HERAKLEIA
(Policoro) Lucania, Italy.
On
the Gulf of Taranto at the mouth of the river Acris
(Agri). The city was colonized from Tarentum in 433-432 B.C. Excavation, however, has shown that the acropolis (site of the Renaissance castle) was first occupied by
Greek settlers at the end of the 8th c. B.C. Scattered potters' works, identified by the remains of kilns, have
revealed a mixture of Greek and indigenous wares paralleled by the mixture of burial rites (cremation and
inhumation in pithoi) found in the archaic necropolis.
The E Greek character of much of the material of this
settlement makes it possible to interpret it as an outpost
of Siris. Following the Tarentine foundation, Herakleia
became the meeting place of the representatives of the
Italiote Greek League and remained so until the 330s
B.C. One of the battles between King Pyrrhos of Epeiros
and the Romans was fought in the vicinity in 280 B.C. In
the 1st c. B.C., following the slave insurrection of Spartacus, the area occupied by the city was reduced once again
to the acropolis, where a settlement persisted until the
5th c.
Long famous because of the discovery there of an
inscribed text of the Lex Julia Municipalis and inscribed
bronze tablets recording partitioning of temple properties (found in the river Acris), Herakleia has been the
site of intensive archaeological investigation since 1959.
The city is situated on a long low hill oriented NW-SE
with the acropolis at the SE end toward the sea. The
rectangular city plan was laid out at the time of the
founding of the Tarentine colony. Three entire city
blocks have been excavated. The city walls, traced largely
from air photographs, belong to the 4th c. B.C. and were
strengthened after construction. There are remains of a
coroplastic industry in the form of kilns and dumps of
terracotta figurine fragments and molds. The foundations
of a temple of the 4th c. B.C. have also been uncovered.
The excavation of the extramural Sanctuary of Demeter
and Kore has resulted in the discovery of a large group
of dedications, largely miniature vases and terracotta
figurines. These, together with the distinguished group of
later 5th c. S Italian red-figure vases from a chamber
tomb excavated in 1963, are displayed in the new museum
adjoining the site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
B. Neutsch et al.,
Archäologische
Forschungen in Lukanien II Herakleia-Studien, RM
suppl. vol. 11 (1967)
MPI; L. Quilici,
Forma Italiae,
Regio III, 1
Siris-Heraclea (1967); D. Adamesteanu,
Siris-Heraclea (1969); A. D. Trendall, “Archaeology in
South Italy and Sicily, 1967-69,”
Archaeological Reports
for 1969-1970, 38.
R. R. HOLLOWAY
