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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)

  • Restoration work began on the portico of the offerings, with the consolidation of the walls and restoration of the benches abutting the walls that were used for displaying the votive offerings.

    The space between the rear wall of the portico and the parallel containing wall behind it were excavated. This wall was made up of large, irregular, uncut stone blocks and was badly bulging and sloped due to the movement of the terrain behind it.

    In antiquity, the offerings portico was filled with sculptures, dedications and other objects donated by the faithful, aligned on the floor and on two benches running along the back wall.
    There were nine columns in the portico’s facade, which opened onto the space in front. The missing central column had covered a well built for the foundation ritual. Its excavation remains to be completed.

    Inside the portico there was a room that was not freely accessible, closed by a door, perhaps the sacrarium of Ops Consiva, goddess of plenty. She is mentioned on a base with an Oscan dedication situated in the public part of the portico and in another inscription found, in the past, in the area of the temple behind the theatre.

    In Rome, Ops Consiva was believed to be an Italic deity introduced by the Sabine king Titus Tatius. The goddess had a sacrarium in the (_domus_) Regia in the forum that could only be entered by the Pontifex Maximus and the Vestals.

    The excavations produced more information regarding the nature of Italic religiosity and its relationship with that of Rome. In fact, inscriptions were found that mention the cult of Honos, the divine personification of military and civil honour, which can be added to those mentioning the cult of Victory documented by previous excavations. This group of abstract deities, Plenty, Honour and Victory provide a picture of the ideological characteristics of the state cult practiced by the Pentrian Samnites in the monumental sanctuary of Pietrabbondante.

    The excavation of the cult building found downhill from Temple A in 2010 also continued. At the time of its collapse, caused by a fire no earlier than the 2nd century B.C., it was decorated with weapons taken from defeated Roman and Italic enemies towards the end of the 4th century B.C. They were offered to the deity in thanks for military success in accordance with a practice that was also followed in Rome.

    To the north-east of Temple A, a platform of large stone blocks was identified on which a Samnite building must have stood. The area was later occupied by a medieval structure, perhaps a house that seemed to have collapsed in the 13th century. An earring with a semi-precious stone was found on the floor below the collapse. This building constitutes one of the few traces of the medieval occupation within the ancient sanctuary.
    In the area of Temple L, excavations were undertaken in the pronaos and the passageway between the temple and the other building whose sidewall was identified.

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

Director

Team

  • Luigi Scaroina - Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte
  • Maria Teresa di Sarcina - Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma
  • Palma D'Amico
  • Rachel Van Dusen - Florida State University
  • Federico Porcari
  • Massimo Notaro - Comune di Pietrabbondante
  • Domenico Quaranta - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise
  • Pasqualino Iadisernia - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise
  • Roberto Di Re

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

  • file_image[PDF]
  • file_image[PDF]