Landscape is a constantly evolving product, a dynamic entity characterised by the interaction between natural and anthropic factors which took place over the many historical periods. Landscape is a real container for memory, both individual and especially collective, creating an unconscious and irrational relation with the origins of mankind. So, within a geography of memory, the tumuli, castellieri and curtains’ ancient archaeological structures help us look at the Friulian landscape with non-ordinary and fully aware eyes.

- TUMULI, CASTELLIERI AND CURTAINS

Tumuli are the monumental graves of important people belonging to the ancient bronze age communities (2500 – 1600 bc). Castellieri are bronze age villages (2500 – 950 bc) protected by tall and solid fortifications made of earth or stone, and enclosed by ditches. Curtains were the defensive system of a medieval community.

- IL CASTELLIERE DI UDINE

The history of the city of Udine is rooted in the protohistoric era. The first one to state that was Achille Tellini, a scholar of many interests. In the 1900s, while he was analysing the geological-agrarian situation of Udine and its surroundings, he observed its remote origins. By cross-analysing ancient maps, his own observations on the field and news about the discovery of finds, he created a hypothetical map of the castelliere (hillfort) which formed the basis for the future studies of Lodovico Quarina and other researchers.

- ACHILLE TELLINI

Udine 1866–1938

He graduated in Natural Science at the University of Turin, and for the next seven years he followed his professor of Geology at the University of Rome. He carried out his scientific research activity in the palaentological and geological fields, and wrote for periodicals such as “Bollettino della Società Geologica Italiana” and “Rivista Italiana di Scienze Naturali”. He abandoned a secure university career to teach Natural Sciences at the Istituto Tecnico “A. Zanon”, the high school where he founded the Natural History Cabinet, his aim being to transform it into a provincial museum. After a scientific mission in Eritrea, in 1908 he moved to Bologna and became interested in philology, linguistics, Ladin and Friulian folklore, and dedicated himself to the popularisation of Esperanto.

Photo from the first half of the 20th century of the area of ​​the hypothesized embankment between Porta Manin and Ospedale Vecchio.

Udine. Works between via Piave and Via Prefettura, where archaeological materials ascribable to the ancient agger or the protohistoric settlement were found. Ca. 1906. Civic Museums of Udine, Friuli Photographic Archive.
Udine. Via Piave. Villa De Eccher, formerly villa Livi. Garden on the presumed ancient agger. 1982. Civic Museums of Udine, Friuli Photographic Archive.
Udine. Via Manin, near the Gate. Staircase built on the presumed ancient agger. 1982. Civic Museums of Udine, Friuli Photographic Archive.
Udine. Via Gorghi. Gasparini's plant nursery, created on the presumed ancient agger. 1940. Civic Museums of Udine, Friuli Photographic Archive.

- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR...

Many are the archaeological monitoring interventions carried out by the local Superintendency in the city centre. They led to the discovery of the archaeological layers attributable to the Castelliere of Udine under the significant Medieval and Renaissance levels. The first excavations, carried out in 1996 on top of the Castle’s hill, brought to light a waste pit (a typical structure inside the castellieri) containing over 8,000 pottery sherds attributable to the Final Bronze Age (11th c. BC). In the church of San Francesco waste pits and pottery cooking pits have been found. Recently, in Palazzo Mantica, the premises of the Società Filologica Friulana, researchers found part of the agger, the rampart defending the inhabited area. Archaeological structures and finds have been discovered also in Via Mercatovecchio, near the Cassa di Risparmio di Udine e Pordenone bank premises, in Piazza Venerio and during the restoration works of Casa Cavazzini. The analyses of those data carried out by the University of Udine, which are currently still underway, acknowledged the frequentation of the area from the Recent Bronze Age up to the full Iron Age (14th – 5th c. BC).

- TUMULI AND CASTELLIERI

Already in the 18th century, scholars of various interests identified traces of ancient frequentation in some recurring morphological aspects of the territory. But only at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Achille Tellini and Giovanni Battista De Gasperi first, and Lodovico Quarina later, associated tumuli and castellieri, significant elements of the Friulian landscape, with what had already been observed in the neighbouring regions, and they attributed them to the prehistoric man’s modifying action.

