Archaeologists Discover Perfectly Preserved Ancient ‘City of the Dead’ in Italy

In northern Italy, archaeologists have discovered an ancient “city of the dead” in Trento. This site, dating back to the 9th century B.C., is a large cemetery from the Iron Age and was used until the 6th century B.C.

The area where the cemetery was found used to have many streams and often flooded. These floods helped preserve the site over thousands of years. The site is well-kept because the layers of soil from the floods covered and protected it.

“The funerary context was likely situated between two channels that could be activated in the event of flooding,” the translated statement explained.

“The flooding episodes, which began during the phases of the necropolis’s use, sealed the ancient archaeological stratification, allowing for the exceptional preservation of the funerary context.”

The cemetery is special because it has many stone markers called steles. These steles are set up in rows and each one marks the edge of a main grave, which usually has a stone box and a mound over it. Around these big graves, there are also many smaller graves.

“The funerary goods uncovered are particularly rich and serve as indicators to define the identity, roles, and functions of the social group to which they belonged.”

During their digs, archaeologists found lots of old items, like metal weapons and decorations made with amber and glass. These finds suggest that the people who lived here had contact with other groups in Italy.

Some graves also had ashes and burned bones in what might have been wooden boxes, and some had pieces of cloth held together with pins.

 “[This] raises complex and complex problems regarding the methods of self-representation in the funerary context of the social group to which, at the moment, the settlement context remains unknown.”

This find is very important because it gives new information about how people lived and died in this area a long time ago. It also raises new questions about the history of Trento and the people who lived there before the Romans.