Decorated Coarse Ware from the G. Sutermeister Archaeological Museum in Legnano, Milano province

STUDIA HERCYNIA XXVIII/1, 198–205 Decorated Coarse Ware from the G. Sutermeister Archaeological Museum in Legnano, Milano province Fabio Coppo– Michele Milan ABSTRACT The paper in the first place introduces the figure of Guido Sutermeister and his fundamental work. The second part offers aconcise summary of the data relating to decorated coarse ware gathered from apreliminary survey of the collections of the Guido Sutermeister museum in Legnano and from aconsideration of what has already been written upon the subject to date. KEYWORDS Legnano; Middle Olona Valley; Late Iron Age; Romanisation; Decorated coarse ware; Cultural interaction. INTRODUCTION The north ‑western part of the Milanese province, namely the city of Legnano and its neigh‑ bouring municipalities, has yielded asmall but nonetheless remarkable number of sherds of decorated coarse ware. This type of pottery is an extremely interesting archaeological indicator, currently rather neglected, that can be helpful in facilitating abetter understanding of the complex cultural interactions between different cultures and social protagonists in the central Cisalpine regions between the second half of the 1st millennium BC and the Early Imperial Age. According to the preliminary analysis carried out thus far by the authors of this paper amongst the material stored in the Legnano Museum and publications related to it, at least sixteen decorated coarse ware specimens have been identified. Fifteen of these come from different municipalities located in the Middle Olona Valley region (north ‑west of Milan, Lom‑ bardy). The remaining one, also included in this analysis, was found beyond the geographical boundaries examined here, as it comes from Magenta, which is situated approximately 20 km south of the city of Legnano (Fig. 1). More than half of these pieces come from the archaeological materials recovered by en‑ gineer Guido Sutermeister thanks to his relentless work during the first decades of the last century, while the remaining fragments were brought to light by the Soprintendenza during recent preventive archaeological excavations. GUIDO SUTERMEISTER’SLEGACY AND HIS VIEW ON APECULIAR POTTERY TYPE The first approaches to the recovery of these findings date back to engineer Guido Sutermeister (1883–1964), who is still to this day afundamental figure for the archaeology of the Upper Milanese province, an area that has undergone massive and abrupt industrialization since the beginning of the 20th century. In this regard, the Italian engineer, appointed Honorary Inspector by the Soprintendenza alle Antichità in 1928, led ameticulous and careful recovery 199FABIO COPPO– MICHELE MILAN Fig. 1: Find spots of decorated coarse ware from Legnano and neighbouring municipalities. 1– Loc. Cascina Buon Gesù (Castellanza); 2– Loc. Paradiso (Castellanza); 3– Via Borsano– Via don Min‑ zoni (Castellanza); 4– Via Novara (Legnano); 5– Via Trento– Via Vittorio Veneto (San Giorgio su Legnano); 6 – San Lorenzo di Parabiago (Parabiago); 7 – Loc. Pontevecchio (Magenta). By F. Coppo and M. Milan. and cataloguing of both the archaeological materials and their immediate surroundings across several decades in the 20th century, completed with numerous excavation diaries, catalogues, reports, drawings, and plans, some of which are still unpublished to this day. His contribution undeniably enabled the recovery and preservation of numerous artefacts, which would have been otherwise inevitably lost. Furthermore, he was responsible for drafting apreliminary archaeological map of the Middle Olona Valley (Sutermeister 1960, i–viii), with subsequent revisions and updates.1 Sutermeister’swork also included acommitment to the preservation of local heritage and historical memory, as evidenced by the construction of the Legnano Civic Archaeological Museum in 1928, commissioned by the Engineer himself and later named after him. The build‑ ing recalled the original architectural design and materials of an ancient fifteenth ‑century mansion once possessed by the noble Lampugnani family, which had been unfortunately torn down in the previous year due to the construction of industrial facilities (Volontè– Cattaneo 2014, 6–7). Nowadays, the Museum displays asubstantial collection of local archaeological finds, enriched over the years by donations and acquisitions of artefacts of various provenance (mostly from, but not limited to, Magna Graecia). Regarding the decorated coarse ware, alarge part of the materials discovered and re‑ corded by Sutermeister came from sporadic finds or unclear contexts, as in the case of some sherds found in Castellanza loc. Paradiso in 1926 and attributed to three disrupted tombs (nos. 1 Amore recent and updated archaeological map of the territory was published by Paola Di Maio (Di Maio 1998). Concerning the city of Legnano, Stefano Pruneri drew up an archaeological risk map (Pruneri 2013), while an overview of the findings was made by Patrizia Cattaneo (Cattaneo 2015, 46–47). 