Nuovi dati sulla topograa antica di Piammiano-Statonia

Abstract

Piammiano is placed between Bomarzo and Mugnano (Viterbo Province, Italy), on large irregular plateau (approx. 45
ha) of a hill bordered by steep slopes and located along the western side of the Middle Tiber Valley, at the con#uence
of the Vezza Stream with the river. Already inhabited in pre-protohistoric times, it was subsequently occupied during
the Etruscan and Roman times by a settlement which constituted the main centre of internal Tiberian Etruria between
Orvieto and Orte. Piammiano was a+ected by an intense archaeological excavation activity carried out starting from
1830, which mainly focused on the necropolises extended along the slopes of the hill; however, attention was paid only
to the recovered grave goods and there was no interest in the contextualization of the "nds and in the settlement to
which the burials pertained. Recently, various Institutions conducted, between 1996 and 2016, archaeological inves-
tigations aimed at understanding the topography of the settlement and its transformations; these studies were based
on archaeological surveys, excavations and geophysical prospecting. Later, between 2016 and 2018, the CNR-IBAM
(today ISPC - Institute of Heritage Science) carried out new systematic archaeological surveys on the settlement and
surrounding territory (including the Vezza Stream Valley), also performing new geophysical investigations in a sector of
the plateau; they have been aimed at the reconstruction of the ancient topography of Piammiano and its territory and
the study of the transformations of the settlement over the centuries, integrating the knowledges already acquired with
the results of the new investigations. /e present contribution is therefore based precisely on the results of this latest
research, which have seen also the integration of archaeological photo-interpretation of remote sensing data (i.e. optical and LiDAR, from aerial and satellite platforms).

Keyword: archaeological survey, non-invasive investigation, ancient topography, Piammiano-Statonia, Bomarzo