Between Po and Adige rivers: Adria before Adria and Este before Este

Abstract

This paper focuses on two new, partially coeval Early Bronze Age settlements identified at Adria and at Este during excavations for the laying of methane pipelines. In Adria, a site with an impressive stratigraphy was investigated on the north-eastern edge of the Greek-Etruscan and present-day centre. The centre originated in the Middle Bronze Age with the characteristics of a wetland site of pile-dwelling type and developed in a dry environment between Recent Bronze Age 1 and 2. The plan of a hut has been investigated almost in its entirety, providing indications of the structural characteristics of the settlement. At Este, a site arose west to the Iron Age protourban centre, most probably at the edge of a lake and developed in the Recent Bronze Age 2. Structures of a dwelling character and infrastructures functional to the structuring of the shoreline, as well as wood and wicker remains, were revealed. 

The comparison of the materials found in the two centres makes it possible to specify the characteristics of the local facies, in particular for the numerous cups with lobed and rostral handles in their variants.