Storie interrotte dalla necropoli dell'età del ferro del CUS-Piovego (Padova): metodi per la ricostruzione di contesti perduti in campo archeologico

The Pre-Roman cemetery of CUS-Piovego is placed in Isola di S. Lazzaro/S. Gregorio, an area located on the eastern edge of Padua between the Piovego canal to the north and the Roncajette river to the south. In 1975-77 and 1986-89, the necropolis was investigated by the then Istituto di Archeologia dell’Università di Padova in order to clear the area for the construction of the CUS (Centro Sportivo Universitario): in fact, in the area nearby, in 1963-1964 the earthworks carried out by the local gas company had brought to light many artefacts related to Iron Age graves. The excavations revealed part of a large biritual cemetery (both cremation and inhumation burials) datable between the second half of the sixth and the first half of the fourth century BC. The case study proposed examines a cremation burial investigated during the exploratory trenches carried out in December 1975, whose history has undergone many interruptions. Over time, the information about the location of the burial had been lost and its artefacts had been registered with different names, which led to consider the objects as coming from different graves. Based on the critical restudying of the limited data available, the burial has been positioned in the cemetery plan and all the artefacts have been gathered in the “new” tomba 4/1975. Thus, it has been possible to redefine a burial in dolium with a rich funeral kit. This paper, on the one hand, focuses on the methodology and the techniques that have allowed the reconstruction of the burial and, on the other hand, aims to define, more generally, how it is possible to restore the identity to the evidence of the past whose memory had been lost, even if incomplete data sources are available.