200 STUDIA HERCYNIA XXVIII/1 201–203; 202 consisted of atile cassette, whilst 201 and 203 were simple pits) most likely dat‑ able to the Late Republic (Sutermeister 1928, 44–46; Di Maio 1998, 124–125). Apparently, the grave goods of tombs 201 and 203 included at least four fragments of decorated coarse ware, belonging to small ollae, all decorated with fingernail impressions. On that occasion, as was his custom, the Engineer arranged some examples of the fragments into aparticular type of board devised by himself, in which each piece was inserted flanking its corresponding drawing (Fig. 2). One of these fragments was published in his pioneering 1928 volume Legnano Romana (Sutermeister 1928), where he curiously refers to it as a‘Pomme de Pin’ due to its shape and the fingernail impression decoration that resembled apine cone (Sutermeister 1928, 44–46, fig. 29; Di Maio 1998, 47, no. 54, 124–126). Fig. 2: One of Sutermeister’sdistinctive boards displaying asampling of sherds of decorated coarse ware from afunerary context in loc. Paradiso, Castellanza (after Di Maio 1998, 126; Courtesy of the Ministero della cultura– Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le provin‑ ce di Como, Lecco, Monza ‑Brianza, Pavia, Sondrio e Varese). Afurther small coarse ware olla with grid pattern incisions had come to light, together with other material, some twenty years earlier in Castellanza loc. Buon Gesù as aresult of gravel quarry works; these grave goods belonged to atomb dated to the second phase of La Tène D (Sutermeister 1928, 51–52; Di Maio 1998, 36–37, no. 20; Volontè 2012, 731–733, fig. 7:2). Another relevant discovery occurred in 1933, at loc. Pontevecchio near the town of Magenta, where Guido Sutermeister recovered archaeological materials from one or two rich burials in agravel quarry. These included metals and ceramic vessels, some of which imitate Roman forms, and one small ovoid coarse ware olla adorned with impressed tool mark (circular/quad‑ rangular) decoration. For the most part, these grave goods fall chronologically within the 1st 201FABIO COPPO– MICHELE MILAN century BC, belonging to La Tène D, with the significant exception of an iron sword, which is comparable to similar examples from late La Tène C (Sutermeister 1934, 7–8; Di Maio 1998, 90; Volontè 2012, 735–739, fig. 8:6). Even though Sutermeister had not studied this type of pottery in detail, he had already observed, where the archaeological context was alittle more certain, that these vessels, togeth‑ er with other Late La Tène productions, were often associated with Roman vases, (Volontè 2012, 722, note 10). This might be the case of the necropolis found in Via Vittorio Veneto at San Giorgio su Legnano (MI) in 1952, during construction work on private property (Suter‑ meister 1956, 3–22). Unfortunately, 23 tombs had already been dug before Sutermeister’sin‑ tervention, who nonetheless arranged for the expansion of the excavation area; finally, he estimated that there were aminimum of 50 burials at the site (Sutermeister 1956, 6). Further emergency excavations conducted by the Soprintendenza in more recent years (1987, 2004, 2008–2009) have confirmed that the necropolis was of an even greater extent as suggested by the Engineer himself (Di Maio 1998, 37–38, nn. 22–23; Ferrara 2010; Volontè 2012, 731). The study of the materials from these tombs suggests achronological span between the mid 1st century BC and the 1st century AD due to the presence of finds of Celtic tradition and Roman pottery belonging to the Late Republic and the first decades of the Roman Empire (Di Maio 1998, 107; Ferrara 2010, 32; Volontè 2012, 728–731). In this context, tomb no. 4 yielded two different ovoid ‑shaped coarse ware ollae (one large, the other smaller in size) decorated with fingernail impressions (Fig. 3), together with an olpe and an iron razor (Sutermeister 1956, 7, 9–10, tomb n. 4; Di Maio 1998, 37, no. 22, 106–107; Ferrara 2010, 4–11, fig. 6; Volontè 2012, 728–731, figs. 6:4 and 6:5).2 Fig. 3: Two ollae from tomb no. 4 in San Giorgio su Legnano ornated with nail impressions (Cour‑ tesy of the Ministero della cultura– Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Milano; Archivio Fotografico Museo Civico Archeologico G. Sutermeister, Legnano). 