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Grassi, Barbara

L'archeologia preventiva alla Malpensa : elementi per la definizione del Protogolasecca

2022 - Istituto italiano di preistoria e protostoria

P. 571-580

  • In view of the creation of the rail connection between Malpensa Airport Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 preliminary archaeological excavations were carried out in 2014. These researches were realized within a fruitful cooperation between Soprintendenza Archeologia della Lombardia and Ferrovie Nord Milano (with the connected Nord-Ing); the developer, since the moment the project started, had a confrontation with the Soprintendenza for a prior opinion about archaeological risk along the railroad layout, for it runs nearby areas well known, since last century, for the presence of many Protogolasecca tombs. This high risk situation was already well stressed on the Archaeological Map, last updated in 2012: the excavations confirmed that the area had been devoted, almost exclusively, to funerary use during the Protogolasecca period, especially during the X century BC.
  • Different cemetery's areas have been in fact brought to light: some 80 cremation graves have been investigated in cooperation with field restores, paleoanthropologists and micromorphologists. There are both pit graves dug into the bare earth and different kind of lithic structures to protect the ceramic urn. Often in the urns we find bronze personal ornaments: fibula, bracelets and rings all belonging to the Protogolasecca culture (Ca' Morta-Malpensa). Some graves, although they present a lithic pebbles structures, have no urn: its function should have been carried out by a perishable receptacle. The complete restoration of the whole finds allowed the detailed analysis of the grave goods; in addition there are paleobotanic, anthropological and microstratigraphic analysis.
  • All the results will be soon published in a specific monograph. Beside the scientific volume, the recent researches carried out in Malpensa have been exposed in the new train station at Terminal 2 Malpensa airport, shared between MiBACT, Regione Lombardia, Ferrovie Nord and SEA. A wide selection of finds is exhibited with different multimedia supports. [Publisher's text]

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Rivista di scienze preistoriche : LXXII, S2, 2022