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The hill between Vomano Guard and the Abbey of San Clemente is a settlement context, of particular interest because it substantially continuous employment between the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in modern times. To the north west of the village gathered information on the site indicate the continuing discovery of bronze objects in all likelihood from a necropolis of the Iron Age, which is referable to a sword with bronze scabbard found in 1932 during excavation for the foundation of a farmhouse. The sword, now in the National Museum of Chieti, is a copy of the swords "italic" in language taken from the Iron Age type Terni21.

In it the language to be taken is slim and has a highly angled contour the plate to the frame of apple growing in, the shoulder, almost angular, is high; Chiodetti holes used to attach the blade are five all'immanicatura : two on the plate, a tongue and two on the shoulder, the blade is wide with an emphasis on the middle and the tip tapers taking the course in the language of carp. The base of the blade bears the characteristic pattern is etched Y; the exemplary overall length of 52 cm.

Terni type swords were found in much of the Italian peninsula, with the exception of the Etruscans of Villanova.


Although in general, it seems like a concentration of Umbria and Lazio, and one of his lesser extent in the medium Adriatic, the variety B, which the specimen belongs Guard, has a more diffuse distribution affecting in particular the area south East of the peninsula.

The sword was accompanied, like the one from Villa Vomano by a sheath type Vomano Guard, which gave name to another type. It, unlike the one described above, shows the front face divided into segments by a series of longitudinal ribs decorated with engravings, and is devoid of the tip.

The history of the swords like Terni, which are framed in the ninth and early eighth century BC, suggests the specimen Guard dating from the ninth century in relation to the association type scabbard Guard, who rarely enters the 'viii. The context in which the specimen is inserted, therefore seems to be linked to that already found at the necropolis of Villa Vomano to outline a cultural framework of the early Iron Age with significant elements of homogeneity.

In the Republican era in the main center area is a large villa, situated along the road that connects Guard in San Clemente, about 200 m before the junction with the trail that descends to the SS 50. Adjustments of the recent path of the road have damaged the structure by cutting it in half and additional damage was caused in 1984 by the excavation for the construction of a building. Are currently emerging and variously damaged numerous structures that allow fairly detailed analysis of the complex. They seem to recognize at least three construction phases. At first the walls are related, with a curtain in a sort of rough uncertain work, perhaps similar to that described by Persichetti for the villa to the site, approximately 50/60 cm thick. The walls nos. 1 / 3 partially delimit an environment with features that are not clarified and partially emptied the collapse of the layer of about 50 cm high. At a second stage is attributable Curtain in the wall 4 with brick of good quality, well-smoothed, more than eight meters long, and cut off the road. Apart from the rooms are definitely identifiable as the one furnace for the presence of remains of the perforated plate and of which more than one analyzes the characteristics, the other for its oval, probably as a tank perhaps linked to the system the furnace. Both have a slightly different pattern from that of other structures is perhaps conceivable that an insertion after the first plan of the villa. Other structures and stratigraphy are probably not dug in areas E and F. mentre2 by a news gathering on the site, privately owned ark D were found and subsequently covered with the remains of a black and white mosaic.

The material collected on the site of the devastated lands, while outside layer. however, provides information about the history of occupation of the villa.

The initial phase could possibly be ascribed to the first century BC to the presence of fragments of black-glaze pottery. However, only two fragments of sigillata italica, a cup-type Goudineau 5, maybe another type of dish Goudineau 2, provide accurate historical data, between 50 and 30 a. C. Also here is the type anforario Lamboglia 2/Baldacci I used between the first century BC and AD, for the export of wine. There is also very common ceramic purified, purified, and pretty rough (Nos. 6 9). They present some cooking, pot size 7, and fragments of olla three feet, as AB 28 (Nos. 6 7), dating from the third century AD, as well as a fragment of Lamb dish. 40/Hayes 50B in African sigillata C 2 (3); iv at the end / beginning of fifth century is ultimately attributable to a fragment Lamb type plate. 51/Hayes 59B in African sigillata D that provides the data later on the history of occupation of the site.

Apart from the existence of wine production, which was obviously intended a part of the villa, of particular interest is the installation of a factory where the furnace. The property, even cut in the height of the crack prefurnio of 1984, however, retain sufficient elements to allow, in addition to the identification, analysis of the characteristics. There is no doubt that the plant should be ascribed to the vertical type IIb Cuomo Di Caprio combustion chamber with a square or rectangular, and `central corridor. The combustion chamber is well preserved, made of clay coated directly on the walls of the cut in the ground, while the prefurnio the corridor is sometimes very long, sometimes as in this case, which does not seem to go very, very short, was partially cut. Prefurnio fed by the fire in the room combustion usually, and even here, is plastered clay to prevent heat loss. Above the combustion chamber and the cooking temperature was between the two arches supported by a perforated plate. In our case, remain part of an arc, the tax of the same on the left side and those of the second period.Above the arch is all that remains of the perforated plate in which three are obvious holes that allow heat produced by the fire in the combustion chamber to reach the cooking chamber. At the same purpose served two vents made between the two arches. Below the perforated plate (No. 4) is shown another layer of clay, perhaps related to a previous level of the same. The plan called for continued attention and it was covered with layers of raw clay to remove bubbles and cracks produced by previous firings.

While the basement was also prefurnio and is accessed via a ramp times, the firing chamber was above the ground level. A Vomano Guard, along the walls of the combustion chamber made, as has been mentioned, with a layer of clay about 16 cm is often applied directly against the cable of the land, not on the level of the perforated plate traces of foundations that may relate masonry structures in the elevation of the cooking chamber. Two hypotheses are therefore possible, or that there was no real cooking, and the ceramic material, once stacked,

was covered with a layer of clay attached to the edges of the combustion chamber with the firing system "to pile", or that the walls were made of thin bricks of unbaked clay and covered with a domed ceiling

made with a wooden trellis covered with clay, too. Inspired by the second and most acceptable hypothesis is the proposal for reconstruction of the line presented here. For the limited size of the plant was probably used for baking pottery, could therefore be one of the centers of production than in ordinary ceramics imperial age, with unique local characteristics, it seems pretty evenly distributed in many rural settlements examined in this contribution. If on the other hand, the furnace had used the method of cooking "a pile" and had therefore been no walls, it must be remembered that this system is normally used for bricks. In both the first and most probable case, that in this activity according to the testimony of "industrial" at the site of the villa is of particular importance for the economic history of the imperial age, age to which it seems possible to relate the plant.

Roman material stripped from the area of the villa or perhaps from Roman structures on the site is reused in the church of San Clemente, among other things, a fragment of a stone frieze (1.50 m x 0.40) to triglyphs and metopes adorned with busts of two bulls, a patera and a rosette with the remains of an inscription, while excavations in town the same Guard is a bronze of Caligula, as evidence of attendance in the entire Roman hill between San Clemente and Guard.

Not far from the village are two rural settlements may be connected to spatial planning that is taking shape with the construction of the villa, perhaps small farms.Vineyards in the town are the remains of a dating system in its early stages, the presence of black-glaze pottery, Republican era, while in Colle Montarone are the remains of another settlement which are attributable to various fragments of tiles morphology similar earthenware flooring chips and fragments of pottery painted in red that may testify to a continuity of occupation in the early Middle Ages. From the lowlands along the Vomano Finally an interesting table in the Guard Viane 7.5 cm high bronze inscription difficult to legal interpretation, found during agricultural work shortly before 1836.