di Alessandra de Nardis
As part of the redevelopment project of Piazza San Giustino in the Municipality of Chieti, a very rich tomb from the Hellenistic period (XNUMXth-XNUMXrd century BC) was found, still intact, belonging to a woman who was immediately renamed Princess Marouca; the name refers to the population of the Marrucini, a small Italic population of the Oscan-Umbrian language historically settled in the first millennium BC in the strip of territory along the Adriatic coast of present-day Abruzzo.
The tomb, cut into the clayey geological bank, was miraculously saved from the various interventions on the area that took place over the centuries for the construction of the Roman and nineteenth-century cisterns, for the construction of grain pits, tree holes, trenches for canalization and subservices, of foundations of building structures that affect the eastern area of the square.
The funerary structure is uncommon due to its almost quadrangular shape and double size compared to normal burials; the pit contains a woman rather small in proportions but robust in the frame and a very rich collection of bronze and ceramic vases; the clothing and the body must have been decorated with fibulae, bronze elements, glass paste beads and amulets. The woman was placed in a supine position with her body facing west to occupy the southern side of the grave while the objects of the rich grave goods were arranged and placed in the northern half, to the right of the burial.
Once the excavation is complete, we are now awaiting the study of the materials, the anthropological analyzes and those conducted on the contents of the various vases which could clarify the definition of a distant phase in the history of Teate, the ancient name of Chieti from the XNUMXth century BC which still has few documented elements.
Alessandra de Nardis – February 2022
