The first finds were documented at the beginning of the 1800s by Count Benedetto Giovannelli, who records numerous ancient objects (coins, necklaces, bracelets, rings, buckles, weapons, bells, etc.) being found in the lands belonging to a Local Counsellor, Agostino Torresani. Of particular interest, again reported by Giovannelli, was the discovery of an extensive building complex on 20 September 1804, during works on the Torresani property. A complete epigraph was recovered from the structure, now lost, bearing a dedication to Saturn, along with various incomplete inscription fragments. Another two epigraphs dedicated to the same Roman god were found in the Campi Neri between 1869 and 1875, while a third, almost certainly deriving from the same area, was found in 1822 during restoration work on the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, where it had been reused in an old wall. A veiled marble head, now lost, was found by Luigi Campi in the spring of 1888 and was probably a depiction of Saturn.
These combined artefacts have led scholars to postulate a former temple dedicated to Saturn in Campi Neri, the figure of this god probably having been merged with a pre-existing local divinity during the process of Romanization. Interest in the Campi Neri area increased over the years and in 1829 Giuseppe Pinamonti, author of the book, “La Naunia descritta al viaggiatore” (Naunia Described for Travellers), included this agricultural land as one of the important features of Cles: “visitors should visit the so-called "Campineri", where the soil is extremely black, containing instead of pebbles, petrified bone”. In the second half of the XIX century, the Campi Neri became internationally famous for the discovery of the “Tavola Clesiana”, a bronze slab bearing an edict by Emperor Claudio in 46 A.D. conceding Roman citizenship to the Anauni, Sinduni, and Tulliassi peoples, and addressing a dispute between the Comensi and Bergalei peoples. Without going into all the details of this exceptional artefact, it is worth noting that the deciphering and interpretation of this text stimulated considerable international scientific debate about the period, involving legal analysts, historians, archaeologists, and various other scholars. A few decades later, knowledge about the site was extended thanks to the first scientific studies by Luigi Campi. This Cles archeologist, summarizing Giovannelli's finds, stated that, “all those items were scattered and dispersed in a deep and very extensive layer of black soil, mixed with ash, calcinated bone, and abundant remains of fires, pottery shards, charcoal in such quantities that to create this site [...] many centuries of Greek and Roman catacombs would hardly have sufficed”. Campi's investigation started in April 1887 and continued into the following year, identifying two blackish layers containing ceramic shards, unburnt calcinated bone, charcoal, coins, and some metal items. At certain points “irregular cobbled” sections were discovered, as well as three skeletons laid supine and surrounded with stones but without grave decorations (similar burials were also found during the works for the construction of the Moggio spinning-mill). Campi was also responsible for recovering a set of 10 bronze hat pins, datable to the Late Bronze Age (XII-XI B.C.), accidentally dug up during excavations to deviate water on the southern side of the mill. Analysing his data and previous finds, Campi reached the conclusion that the Campi Neri archeological deposits could be ascribed to a combination of both repeated secular cremation rites of ancient peoples (pre-Roman), together with votive fires around a temple dedicated to Saturn, which were intended fulfil political-administrative functions as well as for religious ends, as testified by the recovery of the Tavola Clesiana. Further investigations by the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Land Authority conducted between 1999 and 2007, in 2015, and in 2019, partly confirmed and partly revised the theories of earlier scholars. The excavations conducted by this supervising body involved an area of over 7000 m2 of land currently occupied by the “Bernardo Clesio” school complex and the A.P.S.P. “Santa Maria” health facility. The digs confirmed the importance of the site, frequented for religious ends by the local people as early as the end of the Copper Age and up to Late Roman times. The earliest proof of frequentation of the site, by now strictly linked to the cultural sphere, dates back to the early Copper Age (2500 to 2000 B.C.) and was found in the southern sector of the area studied. This was a circular enclosure (8.5 m in diameter) delimited by large blocks of stone, inside of which, in a de-centred position and tangential to the first circle, there was a second circular structure (2.9 m in diameter), made from large stone blocks and roofed with slabs of metamorphic rock about 40 cm high. It is probable that the top of this second feature was intended for holding fires, as suggested by the recovery of flint instruments transformed by heat and calcified bones. Anthropological studies on bone samples revealed selected human bones from at least three individuals cremated and in secondary deposition. At a later stage the area inside the large stone circle was filled in with a platform of pebbles, then subsequently covered and surrounded by organic soil. The continuation of