Excavation at the early neolithic site of Rio Tana (AQ)
The site of Rio Tana is located along the ancient course of the Tavana creek, on the southeast side of the Fucino basin. The Fucino was an ancient lake that occupied a large tectonic depression, drained at the end of the twentieth century.
The Rio Tana settlement was the subject of a few surveys and a small sondage test trench by the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Abruzzo in 1999. In the summer of 2019, a team from the Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge University of Pisa resumed the investigations of the area. The purpose of the new research, still in progress, is to understand the original extent of the anthropic occupation and to outline the chrono-cultural framework of the ancient settlement. A radiocarbon date at 6860+-60 BP uncal (AECV-212C) permits us to attribute the site to the first Neolithization of central Italy, testifying to the early penetration of the first farmers in the inner zone of central Italy.
The investigations are still in progress; however, the evidence suggests that this area was occupied by a covered structure, dedicated to multiple activities. Among these, the treatment of cereals seems to have played an important role.
Scientific Director: Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia
Partners: Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Abruzzo, ICCOM-CNR U.O.S. of Pisa and INGV of Rome and L’Aquila, Municipality of Lecce nei Marsi.
Contact: Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia
Publications
Vassanelli A., Petrinelli Pannocchia C., in press. Il complesso ceramico del livello 1 di Rio Tana (AQ): dati preliminari. Archeologica Data, III, 2022
Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., Naime Y., Terranova A., Sani S., Spadacini L., Ceccaroni E., 2022. Le nuove ricerche sul sito neolitico di Rio Tana (Lecce nei Marsi, AQ). In Atti del V Convegno di Archeologia “Il Fucino e le aree limitrofe nell’Antichità”, Avezzano, 6-7 novembre 2021, pp. 73-86.
Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., 2020. Rio Tana (Lecce nei Marsi, AQ). Notiziario di Preistoria e Protostoria, 7, I, Italia Settentrionale e Peninsulare, pp.24-26.
Petrinelli Pannocchia C., Vassanelli A., 2019. Rio Tana (AQ, Abruzzo, Italy): The Earliest Farmers of Central Italy. Book of Abstracts – 1st Conference on the Early Neolithic of Europe – ENE 2019, Barcellona 6-8 Novembre 2019, Session 05, Poster, p. 117.