Archaeological site – Campetto and Cima Marana

The site

At more than 1500 meters of altitude, along the watershed of the Agno and Chiampo basins, there is a site where you can discover mountain archaeology and ethnoarchaeology, where you can learn about the ancient ways of human settlement and exploitation of the resources of the territory since prehistory.

Sella di Campetto (1553 m, in the Municipality of Recoaro Terme) is located between Monte Campetto and Cima Cengia Bianca, along the ridge that constitutes the watershed line between the basin of the Agno and the Chiampo. Cima di Marana (1552 m, Municipality of Recoaro Terme) is part of the system of ridges that forms the line of displuvium between the basins of the two rivers. The locations are easily reached by chairlift (Recoaro-Montefalcone).

Visit the site

The visit invites to an approach to the archaeological and ethnographic finds, in search of the most remote roots of man, to know the ancient habits of use of the territory and exploitation of its resources. These uses have changed over time and are fundamental in tracing history, outlining the different cultural landscapes that have followed one another in the mountains.
The sites of Campetto and Cima Marana, frequented from prehistory to modern times, are a valid example of mountain settlements and a starting point for didactic-methodological considerations on mountain archaeology.

Already in the nineteenth century there were reports of findings of various materials: coins, fragments of urns, glass materials, arrowheads of different phases of attendance, artifacts of the Lombard period. In the years to follow, more detailed studies were carried out on the objects found, corroborated by new findings and the identification of traces of dry stone masonry, which revealed a wider period of attendance of the sites in question.

All the material found, reported to the Archaeological Superintendence of Veneto, is partly on display, partly in storage at the Museo Civico “Dal Lago” di Valdagno.

Visit time: ½ day

Guided tour: on payment (chairlift cost to be calculated separately)

History

The location was explored in the second half of the nineteenth century and then more recently at the end of the ‘900. Excavations and researches are still in progress by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Padua.