Multiscalar diachronic approach for the study of archaeological presences in the Veneto-Trentino Plateaus (Italy)

Throughout history, the Veneto-Trentini plateaus have always performed a dual function as a border and link between the Veneto plain and the Alps. The importance of this area is evidenced by numerous frequentations as early as the Upper Palaeolithic, which intensified during the Bronze Age. During this period, the area assumed its greatest importance for European protohistory with the presence of intense proto-industrial production of copper ingots. In fact, the area stretching from Lavarone to approximately the border between Veneto and Trentino, shows the traces of a powerful system of integrated economy between the smelting of copper ores from Valsugana (to the north) and transhumance and pastoral activities. With the end of the Bronze Age, smelting activities ceased and the entire area underwent a decline in population as evidenced by very little archaeological findings. A more intense frequentation of the plateaus resumes from the second half of the first millennium BC as evidenced by the presence of two important permanent sites. The site of Monte Corgnon di Lusiana, already active in the Late Bronze Age, underwent a functional transformation from settlement to border sanctuary (of Veneto tradition). After an initial ephemeral phase in the Final Bronze Age (testified by a few archaeological artefacts), the Bostel di Rotzo village developed as a stable site of control of the western Asiago Plateau and the Val d’Assa and Valdastico valleys.

The Stempa project, started in 2017, takes up, reorganises and revitalises, under shared objectives, the experiences of over thirty years of work on the plateaus by the research group. Through a shared methodological approach, the project addresses the three main thematic and chronological areas of interest in the area: anthropic occupation in protohistory, the exploitation of mountainous resources in historical and post-medieval times, and the First World War events. These three apparently very distant realities (not only chronologically) are linked in a diachronic relationship that finds a trait d'union in the longue durée typical of mountain environments.