Pontecagnano

After the first case of Battipaglia, a planned town established during the Bourbon Age, in the Thirties of the 20th century the founded settlements in the Sele Plain mostly consist of workers’ villages built by private entrepreneurs. They are located near large tobacco factories or in the related farms. Corvinia is the only example of settled city that combines a rural township developed by public administration with a support centre for the nearby Montecorvino Airport. After the World War II, the ONC (Soldiers’ National Organization) keeps on the colonization work founding two residential townships and few service centres.

The part of community affected more than others by a selective process that changes its representativity, is the one composed of subjects deceased before having reached puberty, especially children younger than 3-4 years.
The analysis of the funerary treatment of this large part of society (which could reach up to 50% of the population) can offer clues for the interpretation of the evolution of social systems and, at the same time, ritual beliefs connected with these delicate phases of life preceding the introduction of the individual in society. Towards the end of the Early Iron Age, the representativity of infants starts to increase: some individuals present attributes of a type and rang that would qualify them as adults, to the point that the burial and the entire funerary ceremony seem to constitute a ritual intended to grant to the deceased the “signs” of a social condition that death has prevented them to reach. This new perspective forms part of a broader framework of cultural and economic changes that collide with the indigenous communities from
the middle of the eighth century BC on, and which are amply testified by the funerary evidence, of which some examples of Osteria dell’Osa, Veio, Pontecagnano and Pithekoussai are presented here.
KEY-WORDS
Infanzia, discriminazione funeraria, identità, Veio, Osteria dell’Osa, Pontecagnano, Pithekoussai.

The analysis of the miniature bronze pyxis of Sardinian manufacture deposited in the burial assemblage of the male
Tomb 6107 at Pontecagnano (a Villanovan site on the Salerno Gulf ) and dated 850-780/70 BC leads the author to
assume that it was the ‘textile tool box’ of the wife of the deceased and to look in this assemblage (Tomb 6107) for
other objects that may be connected to textile work, the major activity of women in antiquity. Two small bone pieces,
that were also deposited in the ash urn, could thus be interpreted as two belt links between a clasp (a small tool) used
for horizontal tablet weaving technique. This belt worn by the weaver serves to maintain the proper tension of the warp
threads. This experimental reconstruction of the bone pieces (belt links) was possible thanks to the funerary assemblage
HH 11-12 at Veii (dated around 730 BC) which attests a belt in context with a clasp and spools (textile kit), but also
through a clasp attested in Tomb 5053 of Pontecagnano (unpublished). Thus, these two bone belt links were probably
part of a tablet weaving kit deposited in the assemblage (Sardinian Pyxis, clasp and tablet weaving belt). The belt links
have survived while the belt was not preserved and unfortunately, the clasp got lost.

The paper discusses some theoretical issues related to the definitions of culture, ethnic identity, intercultural dialectics, crossbreeding and hybridization. From an archaeological viewpoint, a knotty question concerns the possibility that the material culture can convey ethnic and social meanings.
In Campania an interesting context is the site of Monte Vetrano that controls access routes from the north into the Agro Picentino, dominated by the Etruscan site of Pontecagnano. During the second half of the 8th century BC the settlement was occupied by a mixed community, composed of groups from the hinterland and Oenotrian area, which had dealings with Pontecagnano and was fully integrated into the system of Tyrrhenian traffic.

The University of Salerno has been carrying on some studies for years in Fratte, Pontecagnano and Paestum, which have revealed deep interactions among these sites since 6th century BC. Concerning ceramic productions, we can examine thoroughly the recent findings at Fratte and Pontecagnano, particularly a series of dumps dating back to the 3rd century BC. They allow to get a glimpse of the material culture of the two settlements in the period before Roman conquest. The comparison between materials recovered in the two sites reveals a deep homogeneity of the ceramic productions, above all in the Black-Gloss ware. It affects not only the morphological and typological patrimony, but it also involves technical aspects, for example clay, gloss, processes, and stimulates further research on the production and circulation of ceramics in the Gulf of Salerno.

