A logical question that everyone could ask, is when the project of Spinatellers did start in practice. The answer to this question is a trip, not a long but a very important journey. On the 16th of October, Sunday morning, the group of Spinatellers couldn’t resist the possibility of seeing the place where once was the ancient Spina and where the modern city of Comacchio lays. Certainly, this wasn’t enough, when a contemporary exhibition for the 100 years of the discovery of Spina is waiting for you in Comacchio’s Palazzo Bellini. There, the members of the international group came closer to the objects that will be their company for the next months of the project.
The exhibition started with a video presenting the ancient Spina, having a virtual recreation of the settlement, showing parts of the necropolis and the changes that the ancient landscape had in the following centuries. Then, in one room was only one object. But not any object. It was the upper part of a candelabrum, illustrating Aenea with his blind father Anchises. A unique representation of this type and the first object of Spina that was ever found, surrounding it with photos and moments of the first archaeological excavations. The main aim of the exhibition though was for the public to understand the context of the objects and how they were located, by reconstructing the conditions in the museum. Another important subject was, the connection of the settlement with the necropolises, introducing objects that were found in these places and the strong bonds with the ancient Greeks and the rest of the Etruscan world. At the end of the exhibition, a great problem wanted to be demonstrated. The problem of looting and the effort of retrieval. Also, the public had the chance to see in videos, archaeologists being on the field, understanding this way, how the objects were found.
Of course, after a long time in the exhibition, there is always the need for a hot espresso, drink and go, and to taste traditional food. Walking on the streets of the modern city of Comacchio, perhaps not so modern as the canals, the community’s close relationship with water and its ancient past, made us imagine that we could be in ancient Spina. But the experience didn’t stop there. Other visits were significant to understand the ancient background. Visits in the permanent exhibition of the museum Delta Antico and in the open-air museum of Comacchio, with recreations of Etruscan furnished houses, helped us understand better the site.
In the end, after a day full of museum experiences, it was time to see the field. The place where archaeological investigations and excavations are occurring, on the exact position of the ancient settlement. Staring the beauty of the landscape and sharing ideas about our next steps. This is how that day concluded, making the beginning for the next days of creation.
