Nuovi dati sulla topografia antica di Piammiano-Statonia

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 confluence 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 affected 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 finds and in the settlement to which the burials pertained. Recently, various Institutions conducted, between 1996 and 2016, archaeological investigations 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. The 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).