ALIANO-ALIANELLO
Basilicata, Italy.
Adjacent centers surrounded by a large necropolis that extends from the district of Cazzaiola to that of Santa Croce. Both sites lie beneath the present towns, which are within
the broad area of Greek penetration formed by the valley of the river Agri and its tributary the Sauro. Settlements of this area began in the second half of the 8th c. B.C. Even before that, some settlements were scattered
in the triangle framed by the two rivers and by hills. The
last traces of these two settlements date to the end of the
4th c. and the beginning of the 3d c. B.C.
The earliest documentation concerning the settlements
and their necropoleis derives from lamps and small sacrificial bowls of mixed form dating to the second half of
the 8th c. B.C. At the end of the 7th c. and the beginning
of the 6th c., local pottery is represented by large cinerary
urns, thymiateria, and kantharoi typical of the Val d'Agri
and of the Vallo di Diano and also, in part, typical of
Palinuro. Greek imports included Corinthian aryballoi,
and products of Sins are represented by a rich series of
wide-bodied cups and painted cups (usually red, rust, or
brown). During the 6th c. a local shop, difficult to locate
precisely, imitated the Greek products of the Ionian
coast and normally produced umbilicate bowls.
At the end of the 6th c. black-figure vases (a lekythos
by the Painter of Edinburgh) appeared and the so-called
Ionic cups. Greek imports were more numerous and the
products became more valuable in the 5th c. B.C.; in the
4th c. a local product spread throughout Magna Graecia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Adamesteanu, “Siris-Heraclea,”
Policoro, Dieci anni di autonimia comunale (1969) 203-6;
id.,
Popoli anellenici in Basilicata (1971) 52-55; id.,
“Tomba arcaica di Armento,”
Atti e Mem. Soc. Magna
Grecia (1970-71) 83-92.
D. ADAMESTEANU
