Conference

On Friday, April 10th at 8:30 PM, the conference “ARCHAEOLOGY AND TRAFFIC ALONG THE PIAVE. Ancient settlements and fortifications in strategic and historically significant locations“ will be held, curated by the archaeologist Michele Zanchetta.

The Piave Valley has always been a thoroughfare; along this natural axis, humans have traveled and traded, but armies have also marched and imposed limits and boundaries. Doing archaeology in a mountainous and valley setting means considering the evolution of the territory and the landscape over time, with evident consequences on the structures and works of men. Speaking of ancient settlements in the mountainous environment means analyzing the evolution of the landscape over time, trying to reconstruct the networks of relationships between the centers and their development in the territory and society.

Humans adapt to the environment for their needs; only in extreme cases do they decide to adapt the environment, but involving large social structures to achieve this purpose. Analyzing an environment is an attempt to reconstruct a series of minor contexts, to provide a general history of the territory.
Michele Zanchetta, born in Conegliano, graduated in humanities in Padua with a thesis on settlement fortification from late antiquity to the Middle Ages between Piave and Livenza. For years he has worked as a freelance archaeologist in the Triveneto region, also engaging in educational and cultural activities with local associations.

He has published “The Castle of Conegliano”, the entries for Veneto in the “Guide to Castles and Fortified Cities” and numerous excavations in “Protection of Cultural Heritage in South Tyrol”. In 2016, he participated in the publication of “Venetian Fortresses and Bastions”, documenting the main fortresses of the Serenissima in Italy and the Mediterranean, and began his collaboration with Il Quindicinale. In 2021, he published the “Atlas of Castles between Piave and Livenza”, documenting 349 structures from Roman times to the modern age. Recently, he published “The Great Guide to the Castles of the Veneto. From late Roman times to the Serenissima”. He has been on the National Board of the National Association of Archaeologists and that of the Italian Institute of Castles of Veneto for years.

Free admission.