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Excavation

  • Incoronata
  • Metaponto
  •  
  • Italy
  • Basilicate
  • Province of Matera
  • Pisticci

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)

  • A new oval pit (3 × 1.60 m) was uncovered at the centre of the plateau (sector 4). Filled with ashy soil containing numerous pottery fragments, it was covered by a deposit of soil, stones, and pottery. These characteristics confirmed previous knowledge of the methods used to fill and obliterate these pits: fragments of Greek and local pottery and some intact vessels were thrown into the soil mixed with ash when the craft working area was obliterated. The deposit of pottery inside the pit was the result of ritual practices (end of the 7th century B.C.) including the placing of an upturned vessel at the bottom of the deposit, protected by body sherds from large storage vessels.
    Along the southern edge of the plateau (Sector 1), the Enotrian floor, underlying the 8th century floor, continued to the west covering the same area as the later floor. This confirmed that the earliest 8th century B.C. floor must have had the same extension as the re-make of the floor at the end of the 8th century B.C., and that the entire area had the same function throughout both centuries of the hill’s occupation. In 2012, a stone and earth structure was uncovered at the western end of the plateau. The structure was built on a higher level than the floor (fig. 1). Only Enotrian pottery was present within the building suggesting it belonged to a phase pre-dating the establishment of the Greek community on the hill, and therefore still within the 8th century B.C.

    To the north of these floors, excavation continued in the craft working area, in particular on the subcircular structure identified last season characterised at the surface by a layer of burnt baked clay. The fill was made up of at least three layers of ash containing kiln fragments. It was situated next to an apsidal building on a north-west/south-east alignment, with the entrance on the east side (6 × 4 m), almost completely preserved at foundation level (fig. 2). Two flat stones in the centre can be interpreted as the bases for the two central pillars supporting the roof. A substantial layer of collapsed bricks may be the remains of the walls.

    The construction typology suggests this was a cult building, or the residence of the community’s leader. At the centre of the apse, a double ritual feature was uncovered (datable to the 7th century B.C.). The bottom of an SOS amphora, cut and fixed vertically into the ground as a libation tube, and ritual remains comprising carbonized wood and pottery for ceremonial use: a large painted stamnos of local Greek production (fig.3), a plain ware askos, and an Enotrian monochrome askos. The excavation of these features remains to be completed.

    The association of Greek and local pottery within the same context shows that the ceremonies undertaken in this building were performed by a mixed community (confirming theories developed over recent years).

  • Mario Denti - Laboratoire LAHM, UMR 6566 CReAAH, Université de Rennes 2  

Director

Team

  • Clémént Bellamy - Université Rennes 2
  • Emmanuelle Smirou - Laboratoire LAHM, UMR 6566 CReAAH, Université Rennes 2
  • François Meadeb - Université de Rennes 2
  • Guillaume Bron - Université de Rennes 2
  • Mathilde Villette - Université de Rennes 2
  • Paul Lagarrigue - Université Rennes 2
  • Antonio De Siena - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Basilicata
  • Bruno Comentale - Université de Nantes

Research Body

  • Laboratoire LAHM, UMR 6566 CReAAH, Université Rennes 2

Funding Body

  • Laboratoire LAHM
  • Università di Rennes 2

Images

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