2 The grave goods of tomb no. 4, consisting of acinerary urn, also included afragmentary olpe and ahalf ‑razor with traces of ritual defunctioning. It is worth mentioning that further excavations have been carried out at San Giorgio in recent years (1987, 2004, 2008–2009), uncovering additional archaeological material that is chronologically consistent with that found in the 1950s; see Ferrara 2010, with preceding bibliography. 202 STUDIA HERCYNIA XXVIII/1 Fig. 4: Small olla with handle from San Lorenzo di Parabiago (Courtesy of the Ministero della cul‑ tura– Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per la città metropolitana di Milano; Archivio Fotografico Museo Civico Archeologico G. Sutermeister, Legnano). Archaeological surveys in San Lorenzo di Parabiago had already been carried out by Suter‑ meister in 1927, revealing a1st century AD Roman burial ground, and in 1934, where graves generically belonging to the Late Celtic Period were discovered (Sutermeister 1928, 91–100; Antichi silenzi 1996, 30–34; Volontè 2012, 722–723). In 1958, he continued the excavations in the same area examined in 1927, uncovering anumber of additional burials; their grave goods fall into the Late La Tène chronological range and include at least two coarse ware small globular ollae that stand out because of aparticularly depurated clay and their fine craftsmanship. They are both adorned with afine herringbone pattern decoration and one of them (Fig. 4) features aunique curved vertical handle (Sutermeister 1960, 9–11, nos. 3, 10; Grassi 1995, 67, no. 56; Antichi silenzi 1996, 30–35, pls. 15:2 and 15:4; Grassi 2000, 21, figs. 3–4; Volontè 2012, 722–724, figs. 3:3 and 3:6). Moreover, Sutermeister applied research techniques that were undoubtedly ahead of his time; in fact, he carried out achemical analysis on one of these small ollae; in light of the test results, he concluded that this vase was used as acrucible for melting some type of metal, although, as he himself observed, it did not demonstrate any slag residue; alternatively, it could be acooking vessel, since the ceramic body had to be particularly resistant to the ac‑ tion of fire (Sutermeister 1960, 9; Antichi silenzi 1996, 35, note 77, pl. 15:2). Already then, the Engineer wondered if this specimen, as well as others of the same type, might be aproduct of ‘…una industria raffinata locale che continuò nel tempo’,3 therefore long after the Roman conquest of the region (Sutermeister 1960, 10). It is clear that Sutermeister’srole in safeguarding the local archaeological heritage was also important for those taking the first steps into the study of decorated coarse ware and leaving at our disposal rare but crucial data that is essential for pursuing and widening the archaeological research. ‘UGLY WARE’ FROM RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN THE MIDDLE OLONA VALLEY As mentioned before, other decorated coarse ware fragments have come to light thanks to recent excavations carried out by the Soprintendenza as part of preventive archaeology. 3 ‘…arefined local tradition that continued over time’. 203FABIO COPPO– MICHELE MILAN The previously investigated area in San Lorenzo di Parabiago was the subject of asystemat‑ ic survey by the Soprintendenza during the years 1991–1993, which resulted in the 1996 volume ‘Antichi silenzi’, still aseminal publication for the archaeology of the area and that also included data from Sutermeister’sexcavations (Antichi silenzi 1996). Recent research has therefore un‑ covered afurther 39 tombs, mainly dating to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Regarding decorated coarse ware, it is possible to point out at least four ollae, decorated with fingernail impressions, oblique incisions or impressed tool marks, from tombs nos. 8, 13, 14, and 20. Taken together, these four graves can be chronologically placed between the Augustan–Tiberian period and the middle or third quarter of the 1st century AD (Antichi silenzi 1996).4 In Legnano there is evidence of decorated coarse ware from the vast necropolis located in via Novara; asherd, part of asmall olla ornated with fingernail impressions, comes from tomb no. 5, one of the five tombs found in 1997 following apreliminary inspection carried out by the Soprintendenza. The fragmented vessel is dated between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD (Binaghi Leva– Mella Pariani 2001, 114–115; Tremolada 2015–2016, 