TORRE DEL MORDILLO
Calabria, Italy.
A
Hellenistic city on the plain of Sybaris. Some 18 km from
the sea at the juncture of the Esaro and Coscile rivers,
it controlled ancient trade routes across this part of the
Italian peninsula. There are at least two and probably
three destruction levels, the first possibly at the end of
the 8th c. with the arrival of the Greek colonists to found
Sybaris. A second period of destruction (at the turn of
the 4th-3d c.) called for the leveling and grading of the
site, completely destroying the stratification. The city
was rebuilt early in the 3d c. on a grid system over and
with the debris of earlier levels.
The archaeological evidence points to continued occupation, to extents as yet unknown, from Neolithic times
to the last decade of the 3d c. B.C. when it was destroyed
by assault and siege, whether by Hannibal or Rome is
as yet unknown. Recent finds are in the museum at
Sybaris Station and in the National Museum in Reggio
Calabria. There is fragmentary evidence for a building
of some pretension, probably a temple of the late 6th
or early 5th c. Although some preliminary reports have
been published, the major publication is still in press.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Pasqui,
NSc (1888) 248-68, 579-92,
648-71; O. C. Colburn, “A Habitation Level of Thurii,”
Expedition 9, 3 (1967) 30-37; id., “The Quest for
Thurii” (Diss. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1973); F. Rainey
& C. Lerici,
The Search for Sybaris (1967) 85-98, 286-92; G. R. Edwards, “Torre del Mordillo 1967,”
Expedition 11, 2 (1969) 30-32.
O. C. COLBURN
