La frequentazione tardoantica sul sito della villa rustica di Costigliole Saluzzo (CN)

The ruins of a wide villa rustica belonging to the Roman imperial period (1st-2nd c. AD) were unearthed by the University of Turin at Costigliole Saluzzo in the Val Varaita area (northern Italy) and are still under excavation. The evidence recovered supports the identification of two different sections in the villa, the pars urbana, with a residential function, and the pars rustica, destined to stocking agricultural products and housing productive units. A part of the building also served as a mansio where travelers and merchants could be housed on their way to Gaul. The villa was destroyed by a momentous fire in the last decades of the 3rd c. AD. Between the 4th and the 5th c. AD, the area was re-occupied by rudimentary constructions and a few graves scattered among the buildings. The presence of large pits is probably related to clay exploitation, since other indicators attest agriculture and metallurgy. The paper also provides a preliminary overview of the small finds retrieved at the site.