The arrival of the Greeks in Campania is regarded as a key event in archaic history. Permanent settlement was preceded by periods of furtive trade and exchange under the term pre-colonization. The establishment of Pithekoussai on Ischia followed by a move to the mainland at Cuma is explained as marking a change from ‘pre-‘ to full colonial status. This expansion to the mainland was motivated by the lack of an agricultural chora at Pithekoussai leading to interactions with local groups on the mainland in order to procure food (Cerchiai 2010, 1995). Amongst these sites was pre-hellenic Cuma.
This indigenous settlement plays an important role within the narrative constructed for ancient Campania. The indigenous sites of Campania have been placed on a hierarchy of development, with pre-hellenic Cuma at the top, deemed to be more advanced than its contemporaries (Cerchiai 2010, D’Agostino 2008). This rests largely on its geographic location opposite Ischia and later status as a Greek colony rather than obvious technological superiority. Euboian Greeks are portrayed as taking control of this hilltop settlement through a violent and forceful push from Ischia (D’Agostino, 2006). This is based on ancient literary accounts which are much later in date and far from clear.

The physical evidence for this is further questionable. A lacuna between the pre-hellenic and Greek graves and a destruction level postulated for one side of the acropolis sustained the hypothesis of the indigenous settlement being wiped out and replaced by the Greek colony. New ceramic evidence from the necropolis and a domestic context suggests instead that when Cuma was founded Greeks and indigenes were living side-by-side (Greco and Mermati, 2010). The destruction level now appears the result of a later change in the Roman period that muddled the stratigraphy.

The picture of a settlement “born from a show of strength by the Greeks at the expense of the indigenous Opician inhabitants” (D’Agostino, 2008) can now no longer be sustained. A more complex picture thus requires a more nuanced interpretation. This paper will re-examine the establishment of Cuma in the wake of the new approaches to the Mediterranean (Malkin, 2011, Riva 2010, Hodos 2009, 2010, Horden and Purcell, 2000). Central to this will be a focus on networks, particularly the model of strong and weak ties (Granovetter, 1973, 1983). This paper proposes that rather than an act of violence, ties between elites enabled the formation of mixed communities and mixed cultures, and through the establishment of weak ties new opportunities were made available to both Greeks and indigenes alike.

Location: Contextualising “early Colonisation”: Archaeology, Sources, Chronology and interpretative models between Italy and the Mediterranean In memory of David Ridgway (1938-2012) Rome, Valle Giulia Academia Belgica, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut, British School at Rome June, 21-23 2012

More Info: http://www.academiabelgica.it.cloud.seeweb.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234&Itemid=154&lang=it

Event Date: Jun 23, 2012

Conference End Date: Jun 23, 2012

Conference Start Date: Jun 21, 2012

In questo contributo si tenta di delineare un quadro generale della distribuzione degli oggetti di ornamento entro un lotto di sepolture della Prima Età del Ferro dalla necropoli Orientale di Pontecagnano (necropoli di S. Antonio - Porp. Adriatica).
Dall'analisi del "comportamento" di questa classe di materiali si riconoscono alcune sepolture con costume più ricco, sia di genere maschile che femminile. In particolare queste sepolture di genere femminile si caratterizzano anche per la presenza di strumenti legati all'attività di tessitura e filatura.

Zusammenfassung
Am Beispiel von Grabbefunden des späten 8. und 7. Jhs. v. Chr. aus dem kampanischen Pontecagnano wurde versucht, Dinge in Gräbern als Ressourcen zu interpretieren. Ressourcen werden in einem weiten, allgemeinen Sinne als materielle wie immaterielle Grundlagen oder Mittel verstanden, die von Akteuren genutzt werden, um soziale Beziehungen, Einheiten und Identitäten zu schaffen, zu erhalten und zu verändern.
Einführend wird ein theoretischer Rahmen der Interpretation von Dingen und Gräbern im Rahmen sozialer Praktiken kurz umrissen. An einzelnen Gräbern der Nekropolen Pontecagnanos werden anschließend Aspekte der Wertzuschreibung anhand der Ordnungen der Dinge diskutiert.


