The Stella River was, in antiquity, the most important watercourses of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, its relevance residing in that it connected the Alps to the Adriatic Sea. This function was facilitated by the fact that the Stella is a resurgence river, thus ensuring a sufficient flow rate to be sailed along all year round. The Anaxum Project, a partnership between the University of Udine and the local Archaeological Superintendence, aims to reconstruct the history of the Stella River basin focusing on human-landscape relationships through time. At the same time, the river is also used as a laboratory for the training of future underwater archaeologists.
The archaeological excavations conducted in the river between 2011 and 2022 concerned the remains of the bridge of the via Annia (II bce) and a shipwreck area (I-II ce), which include a sewn barge, as well as the remains of a medieval wreck (XI-XIII ce). This chapter will present the study of the cultural landscape of the Stella River in Roman times, in particular through the results of the ten seasons of underwater and nautical archaeological research.
