VERUCCHIO

An important “frontier” Villanovan settlement located in the Romagna region outside the main range of Villanovan-style material culture on the lower course of the Marecchia River, which flows into the Adriatic near Rimini. The settlement on a 50-hectare hilltop surrounded by cemeteries has evidence for continuity of occupation from the ninth to the fourth century, changing in building technique from thatched huts to tiled buildings. Some 500 tombs dating between the ninth and sixth centuries BC provide a great wealth of information. Two burial pits contained wooden material preserved in anaerobic conditions (conditions that destroyed bronze) and have been recently restored. A wooden throne from the first half of the seventh century BC from Tomb 89 of the sotto la Rocca (Podere Lippi) cemetery is particularly fine, with narrative scenes of daily life that inform on the ideology of the culture of the deceased (a complex of the sacred and the domestic). Items of authority (scepter, axe, chariot, horse bits, arm shields, and helmets) were also placed with the dead. Another tomb (85) had three small tables, serving vessels, and distinctive foodstuffs of nuts, grape pips, hare, and fish. The site of Rimini on the coast may have provided access to the sea.