On the plain of contrada Castiglione paleolithic occupation layers, relating to the mid Neolithic period (5th millenium B.C.) and the mid Bronze Age (16th-15th centuries B.C.) were found on various levels. In the Bronze Age levels the remains of dwellings were identified, indicating the existence of a settlement which was scattered across the entire plateau.
That this is a settlement of the Hellenistic-Lucanian type of the 4th to 3rd century B.C. is attested by the numerous examples of farms situated on high ground and in the middle of vast open spaces destined for cultivation and animal husbandry.
The farm at contrada Castiglione di Missanello, datable to within the 4th century B.C. consists of a group of square rooms, of which the dry-stone, cobble foundations remain. Flat tiles with raised edges and imbrices found in the collapse together with traces of burning attest the existence of a heavy roof and perhaps wooden beams. Inside the rooms were the housings for large pithoi and in one case for table-wares (black glaze plates, kitchen-wares, plain buff ware vessels). In the north-east corner of the house is a room, perhaps dedicated to domestic activities, which produced several loom weights, some with incised identification marks and fragments of bronze fibulae.
The black glaze and depurated wares fall within the Lucanian- Hellenistic types of the end of the 4th century B.C. The floor level produced several bronze coins, including one showing Taras riding a dolphin, with the legend TARAS attesting the well known contacts with the Ionian area. (Maria Luisa Nava)