Excavations in via Marconi, new findings of the Golasecca civilization

The remains of an Iron Age burial site were found.

There is a new archaeological discovery coming from a construction site in the city. It happened in Sesto Calende where, during the controls planned by the Superintendence in the areas of “high archaeological risk”, a small building intervention, in via Marconi has brought to light a Iron Age burial of the most famous culture of Golasecca.

In the first days of March, the Archaeological Superintendence, in collaboration with the Civic Archaeological Museum, investigated two pits of about 60 centimeters in diameter, placed a short distance from each other: the first one, lined with some pebbles and with a flat stone placed on the bottom, contained an urn, decorated with the most typical “wolf’s teeth”, containing the cremated remains of the deceased on which was put, as a last symbolic gesture, a small glass.

The urn was then closed at the mouth by an upside down bowl of which several ceramic fragments were recovered. Some of the structural and typological features of the ceramics allow a hypothesize of a first date of burial to the second half of 8th century BC.

The second pit contained a flat stone in abundant burnt earth and a cup which had been placed straight on it. These characteristics lead to interpret this second entity as a sort of pit destined to contain offerings in relation and closely linked with the nearby tomb according to a rituality that, if confirmed, is particularly interesting because it is still little documented. Only with the complete restoration of the materials and the analyses that can be carried out on the cremated remains and on the burnt earth will it be possible to have a more precise picture of chronological and paleoanthropological attribution.

Mayor Giovanni Buzzi and Deputy Mayor Edoardo Favaron were also present during the operations.