How to heat a house. A probable prototype “stufa a olle” at the later Iron Age site of Zambana el Vato (TN)

Abstract

The site of Zambana el Vato lies on a debris fan on the right bank of the river in the Adige Valley north of Trento at an elevation of 220 m asl. Emergency excavations conducted in 2009-10 documented successive settlement phases between the 7th/6th and 5th centuries BC. In the remains of the oldest house (phase 1) – destroyed, like the others, by fire – we identified a very particular combustion structure: a mass of regular blocks of travertine, connected to one another and covered with clay and sand that had been transformed by heat and, often, vitrified by prolonged exposure to high temperatures. The location on the raised floor of the house, the choice of a particular type of stone (travertine) and the construction method (coating with refractory – heat resistant – baked material) all lead us to view this as a prototype “stufa a olle” : that is a type of domestic heating system that was widely used in the Alpine area in historic times. Il sito di Zambana el Vato è ubicato su un conoide detritico a nord di Trento, in destra idrografica della Valle dell’Adige e a una quota media di 220 m s.l.m. (Fig.1). Le indagini archeologiche di pronto intervento condotte tra il 2009 e il 2010 hanno permesso di documentare reiterate fasi insediative (comprese tra VII-VI e V sec. a.C.) con abitazioni realizzate parte in seminterrato con pietra a secco e parte, fuori terra, con lo sviluppo di un piano rialzato ligneo, secondo il modello della cd. “casa retica” (Fig.2). In seguito all’abbandono delle strutture abitative, l’area è stata adibita ad officina metallurgica, con allestimenti e scarti riferibili alla lavorazione del ferro e del bronzo (BELLINTANI et alii 2014, GIUMLIA-MAIR et alii 2015, STEFAN et alii 2017; GIUMLIA-MAIR et alii 2017).