Inaugurated in October 2021, the brand new permanent museum for the exhibition of the Vasca Votiva (Votive Basin) and the finds of Noceto reveals the history of the Vasca Votiva of Noceto (PR), an exceptional monument of the Terramaricola civilization of the Bronze Age, which has changed the current knowledge of the historical period.
The terramaricola culture is considered one of the most significant civilizations of prehistoric Europe.
Between the sixteenth and twelfth centuries B.C., the great "terramare" villages were delimited by wooden palisades, embankments and ditches, within which the dwellings were arranged in regular alignments, near watercourses.
The huts, single-family, were built on decks similar to stilts raised on dry land.
The wooden basin was originally located at the edge of the "terramara" of Noceto, which was destroyed in the nineteenth century and of which only the shape of the terrace on which it was located remains, cut by a moat upstream and limited downstream by a watercourse.
The basin, which was always full of water, reveals an accurate planning, deep notions of engineering, geotechnics and forestry, great organizational skills and a huge investment of work and resources.
For its realization was excavated a cavity of 20 x 14 meters and deep over 4, within which was built the tank, 12 x 7 m wide.
It probably had a ritual function, in fact inside it were found objects carefully placed, such as over 100 vases, miniature vases, animal figurines and wooden artifacts.
The basin of Noceto also represents an extraordinary archive for the study of Bronze Age vegetation, since pollen and vegetable macro-rests are preserved in it, revealing a landscape of bushy pastures and cultivated fields.
