archaeology of Tolfa Mountains

The territory of the municipalities of Santa Marinella Civitavecchia, Allumiere Tolfa and includes a variety of geological and archaeological evidence of great scientific importance. In a country well-preserved for more than 11500 hectares is devoted to pasture and made an SPA (Special Protection Area) is unique into the Lazio. The area archaeologically manifest presence evidencing a strong continuity of employment, from Middle Paleolithic to the present day. Interesting is the strong presence of settlements of the bronze age (this is called a time "Protovillanovan") evidencing a pre-organized presence Etruscan. Already in the nineteenth century travelers and archaeologists such Abeken W. (Mittelitalien, 1843) and G. Dennis (The Cities and Cemetries of Etruria, 1848) speak of the Roman ruins and pre-faced by visiting these areas, you will be amazed. Since 1840 the excavations conducted by Donna Teresa Gaetani Duchess of Sermoneta highlight the beautiful Roman villas of the coast of Santa Marinella and the necropolis of Pian Sultan above Santa Severa. In 1881 Baron Adolf de la Grange makes Klitsche excavations discovered the first tomb to Allumiere proto-Villanovan the district. In 1864, on the coast of Santa Marinella, in the Capo Linaro, Father Angelo Secchi (to him we owe the meridian passing through Monte Mario) aboard the papal pirocorvetta, commanded by Commodore Alexander wafer, making the first experiments in clear water. In 1933 Cape Linaro always in the Tower Chiaruccia, Guglielmo Marconi installs its experimental workshop on radar transmissions. In 1964 Dr. O.Toti making the excavation Monte Rovello (Allumiere) of a Bronze Age settlement and final recently, with a reoccupation Etruscan, and there rinviene a fragment of pottery period Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIC2 (1150 - 1100 B.C.) which (together with those of Luni and St. Juvenal) attests to contacts of a commercial nature, perhaps only indirect, between the Mycenaeans and the pre-Etruscan people of ancient Latium. Geologically the area is also interesting due to the mountains of Tolfa and mines of iron and alum at Allumiere. Here we find the famous flysch tolfetano (clastic sedimentary rock) and very rare microminerali like Wavellite (Al4 (PO4) 2 (OH, F) 3 5 (H2O)) and realgar (As4S4). Also in 1992, analyzing the soil of the bank of the Cupo Torrent, at Tolfa, was discovered a new subspecies of Radiola (microfossils), the Crucell cachensis tolfaensis. Finally, the naturalistic aspect should not be underestimated because in particular the mountains of Tolfa are 130 species of birds, 30 of about 90 orchids and butterflies and there is a rare fern, The Osmunda Regalis. Go Then remember, given the low altitude and climate nostrano, two unusual woods, a birch at the hot springs of Manziana beech and the other at the center of alum. The two rivers that mark the borders (north and Mignone Riofiume the south) have an aquatic fauna by fish (Souffia) and crab (Potamon fluviatile) and many invertebrates which play the important function of ecological indicators to monitor the quality of the ecosystem.