The archaeological settlement of Monte Bibele (Bologna)

Abstract

Monte Bibele is an archaeological settlement of the 4th and 3rd century BC with a village, a necropolis and a votive deposit. Earlier, during the 14th and 13th c. BC, in the same area there was a small village of sub-Apennine facies attributable to the late Bronze Age. The Second Iron Age's settlement is just a part of a larger demographic reorganization of Apennines, also proved by the recent discovery of the Old Monterenzio's necropolis and votive deposit, on the opposite side of Idice Valley. These are small settlements located close to the main routes of both sides of the Apennines and populated by italians (Etruscans, Umbrians, Ligurian ...) and transalpine (Celts) allied to control the surroundings. About the architectural structures of M.te Bibele we know much better those of the village, in the part of the massive called 'Pianella di Monte Savino'. It is an etruscan foundation, over an area of about 7000 m², in part still to be explored, and documented in its final phase of late 3rd c. BC, when the village was sealed by a sudden fire. The great interest of Pianella is not only the archaeological knowledge of its living models, but also the discovery of an auguraculum on a rock podium , astronomically oriented on according to the canons of the foundation's doctrine already detected in the Etruscan town of Marzabotto. Archaeologists of Te.M.P.L.A. (Research Center for Multimedia Technologies Applied to Archaeology of Bologna University's Department of History and Cultures) have made, over the last decade, many models of houses of Pianella. Reconstructions are based on direct feedbacks (archaeological data) and indirect comparisons (historical sources, traditional architecture). The first model was virtual, followed by a real one made near the Museum of Monterenzio, and by the two new houses realized directly in situ , thanks to EU founds for Emilia Romagna's development, renovating the archeological and naturalistic area of M.te Bibele (Por Fesr 2007/2013).