Abstract: Things in graves – artefacts as resources
Grave contexts of late 8th and 7th century BC Pontecagnano – in modern Campania – are used to interpret things in graves as resources. Resources are understood in a broad, general sense as the tangible and intangible means by which actors create, maintain, and negotiate social relations, units or identities.
First, a theoretical framework for the interpretation of things and graves in the context of social practices is outlined briefly. Taking selected tombs from the necropolises of Pontecagnano as examples, aspects of value ascription are then discussed with reference to the orders of things.

Gli aegyptiaca della campania pre-romana costiuiscono uno dei nuclei archeologici di tipo faraonico più importanti dell'area mediterranea pre-ellenistica. Le
scoperte iniziarono ai primi dell'800 e raggiunsero importanti risultati, in particolare col rinvenimento della necropoli euboica di Pithekoussai.(Lacco ameno, Ischia)
Grazie a quest'ultima è stato possibile rivalutare il ruolo semitico nella mediazione commerciale, nella produzione d'imitazione e nella divulgazione culturale (di tipo magico-religioso
diretta alla protezione della donna e del bambino) degli aegyptiaca.
Tali rinvenimenti campani illuminano sul significato e sul ruolo dei reperti di tipo egizio, evidenziando anche la sintesi culturale fra mondo
egizio, mondo semitico e mondo indigeno campano.

In this paper I respond to Carl Knappett's key note address at a session held at the EAA in Maastricht 2017 (which I co-organised) titled "Archaeological Networks and Social Interaction".  The focus was on moving away from the dominance of spatial approaches in archaeological studies that use social network theory (SNA).  Following Knappett, I examine the potential that "Strathernograms" have in understanding the feasting practices of Iron Age Tyrrhenian Italy.

Zusammenfassung:
Kontextuelle Archäologie wird als Weg betrachtet, auf der Basis archäologischen Materials ideelle Bereiche vergangener Gesellschaften zu rekonstruieren, und zwar mit Bezug auf anthropologische Konzepte, aber ohne direkten Rückgriff auf historische und anthropologische Analogien. Im Vergleich zu und in Abgrenzung von Hodders Contextual Archaeology werden Möglichkeiten und Grenzen dieses aus einem Forschungsstrang der Klassischen Archäologie abgeleiteten strukturalistischen Ansatzes aufgezeigt und am Beispiel der Fürstengräber Pontecagnano 926 und 928 erläutert. Mit dem Aspekt der Repräsentation sozialen Raums wird ein Zug der Interpretation B. d’Agostinos in der 1977 vorgelegten Publikation dieser Gräber aufgenommen und vertieft.

The paper is a preliminary report of the excavations carried out along the Salerno / Reggio Calabria motorway next to Pontecagnano. The preliminary research on the north-western part of the road has been entrusted by the Archaeological Superintendence of Salerno, Avellino and Benevento to the University of Napoli L’Orientale (U.N.O.). The work was carried out with the intent of keeping the conservation and valorisation of the ancient Etruscan-Campanian city and its territory, basically to the light of an agreement signed by U.N.O and the University of Salerno. The archaeological mission of U.N.O. was directed for the whole period, by the late Gianni Bailo Modesti, who was involved in a long time research and mainly focused on the systematic investigation of Pontecagnano’s  ancient necropolis and settlement. The excavation brought to the light the Eneolithic necropolis of the Gaudo phase. The recent archaeological investigations along the motorway had, moreover, allowed him to conclude his research on the northern sanctuary of Pontecagnano.

The paper is dedicated to the earliest Etruscan inscriptions of Pontecagnano dated to the 7th century B.C. They include the famous inscription from Tomb 3509 that contains the gentilic name RASUNIE.
The analysis is focused on the contexts in which the inscriptions have been found.