- LODOVICO QUARINA

He was a land surveyor, and worked at the land registry office. He studied speleology, geology, toponymy, history and archaeology. He worked with the Accademia di Udine, the Società Alpina Friulana and the Società Filologica Friulana. In 1943 he published the research paper “Castellieri e tombe a tumulo in Provincia di Udine” on the Società Filologica Friulana’s periodical.

Castelliere of Variano. Survey map by Achille Tellini (Quarina 1943).
The Castelliere of Gradisca di Spilimbergo. Manuscript by Lodovico Quarina (“V. Joppi” Civic Library, Manuscripts and rarities section, f.p. 2605).

- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR...

In this region, the settlement model throughout the Bronze Age (1700 – 950 BC) was represented by the castelliere: a village protected by strong earthen or masonry fortifications, and made even more monumental by the presence of tall palisades enclosed by ditches. During that long period of time, moments of crisis were followed by space reorganisation, new foundations or reinforcement works on the existing structures. The research of the University of Udine retraced the elevation technique of the ramparts in the castellieri of Sedegliano and Savalons (Mereto di Tomba). They were built using the “reinforced earth” technique, in other words wooden boxes were alternately filled with earth and gravel, a rainwater drainage system preventing structural failures. At Galleriano, the entrance to the enclosure was of the “broken axis” type, that is to say the village could not be reached through a direct access, but a more articulated path. 

Reliefs of some tumulus tombs. Manuscript by Lodovico Quarina (Civic Library “V. Joppi”, Manuscripts and Rare Items Section, f.p. 2605).

Tomba di Mereto. The “Tumbare” or “Mutare”. Ca. 1940. Civic Museums of Udine, Friuli Photographic Archive.

- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR...

Tumuli are monumental graves made to highlight the burials of important people belonging to the Ancient Bronze Age communities (2500 – 1600 BC). The excavation works carried out by the University of Udine and the local Superintendency, especially at Mereto di Tomba and the district of Sant’Osvaldo in Udine, uncovered the presence of a male individual, his body lying in a pit or a wooden coffin. The construction of a monumental grave created a connection between the communities and the places where their ancestors were buried. That tradition ended in the Middle Bronze Age (1700/1600–1350 BC), when the landscape was characterised by other well-established evidences: the castellieri.

- THE MEDIEVAL CURTAINS

Originally, curtains were the defensive system of a community, separated from the castle, and spontaneously created by the community, thus providing itself with some self regulation. Within the curtains, the vicinie, community meetings, were frequently held to manage collective properties. The origin of those fortifications is uncertain, and it is indicatively attributed to the Middle Ages; documents show that they were widespread between the 14th and 15th centuries.

- PIETRO SOMEDA DE MARCO

Mereto di Tomba 1891–1970
He graduated in Laws and worked as a notary in Udine and Mereto di Tomba, where he also became potestà. He was a member of the Accademia di Udine, the Deputazione di Storia Patria, the Ateneo Veneto and other institutions; poet and essayist, he devoted his attention to archaeology, especially in his own town, by precisely recording the data concerning the finds that were constantly uncovered in the fields and later donated to the Civic Museums of Udine, where Pietro’s twin, Carlo, worked as the director from 1932 to 1958.

- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR...

Very few curtains have kept their original features: in fact in the 16th century they had already been abandoned or transformed. They have been preserved, just like tumuli and castellieri, in the toponyms, their morphological and architectural structures, and in the presence of the church structure within the settlement area. Thanks to the archaeological survey carried out on the Curtain at Rivolto in 2000, we know there were a ditch and two aggers. The two banks, one on the outside and the other on the inside, were separated by a second ditch which was smaller than the external one.

- THE PRESENT LANDSCAPE

The emerging morphological features attributable to Prehistory and the Middle Ages, inform the historic collective memory, leaving an identity mark on the Friulian territory. Their preservation and conservation allow to promote areas almost always unknown to the general public, and support the slow tourism dedicated to knowledge.