| Description of the POI |
Placed on an elevated moraine terrace engraved by the confluent Petoc torrent and Corno valleys, in a favorable position with respect to the plain bowl. The Castelliere of Rive d’Arcano called “della Zucule” ( inner surface of 3,6 square meters and a perimeter of 840 meters) it’s an extraordinary testimony of the first human settlements in the territory during the Bronze Age and the first three phases of the subsequent Iron Age. On the Northen side, not defended by the steep slope of the land, an artificial agger was erected 5 meters high and 160 meters long near which shards and bronze objects were found.
In the 1977, the section of Prehistoric Studies of the Center of South Adriatic Antiquies has conducted some excavations on site that confirmed human presence in prehistoric age. Among the pebbles, mixed with black earth, fragments of ceramic and vases were found. The characteristics of this ceramic suggest the possibility that the Castelliere of Rive d’Arcano is framed in the late phase of the Bronze Age, an era when settlements on naturally fortified hills were far from rare. Ludovico Quarina, who was the first person to survey the castellieri and tumulus tombs in Friuli, places these artifacts believed to belong to the Euganean people, between the end of Bronze Age and the first phase of Iron Age (cent. IX-VIII a.C.).
The Castelliere area is also frequented by later populations, until the fourth century as documented by the considerable quantity of terracotta shards found mainly outside the defensive agger. In the same area substantial leftover from the forge work were collected, in particular the remains of iron ore which attest the presence of a workshop for the production of metal weapons and tools. |