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Excavation

  • Fonte del Pidocchio
  • Fonte del Pidocchio
  •  
  • Italy
  • Molise
  • Province of Isernia
  • Castelpizzuto

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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 site stands on a natural terrace overlooking the river Lorda, along one of the routes towards the Matese mountains, in an area with numerous springs. Here, an exceptional find came to light by chance, a mask made of bronze lamina. It is suggested that it had a ritual function relating to ceremonies and propitiatory rites connected to important events or wars, and would have been worn by an important member of the community. The stylistic characteristics, similar to artefacts from Magna Graecia and Etruria, suggest a date of between the 6th and 4th century B.C. Investigations in the area have failed to define the context of this find.

    In the northern part of the area, a prehistoric settlement, occupied for a long period from the middle Bronze Age onwards, was partially explored. Two probable dwellings were identified cut into a cobblestone surface. The sub-circular (2.35 × 2.05 m) and polygonal (2.40 × 1.20) pits were filled by a burnt deposit containing fragments of cooking stands, large containers for dry foodstuffs and pottery attributable to the Apennine culture that was present in most of central southern Italy from the 16th century B.C. onwards. The settlement was probably that of a community with an agricultural-pastoral economy, practicing a limited form of transhumance. The presence of several spindle whorls shows that spinning was undertaken, and attests the importance of products deriving from animal husbandry.

    A funerary area was investigated in the southern sector, the graves partially cutting the cobble surface of the prehistoric settlement. The 15 burials, partially disturbed by agricultural activity, were in “anatomical” graves narrowing at the feet. Several were covered by irregular, limestone slabs and the graves themselves were lined with slab fragments and small limestone blocks or were bordered by stone chippings. The deceased were buried in a supine position, the heads towards the sunset (W/NW). There were a high number of infant burials. In most of the burials grave goods were absent; in one case a coin was found, in another a circular bronze earring. The small cemetery, datable to between the Late Antique and early medieval periods, must have been that of a rural population living in peripheral areas. There appeared to be a continuation of the traditions of preceding Italic populations rather than those of a “barbarian”culture. The typology of the burials, of late Roman tradition, is well attested in cemeteries of this phase in central southern Itlay and in this region: Morrone del Sannio Casalpiano, amphitheatre at Larino, the court yard of the bishop’s palace at Isernia, Vastogirardi.

  • Cristiana Terzani - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise 

Director

Team

  • Giampietro De Marchis
  • Pasqualino Iadisernia - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise
  • Ennio Notardonato - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici

Research Body

  • Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Molise

Funding Body

  • MiBAC

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