The protohistoric agglomeration of Como, its necropolises and surroundings in the framework of the Golasecca culture

The Golasecca culture was the fundamental ethnic-cultural entity before the Gallic invasions (388 BC) and Romanization (II-I century BC) of western Lombardy, eastern Piedmont, the Ticino Valley and Misox and the settlement around Como was the earliest and the longest-lived as concerns the entire Golasecca civilization. This paper briefly examines contexts and sources to outline how it formed and developed. We will refer to Como’s protohistoric settlement as a “proto-urban settlement”, following what has been said by R.C. de Marinis, who was in turn inspired by the functional scheme and the analyses by M. Weber, F.M. Heichelheim, V.G. Childe and A. Leroi-Gourhan. Archaeologically, the emergence of the urban phenomenon can be understood not so much from its physical features (i.e. the order of magnitude of the population, the morphology of the inhabited area), but by shifting attention to models of territorial organization and to the occurrence of signs of a society stratified by economic and social classes. In other words, it is a matter of evaluating the type of organization established at the transition from scattered settlements, even if numerous, to central places that perform the function of direction and coordination for a whole surrounding area and which imply a transformation of the productive and social organization. The preroman Como was still devoid of monumental buildings and any regular urban pattern, but it already played the role of a city: it was the first stage and had the same essential functional scheme. Therefore, the paper will consider some features from a spatial analysis perspective, such as the presence of production and exchange, community work and spaces, class and rank articulation. The analysis is somehow limited by the status of the sources. Excluding the last 30 years’ excavations, often conducted in emergency conditions and mostly in small areas, the most important finds were made long ago, without proper excavation campaigns and much of the context was certainly lost. Moreover, the settlement continuity and agricultural and extraction activities of the modern era have been an obstacle to the protection and recovery of contexts. Last but not least, events surrounding above all the relocation of the museum’s exhibits during World War II resulted in loss and confusion. In recent years, Lombardy’s Soprintendenza (Italian Ministry of Culture) has carried out research in the proto-historic settlement area, exploring new sectors of the inhabited area and new funerary areas from which some important news has emanated.