...ET NOS, HOMINES DE MARIANO, PROMITTIMUS CASTELLO MURARE...Marano (Cupra Marittima – AP): campagne archeologiche 2018-2019

The stratigraphic excavation carried out in UTS 1000 involved a small portion of the south-eastern slope of the Marano hill, allowing us to document an uninterrupted presence in the area from the 14th to the 20th century AD. In Room n. 3, the oldest occupations date back to the full 14th century, that is, to the moment in which Marano is involved by its definitive expansion and definition, contextually to the construction of the still visible de- fensive wall. In this period, the area was a mixed space, certainly occupied by structures of a largely residential type but also by green areas, intended for lawns or crops. The occupation involved limited layers, and for the rest it took place directly on the substrate of the hill, set up through terraces whose average height difference was to be around 50-60 cm. The medieval occupation determined numerous re- arrangements of the spaces. If sufficient information is lacking to establish, the characteristics of the building, the high number of occupation layers documented in a rather limited period – the entire 14th century – testifies in favor of a lively and continuous occupation, gravitating almost exclusively on Room n. 3. During the 16th century, the entire area undergoes sub- stantial planimetric reorganizations, which materialize through extensive backfill activities and in a progressive structuring of the spaces through the dismantling of the previous wall structures and the construction of new walls, perpendicular to the slope, at the same time as the defin- itive closure of the spaces towards the valley. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the area is divided into clearly distinct spaces, by structures made of stones and bricks, which mark rooms of about 3×5 m. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the occupation is divided into isolated basins, characterized by the succes- sion of lime floors made on huge levels of preparation consisting of abundant fragments of bricks The space that certainly stands out for its stratigraphic complexity is, at this time, that of Room n. 1, in which very articulated static-architectural solutions and a particular under-scan- ning of the space in rooms of various functions have been documented. With the passage to the 19th century, even this scan disappears, leaving room for the construction of a build- ing, demolished only at the beginning of the 20th century, characterized by a ground floor set directly on the leveling of the previous dividing structures.