65, 200).5 Finally, it is necessary to mention two important graves recently found in Castellanza. They were excavated in 2002, during work related to the laying of underground utilities. One of them (tomb no. 2) is of particular relevance and consists of asimple quadrangular pit (Bi‑ naghi Leva 2004; Castellanza 2002, 33, 87; Volontè 2012, 732). It yielded rich grave goods that included, among other finds, afragment of asmall coarse ware olla decorated with oblique linear incisions (Volontè– Fedeli 2014, 193, pl. V:2) associated with indigenous ceramic vases, including a‘vaso atrottola’ and imitations of Roman vessels produced by local ateliers, as well as metal objects such as an iron strigil and aset consisting of abronze jug and pan. The burials in Castellanza can be dated between the end of the 2nd century BC and the beginning of the following century; it is therefore the oldest evidence of decorated coarse ware pottery from the area to date (Volontè– Fedeli 2014, 185–188). CONCLUSION Subsequent to the preliminary review of these pieces and their related documentation, some observations are possible, as concisely summarized in the following points: These sherds come exclusively from funerary contexts and range approximately from the end of the 2nd century BC or the beginning of the 1st century BC to the second/third quarter of the 1st century AD. Their chronological distribution is therefore consistent with what is seen at many sites in northern Italy (Zamboni 2021, 129–133). These vases appear to be limited to asingle specimen per burial, with the only exception of the aforementioned tomb no. 4 in San Giorgio su Legnano, which ostensibly yielded two ollae. The shape repertoire is essentially homogeneous, as the sherds found to date are all clas‑ sified as of ollae of varying profile, size, and decoration pattern. As far as the decorative syntax is concerned, it is possible to recognize incisions (plain linear oblique incisions or creating a‘grid’ pattern; herringbone pattern incisions; comb incisions?), impressed tool marks (oval/quadrangular impressions) or finger imprints, with 4 Tomb 8, 88, no. 2, pl. 21; tomb 13, 92–94, no. 21, pl. 25; tomb 14, 94–97, no. 12, pl. 28; tomb 20, 101–103, no. 11, pl. 33. See also Volontè 2012, 726–727. 5 Overall, the via Novara necropolis can be allocated to avery broad chronological range: from the end of the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD. 204 STUDIA HERCYNIA XXVIII/1 apreference for the latter technique, being expressed by the distinctive fingernail impressions. At the moment, specimens ornated with plastic or moulded decorations seem to be absent (Zamboni 2021, 125–129, fig. 3). On intact vessels, the decoration extends over the entire out‑ er surface and by observing the decorative patterns it seems possible to affirm the same for fragmentary pieces as well. The decorated coarse ware pieces under examination here also differ in terms of the clay mix. As said before, the two specimens found at San Lorenzo di Parabiago by Guido Suter‑ meister are characterized by anotably depurated clay and fine manufacture, while other pieces appear to be made of acoarser clay mixture and amore sketchy or imprecise decoration; this is the case, for example, with the aforementioned fragments from Castellanza, Magenta, and via Novara in Legnano. Last but not least, it is worth mentioning the persistent association between the decorat‑ ed coarse ware discussed here and the locally produced pottery imitating Roman shapes or actual imported Roman pottery.6 Tomb no. 2 in Castellanza offers anotable example of this trend, also visible in other later burials, such as the previously mentioned tombs in Parabiago. The evidence collected here, with regards to the ‘ugly ware’ stored in the Museum, is, as mentioned above, part of apreliminary survey and therefore unavoidably partial and not en‑ tirely exhaustive; there is the possibility, in fact, that more fragments of decorated coarse ware are still to be rediscovered in the museum’sstoreroom and associated with Sutermeister’sre‑ ports and pictures. Additionally, asubstantial portion of the finds from the area are currently unpublished and still require in ‑depth studies and further investigations. We aim to continue the research on the subject with new comprehensive studies, including new drawings, pictures, archaeometric analyses, and comparisons with published archaeo‑ logical excavations and related materials, reconsidering and integrating these vessels within the context of the most recent studies. Future investigations will hopefully shed new light on the subject at hand, in order to expand our documentation and our knowledge of this distinctiveceramic type. