Bisenzio Project

The Bisenzio Project is a three years lasting multidisciplinary research project supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and enabled by the permits granted by the "Soprintendenza Archeologia del Lazio e dell’Etruria Meridionale". The international research team is made up of prestigious Research Institutes, among which ISPRA, and is coordinated by Dr. Andrea Babbi contract researcher at the Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (RGZM) and holder of the above-mentioned permits. The goal is the study of the ‘Etruscan’ town of Bisenzio.
Located on the shoreline of the Bolsena Lake, the settlement of Bisenzio flourished particularly between 9th and early 5th century BC. Outside the circle of specialists, such city is barely known. The town, named Visentium in Roman time (hence the modern ‘Bisenzio’), experienced a continuous frequentation. A clear reflection of the vitality of the local community are the affluent and varied grave assemblages stored and exhibited in the Viterbo and Rome Villa Giulia museums, as well as those ended up in many museums abroad.
Aim of the project is to elaborate a thorough study of Bisenzio intended as a complex network formed by settlement, suburb, cemeteries, and deeply connected to the neighbouring landscape.
The ISPRA research activities are aimed at the reconstruction of the landscape during the Bronze-age and the Archaic period, and at the acknowledgement of ancient  traces of territory organization, through: i) the geomorphological and pedological setting analysis, ii) the recognition of landforms and deposits related to the action of morphoevolution processes iii) the definition of stratigraphical setting.

Related documents

ISPRA –  The Palaeoenvironmental Holocene Evolution Setting Project
The study area
Analysis of the evidence from the “Olmo Bello” cemetery - Benedetti-Stefani Investigations 1927-1931
Analysis of the evidence from the archaeological soundings on the Bisenzio hill – Fugazzola Delpino-Delpino Investigations 1978-1979
Analysis of the evidence from the earlier survey – Raddatz fieldwalking activity 1972-1975
Analysis of the evidence from the new survey – RGZM-JGU fieldwalking activity 2015-2017
Analysis of the evidence from the geophysical prospection – geophysical campaigns 2015-2017
Analysis of the underwater evidence – Di Mario discoveries 1972-1976

Results

Preliminary results of the first year research

Links

Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
Documentary Interview February 2016
Documentary Interview July 2015

ISPRA working group: Paolo M. Guarino (Lead Scientist) and Mauro Lucarini