An open staircase at the beginning of the right nave leads to the archaeological path below the current floor level. Excavations conducted around and shortly after the middle of the 20th century uncovered various traces and archaeological materials dating from the Roman era to the Middle Ages. These are elements chronologically preceding the original Christian worship building uncovered beneath the current apse, possibly used as a crypt for the church built in the Romanesque period (late 11th century – early 12th century). The well with drainage found under the central nave, variously interpreted by some as a small oven or furnace and by others as a “cell for thermal treatments,” has recently been identified as a pit for casting bells. Several archaeological finds are preserved on site: handled bricks, stamped bricks, bricks with animal imprints, fragments of capitals, inscribed funerary steles, a bronze, possibly votive, hexagonal floor tiles, fragments of glass balsamari, and some large terracotta dolia marked with progressive numbering scratched on the rim. Among the reused materials embedded in the architectural structures and wall surfaces are fragments of inscriptions, seven partially reworked capitals (from the 1st century BC to the 5th-6th century AD), some column bases, a pink Verona marble column, and eight eastern granite columns: notably, one reuses a milestone commemorating emperors Valens, Gratian, Valentinian II, generally attributed to the route of the Via Faventina. Other finds, mainly from the Roman era, are walled in or embedded in walls at various points of the church complex. Mention-worthy among these are a game board carved on a brick, a marble barrier from Greece, an olive press crusher, and several fragments of funerary inscriptions.
Information about Museum of Pieve del Tho’
Via Pieve del Tho’, 1 (c/o Church of St. John in Ottavo),
48013 Brisighella (Ravenna)
0546 800 35, 0546 811 66 (Pro loco)
Source: MIBACT