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We gratefully acknowledge the help from the museum curator Dott.ssa Anna Maria Volontè in supporting us and for supplying pictures and publications related to the vessels here dis‑ cussed. We also express our sincere thanks to Dott.ssa Giulia Tremolada for providing us with her thesis. Finally, we are grateful to Dott. Tommaso Quirino for his valuable advice and to Dott. Ian Marsden for helping us with the English text revision. 6 Guido Sutermeister had already emphasised the association of elements of the indigenous and Roman traditions within grave assemblages; according to him it was aform of attachment to older traditions. The debate on this issue, contributed to by numerous scholars over the past years, is still open and far from being settled. For arecent and effective overview on this matter, see Zamboni 2021. As far as this preliminary research is concerned, the issue is beyond the scope of this study and will be addressed by the present authors following amore extensive and in ‑depth study of the materials. 205FABIO COPPO– MICHELE MILAN BIBLIOGRAPHY Antichi silenzi 1996 = Antichi Silenzi. La necropoli Romana di San Lorenzo di Parabiago. Legnano. Binaghi Leva,M.A. 2004: Castellanza (VA), via Borsano. Tombe tardo ‑repubblicane. Notiziario della Soprintendenza archeologica della Lombardia 2001–2002. Milano, 143–144. Binaghi Leva,M.A.– Mella Pariani, R.2001: Legnano (MI). Via Firenze (già via Novara). Sepolture d’età romana. Notiziario della Soprintendenza archeologica della Lombardia 1998, 114–115. Castellanza 2002 = Binaghi Lev,M.A.: Castellanza nella storia. La ricerca archeologica. Varese. Cattaneo, P.2015: Legnano, la città romana. In: G. Facchinetti– C. Miedico (eds.): Di città in città. Insediamenti, strade e vie d’acqua da Milano alla Svizzera lungo la Mediolanum–Verbannus. Atti del ciclo di conferenze svolte presso il Civico Museo Archeologico di Angera, marzo–novembre 2014. Arona, 42–52. Di Maio, P.1998: Lungo il fiume. Terre e genti dell’antica valle dell’Olona. Milano. Ferrara, L. 2010: La necropoli romana di San Giorgio su Legnano. Bollettino della società Arte e Storia. Museo Civico G. Sutermeister 22, 3–59. Grassi, M.T. 1995: La romanizzazione degli Insubri. Celti e Romani in Transpadana attraverso la documentazione storica e archeologica. Milano. Grassi, M.T. 2000: Una produzione fittile di tradizione celtica. La diffusione della ceramica decorata aMilano e nel suo territorio. In: Milano tra l’età repubblicana e l’età augustea. Atti del Convegno di studi (Milano, 26–27 marzo 1999). Milano, 19–29. Pruneri, S. 2013: Legnano (MI). Banca dati per una carta del rischio archeologico. In: F. Leva– M. Palazzi (eds.): Optima Hereditas. Studi in ricordo di Maria Adelaide Binaghi Leva. Gallarate, 177–182. Sutermeister, G. 1928: Legnano romana. Relazione degli scavi e ritrovamenti antichi. Legnano. Sutermeister, G. 1934: Notizie archeologiche e storiche oritrovamenti fatti nella zona. Memorie della Società Arte e Storia 2, 3–16. Sutermeister, G. 1956: Un secondo sepolcreto di epoca imperiale aSan Giorgio su Legnano, Memorie della Società Arte e Storia 16, 3–22. Sutermeister, G. 1960: Sepolture del 2°, 3° sec. av. Cr. S. Lorenzo di Nerviano. Memorie della Società Arte e Storia 18, 9–11. Tremolada, G. 2015–2016: Legnano, via Novara. Analisi di una necropoli di età romana (scavi 1925–26 e scavi 1997). Tesi di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici. Università degli Studi di Milano. Volontè, A.M. 2012: Imateriali della tarda età del Ferro nel Museo Civico di Legnano. In: C. Chiaramonte Trerè– G. Bagnasco Gianni– F. Chiesa (eds.): Interpretando l’antico. Scritti di archeologia offerti aMaria Bonghi Jovino. Quaderni di Acme 134. Milano, 717–741. Volontè, A.M.– Cattaneo, P.2014: Museo Civico Guido Sutermeister. Guida alle collezioni. Legnano. Volontè, A.M.– Fedeli, A.M. 2014: Due sepolture tardoceltiche da Castellanza. In: B. Grassi– M. Pizzo (eds.): Gallorum Insubrum fines. Ricerche e progetti archeologici nel territorio di Varese. Atti della Giornata di Studio, Varese– Villa Recalcati, 29 gennaio 2010. Roma, 183–198. Zamboni, L. 2021: Ceramiche d’impasto decorate in Cisalpina tra seconda età del Ferro e romanizzazione– appunti per una ricerca. Lanx 29, 118–148. Fabio Coppo Università degli Studi di Milano fabio.[email protected] [email protected] Michele Milan Università degli Studi di Milano [email protected] [email protected]