulan and Emilian geological contexts. This comparison made it possible to reconstruct the
dense infrastructural (river) network that allowed loads of stone material to transit from the quarries to the settlements, where they
were used, and to understand the relationship between the frequency of material use and the dynamics of their transport.

Keywords: Adria, San Basilio/Mansio Hadriani, lithotypes, petrography, Euganean trachyte, Transport networks