Keeping the Sea Out: Early Medieval Structures at ca' Foscari University, Venice, Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In 2004, the courtyard of Ca' Foscari University, Venice, was excavated in advance of building work, revealing an unbroken sequence of archaeological deposits. The earliest layers consisted of redeposited natural sediment, packed into wattle structures, a system of land reclamation first described by Cassiodorus in AD 537-8, and now known from several other sites in the city. The ground level was built up and extended several times with successive wattle structures, before the eventual construction of a stone waterfront. We have used Bayesian modeling of dendrochronological, radiocarbon, and stratigraphie dating evidence to obtain a precise chronology for the earliest phases of occupation, and to compare it to the chronology of land reclamation at similar sites elsewhere in Venice.

Archaeological evidence of early settlement in Venice: a comment on Ammerman et al. (2017)

“…Figure 4 also shows the modelled dates of three volparoni sites, which are more secure as they do not depend on assumptions about wood-age offsets or taphonomic processes.

Figure 4.Estimated start of settlement at five locations in central Venice, based on the Bayesian chronological models in Meadows et al (2012) and the online supplementary information (the Teatro Malibran date is for the cross-matched timber structure shown in Figure 3) (figure by J. Meadows).

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“…Estimated start of settlement at five locations in central Venice, based on the Bayesian chronological models in Meadows et al (2012) and the online supplementary information (the Teatro Malibran date is for the cross-matched timber structure shown in Figure 3) (figure by J. Meadows).…”

“…Martinelli and Kromer (2002) published a floating tree-ring chronology, dated by radiocarbon wiggle-matching, showing that there were mid seventh-century AD structures beneath Teatro Malibran (near Rialto) and ex-Cinema San Marco (100m from St Mark's Square). Meadows et al (2012) linked these sites to mid seventh-century structures at Ca’ Foscari (on the opposite shore of the Grand Canal) (Fozzati & Cester 2005), using Bayesian chronological modelling to combine radiocarbon dates, dendrochronology and stratigraphy. In this brief comment, we update the 2012 model with the radiocarbon results from St Mark's and San Lorenzo di Castello (De Min 2000), to give a better understanding of the current state of research on the original settlement of the islands that would eventually become the urban core of Venice.…”