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Foggia: The city suspended between past and future. Closed excavations in Piazza De Santis

I-pog, the large cube speaker who has linked to two months the city above the city below, Tuesday, December 28, 2010 has turned off the spotlight by last light on the " Memory lost and memory regained . This is the title of the project for the excavation of hypogeum Piazza De Santis, sponsored by the "Consortium Head Down" and financed by the "Fondazione Banca del Monte " of Foggia, which saw the spin off the University of Foggia " Archaeological "work with" upside down, "from November 4 to December 20, to find the rooms below the cathedral.

" A project that will have a follow ", as pointed out by Francis Andretta, President of "Fondazione Banca del Monte " during the closing meeting of the excavation, and start again from its discovery, which was found during the investigation, a compartment that could lead to the main entrance ipogeico hypogeum.

under layers and layers of earth to a subterranean level above 8 feet from the road surface, excavation led to the identification of two hypogean environments due to a well dating back to 700/800 and a pit of wheat, whose date might be even before the eighteenth century, probably from medieval times, as specified by Giuliano Volpe, Rector of the University of Foggia.

The presence of various waste and scrap materials is a hopeful sign that the environment, in his last period of use, has been used as a dump. More detailed information on nutrition and lifestyle of our ancestors will be given to us as a result of studies on archaeological finds, most animal bones, fish bones and ceramic utensils.

This was a first real action of "urban archeology " made in the heart of the city of Foggia, innovative and experimental project, especially in its mode of participation.

The "Cooperative Scurpiddu " founding member of the "Consortium head down " , oversaw aspects of social communication and involvement citizenship through the development of a social survey questionnaire, distributed directly from the trading activities of the center. As reported by Welcome Grillo, President of the Cooperative, " the 3000 questionnaires distributed to schools, residents and merchants of the historic center have been completed and returned 304 . Therefore, it exceeded 10% interest, is important in light of the disturbing " cultural apathy" that too often characterizes the territory dauno. Do not underestimate also the data concerning the first question on the degree of knowledge received on the occurrence of Foggia subterranean environments. The 22.03% answered "not at all " , the 58.55% answered "very ," 17.1% " enough" and only 2.3% " very .

Since the latter is even more worrying when one considers that the social survey was conducted in schools that serve their own activities and the old town, full of tombs. The Consortium also with the support of the "Fog Production Video ” di Sergio Grillo , ha realizzato un video documentario, proiettato nel corso della serata in Piazza De Santis in cui, oltre alla  documentazione costante degli scavi da parte degli archeologi e speleologi, sono state raccolte testimonianze ed aneddoti dei cittadini legate alla “ memoria degli ipogei ”.

Quella memoria che, in silenzio, chiama dalle viscere della terra e chiede di essere ritrovata.

Perché, come espresso da uno dei tanti cittadini ascoltati,“ la città è nostra. E siamo noi che dobbiamo riscoprirla .”


Below is the trailer of the documentary " Memory lost, memory regained " produced by Sergio Grillo - Fog Video Production

Anna Cecilia