Eleven clay figurines with female features were found in Brietta Pievi, just outside the town of Biandrate, next to the canal, in the province of Novara; they are mostly fragmentary and/or broken on purpose and their fracture lines are currently undergoing a specific study.

One of these was found whole and in a seated position, and was called "the Seated Venus of Biandrate".

So says the archaeologist and superintendent Lucia Mordeglia:

"The breaks that are often evident on the finds suggest that the statuettes were broken for ritual purposes in points that do not coincide with the structurally weakest parts."

The custom of intentionally breaking statuettes is known in the Neolithic era: “the figurines are broken when the cycle of their use is over.” (Quote from the text reported on the exhibitor dedicated to the cult of the Mother Goddess, in Room 3 of the Archaeological Museum of Villa Mirabello - Varese)

This kind of statuettes are best known in the Balkan area and in Italy, in the Center, along the Adriatic coast and in the South. What characterizes the extreme importance of this site, in fact, is that finds of this type "they had never been found so numerous in the plain (…).” (Quote from the article by Roberto Lodigiani, "The seated Venus of Biandrate re-emerges from the archaeological excavations", published in La Stampa - Thursday 6 February 2020).

Historical notes

The excavations of Biandrate began in 2001 and over the years - especially in the last year and a half before the discovery of the eleven statuettes (2020) - have returned several precious finds. First, what remains of a Roman-era farm was brought to light, with water wells three meters deep whose function is not fully known. Its area is very large, about 350 square meters, and part of the space was used as a granary. Subsequently, the building was demolished and replaced by a series of smaller rooms, including residential ones, next to which there was a square space where the animals were kept. The area was therefore already partly cultivated at the time and alongside the crops there was animal breeding. From thermoluminescence tests applied to the remains of a hearth, it was determined that the complex dates back to the XNUMXth century AD

In 2018, four Neolithic hatchets in green stone and a splendid bronze fibula in the shape of a panther, with colored enamel inserts (II-III century AD) were found.

The archaeologists Francesca Garanzini and Lucia Mordeglia who took care of the excavations, however, were not satisfied and, prolonging the excavations, finally managed to find what was hidden even deeper: the eleven female statuettes, one of which is completely intact and placed in a sitting position. The archaeological site therefore reveals a settlement and traces of a female cult from the Neolithic era.