Two important ones archaeological sites found in Modena. One to Novigrad, where the archaeologists of AR/S Archeosistemi have worked from 2021 to today on a vast multifunctional area from the Roman era, located along the Via Emilia, equipped with a thermal complex and some wells. The second, however, in Piazza San Francescowhere Phoenix Archeologia brought to light a section of the medieval city walls discovered during the renovation works of the urban hydraulic network.
The conference
The conference for presentations of the work carried out, entitled “Archaeology is told: excavations and research in Modena 2023/2024”, was hosted on Thursday at the Palazzo dei Musei, in a conference room packed with the public, including experts in the sector and interested citizens. The event was promoted by the Civic Museum of Modena, in collaboration with the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Bologna and the Provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara, as part of the European Archeology Days organized in Italy by the Ministry of Culture to promote knowledge of the results of archaeological research.
The discoveries
Specifically, the Cittanova excavations began during the construction of the new Campogalliano-Sassuolo motorway link. The excavations have brought to light, in addition to the Roman baths, vast environments probably dedicated to the shelter of goods and livestock and a thermal plant, located towards the Via Emilia. This is a large equipped area serving the road and connected to the sanctuary found south of the road in 2006-2009. A particular discovery was found among the other objects: it is a bronze “bindulum” chain whose restoration and functioning were illustrated by Renaud Bernadet, conservator-restorer, Sara Campagnari of the Superintendence of Bologna, Silvia Pellegrini of the Civic Museum of Modena, in the presentation entitled: “The chain in the well. Discovering a Roman water pumping system”. The chain is 15 meters long, entirely made of bronze, and was recovered from the bottom of a well. Defined generically with the term chain, the object is actually part of a water pumping system known as a “bindulum pump”, used mainly on board ships. Similar finds have been found in naval wrecks, including the ships of Nemi, and were used to evacuate water from the bilges.
Moving towards the centre, in the other important archaeological site recently discovered, in the subsoil of Piazza San Francesco lay medieval walls discovered during the reconstruction works of the urban hydraulic network. The research has revealed phases of the medieval and Renaissance city, the main structure, in fact, can be referred to the medieval fortifications, dating back to between the 13th and 14th centuries, on which subsequent structures were built over time. A section of the same city wall had been the subject of archaeological research a few years ago, in the adjacent area of Largo San Francesco where the new paving makes the trace of the progress of the buried structures visible on the surface. «It is a great discovery – explain the archaeologists of Archeosistemi – which in terms of importance surpasses the local dimension. Where the excavations were carried out, in Piazza San Francesco, there was one of the main access gates to the city in the Middle Ages. The materials from the first historical period found are from the 11th century, certainly the oldest walls ever found in Modena, and then go up to the 13th and 14th centuries. We would like to point out that the data is only preliminary and the excavation is still underway.”
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