During the last years there has been a steadily increasing collaboration between the University of Basilicata and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Basilicata. Siris-Herakleia is one of the key sites standing in the focus of our collaborative activities. 2013 we have started carrying out geomagnetic prospection in Siris-Herakleia.

Archaeological Field Survey in the chora of Siris-Herakleia

In 2012 the Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici di Matera has started an archaeological survey in the area SE of Santa Maria d’Anglona, a hilltop which has yielded materials from the Early Iron Age onwards (see below), 11 kilometres from Policoro (ancient Herakleia).

Through an intesive field survey, having archaeologists walk in 10 meters distance, we are trying to cover the landscape as completely as possible. As in other surveys of the Postgraduate School, modern landuse and visilibity are documented systematically. The data which have been collected so far are particularly rich for the time span between Iron Age (scattered indigenous settlement in the surroundings of Anglona) and the Late Hellenistic period. The Imperial period is only scarcely attested in the study area. The results show how deeply the political and social transformation going on in the central place (arrival of Greek groups, foundation of the polis Siris-Polieion, its destruction and the ‘achaean’ phase of the Siritis, foundation of Herakleia, rise of Lucanian settlements in the inland, ‘Romanization’) affect the structure of the rural settlement.
The typology of sites, which particularly differentiated during the Hellenistic period, include besides farmsteads of various sizes tomb areas, storage structures and cult places. The dense rural settlement during the late 4th and 3rdcenturies B.C. has parallels not only in the Greek world (e.g. Metaponto, Argolis, Attica ), but also in the Italic inland (e.g. Torre di Satriano, Montescaglioso, Altojanni).

We are trying to systematically analyse published and archive data (archaeological, geological, historical etc.) concerning a wider area, in order to understand the ancient settlement on a broader scale and to reconstruct the “social geography” of the communities living here.

Infra-site survey at S. Maria d’Anglona

The hilltop of S. Maria d’Anglona is part of the area which has been surveyed in 2012. Within the scope of this new project the infra-site survey of the settlement at Santa Maria d’Anglona, started already in 2008, has been continued. In 2012 we have covered the Southern slopes of the hill in order to see if the settlement on the hilltop expanded to this area.
The study of the materials, though still in a preliminary stadium, permits to hypothesize that the medieval settlement of hill.