ritual fire lighting is indicated by the presence of carbonized vegetable offerings, combined with secondary depositions of selected parts of human skeletons. According to Lorenza Endrizzi the location was “connected with specific funerary and propitiatory rituals, possibly linked to ancestor cults,” representing a unique case among the archeological findings of Val di Non. Today, following an intervention of musealization, the stone ring can be visited inside the A.P.S.P. “Santa Maria” gardens. Alongside the stone circle there are shallow circular ditches with rubefaction (signs of combustion) on the sides, dating from the Middle Bronze Age (XVI-XIV century B.C.). The bottoms of the ditches contain carbonized wood covered with stones that show obvious signs of heat transformation resulting from intentional smothering of fires. These “combustion ditches” represent the first evidence for a particular ritual practice that characterized the subsequent frequentation of the site at least until the early Iron Age. Over the entire area of the Campi Neri archeological digs have identified around three hundred similar examples. The majority of these ditches are circular or oval in shape with diameters between 70 and 150 cm and rarely deeper than 50 cm. Only a few were enclosed within stone circles. The presence of animal bone deposits in the surface infill materials, especially skull and jaw fragments, and the presence of few calcified bones inside, have led to a hypothesis that they were used specifically to cook the meat of sacrificed animals, subsequently used as offerings to the gods. The site includes ditches of larger dimensions, sometimes rectangular in shape, in which numerous metal artefacts have been found, intentionally inserted into the sites, including some needles found in vertical positions. The large number of such structures suggests they might have been “favissae”, which were storage areas for votive objects. Items found anywhere on the site might have been religiously redeposited inside these sacred areas through another ritual procedure, testified by the presence of carbonized wood at the bottom of holes. Uphill of the cult area excavations have revealed an imposing structure of 230 metres in length, comprising large stone blocks and earthworks, dated to the start of the late Bronze Age (XII-X century B.C.) and persisting until the Roman Age. This artificial barrier had the purpose of protecting the sanctuary against the slumping of the mountain slope, which had covered the oldest artefacts. In addition to votive ditches, another recurrent feature over the eras of site use was the presence of sacred pathways, all characterized by the same orientation and similar constructional methods (a compressed bed of pebbles delimited by side kerbs of larger stones). The two oldest pathways, one datable to the Late Bronze Age, are uphill of the imposing protective works and both appear to be aligned with the circular stone circle. Another pathway dating back to the late Bronze Age is downhill of the protective structure, running parallel to it before bending sharply towards the east. The same development is observed in a track from the late Iron Age, today musealized in the courtyard of the “Bernardo Clesio” school complex. Alongside this relic, a favissae ditch has also been identified, abundant in artefacts, animal bones, and metal objects including ornaments, bronze plate cut into geometric and anthropomorphic shapes, bronze statues, and weapons datable from the V to the II century B.C. Other important finds from inhabited areas during the same period include three very ornate buckles, one from a war chariot (VI-V century B.C.), one zoomorphic (V-IV century B.C.), and one with double bird head (V century B.C.). The presence of another Roman Age sacred pathway is testified, partially superimposed over the earlier ones. Strata dating from this period revealed various buckles and coins (dating from the I century B.C. to the IV century A.D.), metal keys (the religious significance of which is widely attested in the ancient world), and iron or bronze tintinnabula bells, which must have been worn around the necks of animals being led towards sacrifice, or used as musical instruments during processions. Certain objects are associated with specific social classes, like three pairs of iron handcuffs, possibly associated with cases of manumissiones (liberation) of slaves, and intentionally broken spearheads as signs of devotion by soldiers. The most interesting remains are currently preserved and displayed in the Museo Retico di Sanzeno (Sanzeno Rhaetian Museum). Recent research has thus revealed the presence of a vast “open air ” sanctuary on the Campi Neri where rituals were conducted involving votive fires, and processions along well constructed “sacred pathways”. The hypotheses of earlier scholars like Campi had attributed funerary practices (cremations) as the main cause for the formation of the local “black soil”. Modern studies instead observe these rituals as only having occurred during early periods and being circumscribed to limited areas. As regards the suggestion that there was once a temple dedicated to Saturn, modern digs have not identified any structural evidence. However, this does not exclude the possibility that any remains were irredeemably compromised by major agricultural works in ancient times, or during archeological studies in the 1800s.
