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Excavation

  • Pietrabbondante
  • Calcatello
  •  
  • Italy
  • Molise
  • Province of Isernia
  • Pietrabbondante

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • The domus
    Work concentrated on the rear part of the building. The large hall opposite the tablinium was linked by a corridor to the culinae, situated in the inner aisle of the portico housing the offerings, and roofed with tiles bearing Oscan stamps. One of the tiles had a double opaion, indicating the need for aeration due to the use of braziers.
    The hall, which can be identified as the sanctuary’s curia, was used for concilia and ritual banquets. It represents an unusual example of the sacerdotal curiae. A great deal of literary evidence exists for such structures in Rome, although no monumental remains are known there or in other ancient towns.
    The exploration of the earliest levels revealed a floor of the so-called scutulatum type, relating to the building’s first phase and so datable to around 120 B.C.

    Building L
    In the area south-east of Temple A the investigations aimed to define the architectural characteristics and identify the dating of the cult buildings, of which at least two were discovered.
    The two buildings were separated by a wide walkway.
    Among the materials collected from the wall and roof collapse were a very ancient type of decorated ridge tile (_kalypter_ hegemonies), an aes grave (275-270 B.C.), and a terracotta votive in the form of a leg. Other finds included acorn-shaped lead projectiles found grouped within a small space, and a bronze paragnatide with an iron nail in it for fixing it to a wooden beam. This detail shows that weapons and arms taken from the enemy were also dedicated to the deity here, as widely attested in other parts of the sanctuary.
    Among the remains of the roof, an Oscan stamp on a tile fragment attests its use in a building dedicated to Venus Erycina. Stamps of this type have been found elsewhere, including the area of Temple B. Therefore, the stamped imbrex, which may have had a secondary use, does not provide concrete evidence for the presence of a temple of Venus Erycina here, although it is a possibility.

    Zone N
    The area east of Temple B was partially excavated in 1979 and then back filled. It was reopened this season and the excavations revealed a series of limestone slabs that were being worked on when activity on the building site stopped and it was abandoned. The blocks were still in a row as they had been positioned for the final chiselling and dressing. Each block was at a different stage of completion. They had a smooth surface bordered by two cyma reversa mouldings, and were destined for a building a short distance from the construction site. The type of working and the mouldings are of the type present on Temple B.
    The sudden interruption in the construction work must have been caused by an important event, probably the beginning of the Social War, the outcome of which meant the building was not completed.

  • Adriano La Regina - Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte 

Director

Team

  • Luigi Scaroina - Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte
  • Rachel Van Dusen - Florida State University
  • Federico Porcari
  • Massimo Notaro - Comune di Pietrabbondante
  • D. Quaranta - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise
  • Pasqualino Iadisernia - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise

Research Body

  • Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte

Funding Body

  • Comune di Pietrabbondante
  • Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte
  • Regione Molise

Images

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