Passaggio in Liguria : L’insediamento dell’età del Ferro sull’altura del Castello di Serravalle Scrivia

This paper addresses unpublished materials from the hilltop of Serravalle Scrivia (province of Alessandria, northwest Italy), discovered in 2007 during rescue excavations. On the norther hillslope a moat has been filled with Iron age debris and findings, allegedly related to an otherwise unknown settlement. This preliminary study suggests a chronology comprised between the late 7th and the early 5th century BCE (‘Ligure II’ according to the local periodisation). The material culture shows a mixture of local coarse and fine pottery, the latter influenced by the northernmost Golasecca culture, and of imported ware, including some sherds of ‘etrusco-corinthian’ painted pottery and other painted fine ware coming from the Po valley. The findings altogether suggest that Serravalle Scrivia during the Middle Iron age held a strategic position within the exchange system between the Ligurian harbours on the Tyrrhenian coast, the valleys of south-eastern Piedmont, and the Golasecca and alpine domains.