Spina (city)

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Spina is a Greek-Etruscan port and trading town that disappeared in the first decades AD, whose earlier existence has been proven beyond doubt by extensive archaeological finds near the Italian town of Comacchio in the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy .

Entrance gate of the fenced in archaeological excavation area S. Maria in Padovetere, about 5 km southeast of Comacchio on the Comacchio - Anita road, site of numerous Etruscan graves. For several years now, the closed area has only been accessible to tourists on request.
Reconstructed historical map with the location of the city of Spina (National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara, wall painting in the central hall on the upper floor, Spina is drawn to the left of the door frame.)
Enclosures of an Etruscan tomb excavated in the drained Pega lagoon, in the foreground in the foreground a diadem made of sheet gold on a dark blue surface (National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara).

Geographical location

About four thousand Etruscan tombs found in the drained Trebba lagoon (Valle Trebba) or in the drained Pega lagoon (Valle Pega) prove that Spina west of Comacchio near today's (2009) provincial road SP 1 ( Strade Provinciale 1 ) that connects Comacchio with the locality of Ostellato . As suggested by systematic rows of dark spots in the arable soil that were found on agricultural land and originated from earlier pile dwellings and were arranged perpendicularly to one another, the lagoon town of Spina was located about 500 meters south of a bridge that was 7 km from the exit of Comacchios over the navigable canal into the drained Mezzano Area ( Valli di Mezzano ) leads. Etruscan tombs have also been found here. In maps of the region, road maps and tourist information sheets published by the Province of Ferrara, the location of the city of Spina is shown as: Zona archeologica etrusca di Spina .

Spina's second archaeological site is called Zona archeologica etrusca S. Maria in Padovetere and is located southwest of Comacchio at a distance of about 5 km. The designation 'S. Maria in Padovetere 'comes from an early Christian church of the same name, the foundations of which are within the fenced area of ​​the excavation zone. The distance between the two excavation zones is around 2 km (as the crow flies).

The archaeological site of S. Maria in Padovetere is on the right-hand side of the road from Comacchio to Anita (Argenta) . From a crossroads at the Pega drainage canal , the distance to the fenced and closed excavation site is about 1,600 meters.

history

Spina is next to the ancient city of Adria , 12 km from the present city of Adria was removed one of the major Etruscan trading and port cities that v is the culture in the Po valley since the 6th century. Sustainably shaped. Both cities were originally located directly on the sea. During Roman times they belonged to the province of Gallia cisalpina . According to the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus , whose information could have been taken over by Hellanikos of Lesbos , the Pelasgians , who had come from Epirus long before the Trojan War, first settled in these places . With their trade, they are said to have brought indigenous tribes into contact with tribes from Central Europe who came along the Adriatic coast on the Adige (Italian Adige ) and Ticino ( Ticino ). Only after that Greeks are said to have settled. The question of which tribes originally founded the places has been discussed for a long time and cannot be definitively answered to this day. Later came the Etruscans, who began to gain new agricultural areas through systematic drainage of floodplain and marshland areas of the Po Plain. The Romans took over the construction technology from the Etruscans.

The city of Spina had its heyday between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC. BC and lost in the second half of the 3rd century after the Po plain around 260 BC. BC had been incorporated into Roman rule, increasing in importance. However, Spina continued to exist until the first decades of the 1st century AD before the city disappeared completely. It almost became a legend until the first burial sites were found after the drainage of the Pega Lagoon and the Trebba Lagoon at the beginning of the 20th century. The archaeological excavations were carried out in 1921 and 1956.

Relics found

The finds unearthed in Spina - numerous large Attic vases painted with motifs from Greek mythology , everyday life and the Trojan War , utensils made of bronze, jewelry (including two tiaras made of sheet gold and an amber necklace), dice made of bone and made of Stone, glass plates, bowls and oil vessels made of ceramic, etc. - are exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara , Palazzo Costabili, which was specially set up for this purpose. The archaeological finds, some of the highest craftsmanship and artistic quality, prove that the inhabitants of Spina must have lived in considerable prosperity.

literature

  • Nereo Alfieri and Paolo Enrico Arias : Spina - The newly discovered Etruscan city and the Greek vases of their graves (translated from Italian), Hirmer, Munich 1958 (with 114 photographs by Max Hirmer).
  • Salvatore Aurigemma : La Necropoli di Spina in Valle Trebba , 2 volumes. Bretschneider, Rome 1960 a. 1965.

Documentaries

  • DVD: Cesare Bornazzini (director), Part I: La Scoperta di Spina: i protagnostica , 32 minutes; Part II: La tomba di Spina , film by Salvatore Aurigemma from 1957, 18 minutes. FAR Film, Codigoro 2006 (Italian and French).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From the bridge a country road leads to Portomaggiore. About 700 meters behind the bridge is the cooperativa terremerse agricultural cooperative , which can be recognized by two tall concrete silos. The fenced and locked excavation zone is located immediately behind and to the right of this large enterprise. Although directional arrows with the inscription Necropoli di Spina indicate the existence of the archaeological zone in the vicinity, unfortunately there are currently (2009) no signs at the gates of the fenced and closed area (which irritates tourists).
  2. ↑ Ferrara - Carta della Provincia , Scala 1: 150,000, published by Litografia Artistica Cartografia, Firenze 1987, ISBN 88-7914-098-1 .
  3. ↑ Viaggio nel Parco del Delta del Po - Excursion through the Regional Park of the Po Delta - A Trip through the Regional Park of the Poelta , trilingual tourist road and path map, published by: Parco Delta del Po (Via Cavour 11, 44022 Comacchio (Fe) , Italy, online here ), Comacchio 2006.
  4. ↑ 44 ° 40 '26 "  N , 12 ° 7' 22"  O .
  5. ^ Karl Ernst Adolf v. Hoff: History of the natural changes of the earth's surface proven by tradition , 1st part, Gotha 1822, p. 273 .
  6. ^ John Anthony Cramer: A Geographical and Historical Description of Ancient Italy , Volume I, Oxford 1826, pp. 97 ff.
  7. ↑ cf. z. B. John Lempriére, Lorenzo Da Ponte, and John David Ogilby: Biblioteca Classica: A Dictionary of all the Principal Names and Terms Related to the Geography, Topography, History, Literature, and Mythology of Antiquity and of the Ancients , 15th Edition, Philadelphia 1866, p. 147 ff .
  8. ↑ The inner walls of the central hall on the upper floor of the museum have been extensively painted with historical maps showing the location of Spina and the city's port at its heyday.

Coordinates: 44 ° 42 ′  N , 12 ° 6 ′  E