Carlos Solis
Preliminary dating places the sanctuary’s earliest phase in the 5th–4th centuries B.C., when the Veneti — a people with their own language and script — lived in northeastern Italy and were later absorbed into the Roman state. The surviving inscriptions in the Venetic script are especially valuable for understanding local identity, religious practices, and community life before full Romanization.
Archaeologists found many stone pillar steles at the excavation site, mostly inscribed in the Venetic script and, less often, in Latin. Many of the steles bear text on multiple faces, sometimes on three sides, suggesting a ritual purpose rather than simple labeling: craftsmen made these objects so people could see and read them within the sacred precinct.
Transformation in the Roman Era
One especially intriguing detail is the reuse of inscribed stones in a paved layer that preliminary dating places in the 1st century A.D. Archaeologists are still studying the paving’s exact function, but the paving contains material from older sacred structures, while some original elements remained in place. This pattern shows continuity, transformation, and adaptation of the religious landscape — a site rooted in the Venetic tradition that retained significance under Roman influence.
Excavators uncovered rectangular foundations that they interpret as temples. One building has features of a peripteral temple — that is, a structure surrounded by rows of columns. Italian reports say the complex may cover at least 1,500 m²; so far archaeologists have identified three buildings and are investigating a fourth. If those estimates are confirmed, this is not a small rural shrine but a substantial cult center that developed and expanded over time.
A major flood of the Adige River later buried the complex. Layers of silt, gravel, and alluvial deposits hid the structures for centuries, yet those same deposits helped preserve surfaces, stones, and foundations. For archaeologists, that kind of natural preservation is often an advantage because it lets them study the architecture, inscriptions, and ritual use of materials as a single, coherent record.
What Still Needs to Be Determined
Researchers have not yet identified which deity the sanctuary honored. Further epigraphic analysis should show whether the cippi record a deity, list donors, or preserve ritual formulas. The concentration of inscriptions and the long, continuous use of the site let researchers trace the shift from a local Venetic cult to a Romanized sacred landscape.
The excavations at Ponso show that Romanization in northern Italy was a gradual process: communities did not always destroy older sanctuaries; they often transformed and integrated them into new political and architectural forms. During modern roadworks, archaeologists found not only temples and inscriptions but also a record of how a local community carried its religious memory into a new historical reality.
This story draws on reporting from Arkeonews
