Per una revisione critica delle sequenze stratigrafiche dell'abitato preistorico di Poliochni (Lemnos) a partire dagli scavi di Giovanni Rizza (1953-1956)

Abstract · For a critical reassessment of the stratigraphical sequences of the prehistoric settlement at Poliochni (Lemnos, Greece) beginning from the excavations of Giovanni Rizza (1953-1956) · The Bronze Age settlement at Poliochni, Lemnos island, represents one of the most important archaeological excavations of the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. To L. Bernabò Brea (1910-1999) is attributed the general reassessment of the oldest excavations carried out during the years 1931-1937. In that framework a young Sicilian scholar Giovanni Rizza (1923-2011) was a close assistant of L. Bernabò Brea, who carried out some stratigraphical investigations in 1953 and 1956. This paper aims at reconstructing the scientific contribution of G. Rizza, focusing on the innovative aspects of the stratigraphic excavation method, which was derived by the influence of L. Bernabò Brea and Nino Lamboglia (1912-1977), who put the young scholar up as granted within the Instituto di Studi Liguri at Bordighera. The reexamine of notebooks contributes for reconstructing an unexpected sensitivity for the stratigraphic method, as well as the deep reflections on the debate about the idea of a stratigraphy applied to an archaeological long-term and multi-layers context. The two stratigraphical investigations in the Megara 605 and 832 at the present both represent a rare example, in the Italian academic context of the postwar years, of an archeological exploration which is a completed and thorough analysis for defining the sequence of layers, for interpreting them and for the final documentation. The comparison to the recent data coming from other neighbouring sites (Samos, Chios and Troia), confirms the scientific rigour of the stratigraphy carried out by Rizza, and it also assigns to Poliochni an important role for studying the Bronze Age in the Northern Aegean.