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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2018

John Meadows Open the ORCID record for John Meadows [Opens in a new window] ,
Nicoletta Martinelli  and
Luigi Fozzati
John Meadows*
Affiliation:
Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA), Schloss Gottorf, 24837 Schleswig, Germany
Nicoletta Martinelli
Affiliation:
Laboratorio Dendrodata, via Pigna 14, 37121 Verona, Italy
Luigi Fozzati
Affiliation:
Accademia Internazionale di Scienze e Tecniche Subacquee, c/o CMAS Confederazione Internazionale Attività Subacquee, viale Tiziano 74, 00196 Rome, Italy
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: jmeadows@leibniz.uni-kiel.de)
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Abstract

In a recent Antiquity article, Ammerman et al. (2017) suggest that three radiocarbon dates on seventh- or eighth-century AD samples obtained by coring beneath St Mark's Basilica—including two peach stones—illuminate the earliest settlement of the historic centre of Venice. Excavations at several other locations, however, have yielded in situ settlement remains at least as old as the peach stones, some of which are securely dated by a floating tree-ring chronology and radiocarbon dates from stratified structural samples. Here, the authors summarise this evidence, and propose that a large area of the historic centre may have been settled by, or during, the mid seventh century AD.

Keywords

VenicedendrochronologyradiocarbonBayesian chronological modellingrescue excavationland reclamation
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 366 , December 2018 , pp. 1640 - 1649
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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