ROCCANOVA
Lucania, Italy.
An archaeological zone bounded roughly by the territory of the
modern towns of Roccanova, Chiaromonte, and Castronuovo S. Andrea, with the most important concentrations
on the hills of Battifarano, Marcellino, and Serre. This
area of habitation postdates the Iron Age. Battifarano
has long been known for necropoleis of the 5th and 4th
c. B.C. Marcellino and Serre have more recently become
renowned for the rich funeral offerings of the end of the
7th and the beginning of the 6th c., found during excavations of their necropoleis. Only Marcellino has traces
of true habitations, dated to the 4th c., and fortifications
built of blocks cut in the Greek style. An archaic settlement on the hill of Serre is surrounded by burials of the
end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th c. There
is no evidence of settlement or necropolis of the 5th c.,
although a necropolis from the second half of the 4th c.
has been found. The graves are lined with slabs, but are
always without covering slabs. The funeral offerings are
generally very rich in vases from the valley of the Agri,
mixed with other vases from Siris on the Ionic coast.
Although the vases of local production show little variation over an extended period, the Greek vases help date the burials and indicate the end of the 7th and beginning of the 6th c. as the period of greatest wealth. Among
the funeral offerings there are also bronzes, helmets of
the Corinthian type, and fibulae with single- or double-pronged buckles. The vases of local production tend
to be poor imitations of Greek prototypes. Ivory decorations are always present, along with amber used to decorate fibulae, and remains of necklaces in bone, ivory, or glass paste.
At the end of the 5th c. and all during the 4th c. this
corner of Lucania produced red-figure vases inspired by
the contacts between Greece and the valley of the Agri,
the most important being those of the Primato painter
and the Roccanova painter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Adamesteanu,
BdA 1 (1967) 48-49;
id., “Aspetti archeohogici della Val d'Agri,”
XVII Festa
Nazionale della Montagna per l'Italia Meridionale
(1968) 109-17; id., “Siris-Heraclea,” in
Policoro, Dieci
anni di autonomia (1969) 200-4; id., “Tomba arcaica di
Armento,”
AttiMGrecia 11-12 (1970-71) 83-92; J. de
La Genière,
Recherches sur l'Age du Fer en Italie
méridionale (1968) 247-48; id., “Contribution à l'étude des relations entre Grecs et indigènes sur la Mer Jonienne,”
MélRome 82 (1970) 630-33.
D. ADAMESTEANU
