COZZO PRESEPE
Italy.
A hill 126 m high,
above the river Bradano 15 km to the NW of Metaponto.
It is ca. 300 by 250 m. Explorations since 1968 have led
to the following noteworthy discoveries:
1) A curious wall protecting those slopes of the plateau
which are not provided with a natural defense. The wall
is of stone with a single or double curtain depending on
the location. Along certain segments it is faced with
curved tiles almost 1 m long set perpendicular to the
wall. To date, no other example of such construction is
known from antiquity. The wall dates from ca. 300 B.C.
2) A votive depository dating from ca. 320-370 (vases,
some pinakes and numerous terracotta oscilla with impressed decoration, including one bearing the four-armed
torch associated with the cult of Demeter and Kore), as
well as some rather poor tombs of the same period.
3) The traces of a pre-Hellenic settlement perhaps dating back to the 9th or 8th c. B.C. The remains of huts
and numerous fragments of ceramics (impasto, achromatous ceramics, and above all painted ceramics have
been found, decorated with varied black or brown geometric motifs and often bearing a strong resemblance to
geometric ceramics of the lapygians).
4) Indications of light settlement in the 6th c. The
site appears to have been completely abandoned in the
second quarter of the 3d c., probably as a result of the
Roman conquest.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Adamesteanu, “Problèmes de la zone
archéologique de Métaponte,”
RA (1967) 1, 3-38; id.,
Atti Convegno di Taranto 8 (1968) 167; J.-P. Morel,
“Fouilles à Cozzo Presepe près de Métaponte,”
MélRome 82 (1970) 1. 73-116.
J.-P. MOREL
