Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "PISTICCI Town BASILICATA" .
INCORONATA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
An ancient center near the town, set on a small, elongated hill overlooking
the river Basento. The settlement, isolated on every side, may be reached only
from the E where it looks out over the sea. It is 6 km from the center of the
Greek colony of Metapontion and W of the line of defense of the Achaean colony.
The site is defended not only by its precipitous position but by an
irregular stone and earthen agger (ca. 1 m wide). Within the fortification line,
on a level stretch that slopes gently upward to the E, are traces of dwellings,
rectangular or circular, with plinths of irregular sandstone rocks coming from
the Basento river. Scattered here and there throughout the area, they are built
of clay mixed with straw and ash and reinforced with tree trunks and branches.
Inside the dwellings, Greek pottery mingled with local ware was found. The oldest
vases are the proto-Corinthian bulging aryballoi and the pyre-shaped vases with
friezes of running dogs. This series of small proto-Corinthian vases is associated
with the series in gray clay. The larger vases are represented by locally produced
amphorae and by black, painted amphorae, probably imported, and by a series of
double-handled Chian orientalizing vases. These have geometric decorations in
imitation of the insular and Rhodian techniques. The local ware comprises large
decorated vases or imported lapygean ware mingled with large dishes, small sacrificial
bowls, and urn-shaped amphorae. The total array of extant pottery suggests coexistence
between Greeks and native peoples, beginning in the second half of the 8th c.
B.C.
In the lowest levels of the site are ceramic fragments dating to the
last years of the Bronze Age or perhaps of the Apennine culture. Even though the
levels are often mixed because of a succession of buildings, this much has become
clear in the chronology which extends until the end of the 7th c. B.C. Thus far,
no other evidence has been found prior to this period. Some vases show traces
of graffiti, among the oldest known to date in the area of Metapontion.
The archaic Greek pottery discovered in this site antedates, in very
large part, the finds thus far made in the lowest levels at Metapontion. Everything
gives the impression of a site which predates the founding of Metapontion, and
which was abandoned toward the end of the 7th c. B.C. Antiochos of Syracuse (Strab.
6.1.15) speaks of another site which existed in the area of Metapontion but which
was abandoned before Metapontion was founded. Perhaps his words should be reconsidered
in this context.
D. Adamesteanu, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PISTICCI (Town) BASILICATA
An Oenotrian and Lucanian center 30.6 km S of Matera on a hill overlooking
the ancient territory of Metapontion and a large part of the valley of the Basento
river. It is covered by the modern town. The origins of the native settlement
date to Iron Age II, but there are traces of a weak settlement dating to Iron
Age I. In the second half of the 8th c. B.C., the settlement was consolidated
on the NW end of the hill and, so far as can now be determined, gradually expanded
over the remainder of the land extending to the N and E. On the extreme E end,
around and below the mediaeval site of Santa Maria del Casale, is the main necropolis
(6th-5th c.). By this period, the site had been so permeated by the Greeks that
it is to be considered more Greek than native. In this period it took on the appearance
of a phrourion because of its division into parcels from the territory of Metapontion
between the Bradano and Cavone rivers.
The same change can be seen in the other new centers that sprang up
during the Iron Age in the vast Pisticci plain, particularly in the area of San
Leonardo, San Teodoro, and San Basilio. At the end of the 6th c. and during the
5th c. B.C., all these new settlements were overspread by the coastal civilization
and, more exactly, by the Metapontine civilization.
Contrary to what happened in other centers of the area under the influence
of the Greek coastal colonies, the life of Pisticci and of the other smaller centers,
except the hillside of Incoronata, assumed an ever more lively existence during
the 5th c. B.C. until the end of that century. At that time proto-Italic ceramic
shops probably developed at Pisticci itself or in its territory and their products
spread throughout Lucania.
The tombs of Pisticci are among the richest in bronzes and in Attic
vases dating to the end of the 6th c. and throughout the 5th c. B.C. The tombs
are like those at Metapontion, but their grave gifts are far richer. Helmets and
weapons, certainly products of some native hellenized center, are totally lacking
at Metapontion. The greatest prosperity came during the first quarter of the 4th
c. when the necropolis was filled with vases and bronze objects, either imported
or made in the area. The production of local ceramic ware started at the beginning
of the 8th c. and continued until the end of the 4th c. or the beginning of the
3d c. B.C. Thus far, no trace of life during the Roman period has appeared.
D. Adamesteanu, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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