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Excavation at La Starza, Ariano Irpino

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

D. H. Trump
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Extract

In the eighteen years after its first discovery by Dr. I. Sgobbo in about 1920, rich prehistoric material was collected by quarrymen working the gypsum of the hill known as La Starza, Ariano Irpino, in the province of Avellino. It was very briefly published. In 1956 the author carried out a survey of the site, the results of which appeared in these Papers the following year. The report ended with a note that by then an exploratory season of excavation had already been carried out but that much more remained to be done. Further campaigns in 1960, 1961 and 1962 completed the immediate project, so that although the site is far from worked out, publication should not be held up longer.

The 1957 season was financed by funds from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (through the Crowther Beynon Fund) and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and my mother, Mrs. D. M. Trump. The remaining seasons' work was made possible by the generous backing of Mrs. D. I. Ainley. The excavation team, which differed each year, was made up of myself, students from the British School at Rome and Cambridge University, and other volunteers, many of whom made no claim on the excavation fund for their maintenance at the site.

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Articles
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , November 1963 , pp. 1 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1963

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References

1 Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana (hereafter B.P.I.) xlv, 1925, p. 153Google Scholar; B.P.I. xlviii, 1928, p. 38Google Scholar; Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche (R.S.P.) v, 1950, p. 98Google Scholar.

2 The prehistoric settlement at La Starza, Irpino, Ariano, P.B.S.R., xxv, 1957, p. 1 sqqGoogle Scholar. This will be quoted as ‘1957’ in references.

2a A visit in March 1963 showed that apart from minor falls along the south-east lip there had been no significant alteration to the site as a result of the severe earthquake in the previous August, The quarry, however, continues to encroach on its northern tip.

3 1957. Mrs. D. M. Trump, Miss B. Mason' Miss E. Owles, G. C. Duncan, I. M. Stead' L. Barfield, I. Criper, H. Thrane, O. Mathews.

1960. Mrs. I. Ainley, Mrs. D. M. Trump, Mrs. V. Greer, W. Phelps, L. Barfield, F. Mallia.

1961. Mrs. D. M. Trump, Mrs. B. Gibson, Miss B. A. V. Wilson, W. Phelps, I. M. Stead, W. Bray.

1962. Mrs. B. A. V. Trump. The writer directed the work in each case.

4 Trenches were numbered consecutively as dug, regardless of the age of the deposits they revealed. For reference purposes trenches I to IV were cut in 1957, V to X in 1960; IX was continued, XI and XII begun in 1961, XIII in 1962. The first three seasons were each of three weeks' duration, the last of one.

5 B.P.I., xlv, 1925, p. 153Google Scholar.

6 This includes sherds picked from the undisturbed face in 1956.

7 Cf. the La Quercia phase in Bradford's Tavoliere material, being prepared for publication by the writer; see Antiquity, June 1950, p. 84. A possible exception is the one polychrome sherd, which perhaps goes better with the fourth, Passo di Corvo, phase.

8 Trench II had widened from 3 to 4 metres by the collapse of its south-east wall due to rains in the intervening three years. To it was added a 2 m. strip on the uphill, north-east side, making the 4 m. square.

9 Sheep/goat 22, cow 21, pig 4.

10 The other, in II. 3, p. 17 below, was also in a mixed level.

11 Though this was a mixed level (see below) it contained nothing later than Copper Age, so can be included here.

12 The figures are based on over 2,000 identifiable sherds.

13 These are common at Ripoli and again recently at Santa Maria in Selva in the Marche.

14 This occurs locally, in the bed of the Ginestra a kilometre to the west for example.

15 The sources have been confirmed by Fussi and Cornaggia by chemical means, as reported in a paper to the Vlth International Congress of Prehistoric Studies at Rome, 1962.

16 Occurring at Santa Maria in Selva also.

17 From well over 500 identified examples.

18 No longer occurring in the area.

19 S. Puglisi, Civiltà Appenninica, 1st edition, 1959, pp. 33–38.

20 Examples in Naples Museum with separate or attached pedestals; also one from Pioppetto, p. 27 below.

21 This terminology follows that employed in the writer's article on the Apennine Culture in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (P.P.S.), xxiv, 1958, p. 165Google Scholar. It will be discussed more fully below.

22 Where two opposed rows of triangles interlock leaving a zigzag between them, as in fig. 18c.

23 These occur rarely from B on, never previously in this quantity.

24 A similar bead was found in one of the Apennine tombs at Murgia Timone, Matera, now in the Naples Museum.

25 Ashby, , PBSR, viii, 1916, p. 120 ffGoogle Scholar.

26 Brea, L. Bernabò, Sicily before the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, 1957Google Scholar.

27 U. Rellini, La più antica ceramica dipinta in Italia, 1934, p. 51 ff.; Stevenson, R. B. K., ‘The Neolithic cultures of South-east Italy’, P.P.S., xiii, 1947, p. 85Google Scholar.

28 Following the excavator's sad illness, the present writer is preparing this material for publication by the Society of Antiquaries, who sponsored the original research.

29 An earlier phase not present on any Bradford site can be recognised at Nevigata, Coppa, R.S.P., x, 1955Google Scholar, and the Tremiti Islands, idem.

30 Mansuelli and Scarani, L'Emilia prima dei Romani, p. 45 and pl. 3, a and b.

31 Sherds have been found at Vitulano, just west of Benevento (unpublished information from Dr. G. Buchner) and lately at Palidoro, right up beyond Rome (Pigorini Museum).

32 Stevenson, op. cit., p. 95.

33 A pit with late Serra d'Alto pottery on the type site contained a barbed and tanged arrowhead.

34 B.P.I., n.s., x, 1956, p. 31Google Scholar of extract.

35 Antiquity, December 1961, p. 300.

36 Brea, BernabÒ and Cavalier, M., Meligunis-Lipara, vol. 1, p. 36 et seqGoogle Scholar.

37 delle Felci, Grotta, Mon. Ant., xxix, 1923Google Scholar, and Ostuni, , B.P.I., lv, 1935Google Scholar.

38 P.P.S., xxiv, 1958, p. 165Google Scholar.