Material studies in Belmonte Piceno (FM). The rediscovery of a Picenian central place in the western Adriatic and its relations with the Etruscans, Greeks and the Hallstatt culture

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The Iron Age cemetery at Belmonte Piceno is deemed to epitomise the Picenian culture. It owes its almost legendary status to the discovery of rich burials at the beginning of the 20th century consisting of so called ʻAmazon tombsʼ, chariot graves and burials with extraordinary grave goods. The records and artefacts of which were lost track of during the Second World War but as of late turned up again in Ancona. The first phase of the project was successful in realizing the documentation of the existing artefacts as well as the transcription and alignment of the complex inventory and excavation records of Innocenzo Dall'Osso's 1909 to 1911 campaigns. All other attempts before ours at recontextualising these artefacts and finds have been unsuccessful due to multiple inventory numbering. This problem we overcame with the application of the project database 'Arindos'. It thus was possible to achieve concordance between the older and later numbering which then opened the way to the first real academic evaluation of this group of finds. In addition to these achievements and as the result of a systematic geophysical and aerial drone prospection of the Colle Ete together with archival research in the bureau for land registry we were able to identify the southerly extension of the pre-roman settlement. With the help of the town of Belmonte Piceno it was possible in 2018 to set some exploratory trenches which produced quite phenomenal finds. These included among others two wealthy archaic burials and a small very well conserved ivory case with amber figural inlay, the lid of which being adorned of four amber face sphinxes. The only other comparable sphinxes are to be found in the Grafenbühl burial near Hohenasperg in Baden-Württemberg. The main objective of the project is to continue systematic research into the Colle Ete necropolis and by this to complete the work of the first phase of the project. Two closely interconnected aspects will be of particular importance with regard to a proper understanding of Belmonte Piceno’s extraordinary role in the archaic period: 1. material studies of artefacts from the older excavations of Dall’Osso 1909-1911 and Marconi 1930-1931; 2. studies on the cultural and political importance of Belmonte Piceno in the Iron Age and its relations with the Etruscans, Greeks and the Hallstatt culture.