Presentation of the volume
“La necropoli di età romana di Lovere (BG) – Una comunità
sulle sponde del Sebino” on Saturday 16 March at the Tadini Academy

Edited by Maria Fortunati, the publication makes use of the contribution of around fifty scholars and reconstructs the history of the Loverese community of two thousand years ago through the great necropolis

The volume “La necropoli di età romana di Lovere (BG) – Una comunità sulle sponde del Sebino”, edited by Maria, will be presented on Saturday 16 March at 3 pm, in the Hall of Frescoes of the Tadini Academy of Lovere (BG). Fortunati, former archaeologist official of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. The publication, published by SAP Società Archeologica, was born from the collaboration of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia and the Municipality of Lovere and was created thanks to the patronage and contribution of the Lombardy Regional Council and the contribution of the Municipality of Lovere.

The work is dedicated to the memory of Don Gino Angelico Scalzi, Superintendent for life of the Tadini Academy of Fine Arts and Honorary Inspector of the Superintendence and of Filippo Maria Gambari, Superintendent archaeologist of Lombardy. In the publication, the curator Maria Fortunati has collected the contribution and precious scientific skills of around fifty scholars in a powerful choral work with a scientific and popular intent at the same time: «Our objective was to make known, reconstruct and, in in a certain sense, to revive the history of the Loverese community of two thousand years ago through the large necropolis”, explains the curator.

The work is organized into six main sections. The first outlines the historical figures of two great Loveresi, the aforementioned Don Gino Angelico Scalzi and the historian Giovanni Silini who, with their dedication and commitment, worked to safeguard and protect the necropolis. The second section describes the territory of Lovere, from the prehistoric and protohistoric age to the Roman one, with particular interest in religious cults and traffic. The third section outlines the necropolis, with a focus on the discoveries between the 18th and 21st centuries, as highlighted thanks to historical-archival sources and archaeological research. The fourth section is reserved for the study of the different classes of materials found in the 1957, 1973, 1996 and 2015 excavation campaigns, as well as the restoration of some finds. In the fifth we retrace the results of the archaeo-biological analyses, the results of which have a fundamental value for the knowledge of Roman funeral rituals; The reconstruction of the physiognomic features of a face of a Roman-era Loverese inhabitant is suggestive. Finally, in the last part of the volume attention is paid to the Christian topography of Lovere.

Thanks to the studies presented in this volume, a particularly interesting picture of Lovere in Roman times emerges; characterized by the Camunian substratum, more evident especially in the early phases, it is characterized by a lively economy, perhaps equipped with in situ ateliers dedicated to metalworking, in particular silver jewellery, with engravers who carried out the activity on site. Trade exchanges range from Valle Camonica, of which Lovere represents the natural outlet onto the lake, to the Bergamo area but also to the Trento-Adige area, Veneto, Po and, beyond the Alps, in particular to Rezia, Norico and Pannonia. The key position of Lovere, a lakeside city on the Sebino, at the confluence of the roads coming from the Camonica Valley, the Seriana and Scalve Valleys and the Cavallina Valley, from Bergamo as well as from the sites of the Brescia plain, hence the connections with Brescia, Bergamo, Milan and Cremona, determined the growth of a cultural center with an open and active economy in the first centuries of the imperial age and then assumed a potential connotation of military garrison, probably in the late Roman era.

Comments Alex Pennacchio, mayor of Lovere, who took over the volume project from his predecessor Giovanni Guizzetti and took action to bring it to completion: «It is a pleasure and an honor for me to share with the public this new, authoritative publication which is part of in the prestigious Studies series of the Civic Cultural Center of Lovere and which takes us on a journey back in time, to discover the Roman civilization that inhabited our territory between the 1st and 4th centuries AD”.

Architect Luca Rinaldi, Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, adds: «The Ministry of Culture, through the widespread work of the Superintendencies, proves once again attentive to local realities, contributing with the coordination and the publication of the results of this research to the constant social development of the communities”.

The volume, which consists of 644 pages, will be available free of charge in digital version and can be downloaded from the websites of the Municipality of Lovere and the publisher (www.saplibri.it, from the day of presentation). In the digital version, the complete catalog of the finds and tomb structures found in the years 1957, 1973, 1996 and 2015 will be published as well as some contributions such as the overall catalog of coins, the complete essay on the Christian topography of Lovere, the studies relating to the worked bones, to the tomb preparations and the reconstruction of Roman funeral rituals which, for reasons of space, have not been included in the volume.

The presentation of the volume is one of the collateral events of the exhibition “Lovere romana. Dal tesoro alla necropoli”, which can be visited for free until June 2nd at the Atelier del Tadini in Lovere. The second appointment is scheduled for Saturday 6 April again in the Hall of Frescoes of the Tadini Academy, which will host the study day entitled “And of the dark death at the pass go”, organized by the PAD Network, the Network of Widespread Archaeological Landscapes, in during which the speakers will discuss the topic of death and the rituals, symbols and beliefs that cross space and time from an archaeological, historical-artistic and social point of view. At the end of the work, a round table will be held in which the topics debated during the study day will be addressed from an anthropological point of view.

The next appointment will be held on Saturday 20 April, the day on which Poste Italiane will participate in the exhibition with a special philatelic postmark dedicated to the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy. The station for requesting the cancellation will be active at the Alto Lago d’Iseo Infopoint based in Lovere in Piazza Tredici Martiri 37.