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Excavations at Satriano: A Deserted Medieval Settlement in Basilicata
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
Extract
The remains of medieval Satriano occupy the acropolis of the Lucanian town, a hilltop site 16 km. south-west of Potenza (Pl. XXVII, a). Like the Lucanian settlement, the medieval site owed its existence to the commanding position of the acropolis, which not only dominates the surrounding countryside, but also overlooks an important route between Campania and Apulia. The valleys of the Tanagro and the Platano (which together join the Sele near Contursi) and of the Basento form a corridor through the mountains from west to east, linking Salerno, Potenza and Taranto, with an alternative route from Potenza to Gravina and Bari (Fig. 1). In addition, the Melandro valley, which joins the Platano west of Vietri, passes to the south of the foot of Satriano acropolis and gives access to Brienza, Grumento and the mountain settlements of north Calabria. Finally, leaving the Salerno-Taranto route at Potenza, an easy track led northwards to Lagopesole, Melfi and the Foggia plain. While Potenza was the pivot of this network of routes, Satriano was also well placed to benefit from contact with the wealthy regions of Campania and Apulia. In an area which produced little or no iron and possessed no deposits of copper or lead, such contact was of considerable importance.
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References
1 This is by no means an exhaustive account of the documentary evidence; not only does it lack original archive research, but also it fails to make use of Spera, Giuseppe, L'Antica Città di Satriano in Lucania (Cavadei Tirreni, 1886)Google Scholar, which was unavailable at the time of writing.
2 Note, however, that the Melandro valley probably carried considerably less traffic than the easier route along the upper Tanagro from Auletta to Sala Consilina and Lagonegro.
3 For the similar situation in Lazio, see Mallett, Michael and Whitehouse, David, ‘Castel Porciano: an abandoned medieval village of the Roman Campagna,’ PBSR, xxxv (1967), pp. 113–46Google Scholar.
4 Racciopi, Giacomo, Storia dei Popoli della Lucania e della Basilicata (Roma, 2nd ed. 1902), vol. ii, 305–12Google Scholar.
5 Borellus, Carolus, Vindex Neapolitanae Nobilitatis (Napoli, 1653), pp. 11, 15 and 50Google Scholar.
6 Annali critico-diplomatici del Regno di Napoli (Napoli, 1804), p. 355Google Scholar (F IV, Ann. 876), quoted by Satriani, Antonio, Tito dalle Origini ad Oggi (Potenza, 1964), p. 23Google Scholar.
7 Racciopi, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 249.
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9 Racciopi vol. ii, p. 249. A bishop of Satriano allegedly attended the third Lateran Council in 1177.
10 I have found only two references to Satriano during this period. According to Satriani, op. cit., p. 23, the lord of Satriano in 1083 was count Goffredo and his countess was named Sikelgaita. Racciopi, vol. ii, p. 249, claims that two twelfth-century documents, nos. 93 and 162 in the Sylloge Graecarum Membranarum, suggest that the population contained a Greek element.
11 Satriani, p. 23.
12 Racciopi, vol. ii, pp. 305–12. The low status of both settlements is shown by the existence in Basilicata of seven towns larger than Tito. The largest towns were Melfi, with 1150 hearths assessed at 287 oncie 19 tari and 6 grani, Venosa (584 hearths) and Potenza (484 hearths).
13 Satriani, p. 28, quotes figures for several years, including 1532 (294 hearths = 1350 inhabitants), 1545 (501 hearths = 2405 inhabitants) and 1561 (508 hearths = 2480 inhabitants). According to these figures, one hearth represented between 4 and 5 inhabitants. Applying the value to the hearths listed in 1276–7, we arrive at 600–750 inhabitants for Satriano and 1250–1600 for Tito. The numbers are in marked contrast to 4600–5750 for Melfi and 2300–2900 for Venosa. It hardly needs to be emphasised that population figures derived from hearth tax assessments are notoriously unreliable and that the figures quoted here are only approximate.
14 I am indebted to Prof. Tomaso Pedío of Potenza for this information. According to Satriani, p. 23, the church was dedicated to S. Stefano.
15 Racciopi, vol. ii, p. 249, questions the reliability of this tradition and suggests that, since Satriano does not appear in the tax returns for Basilicata in 1415, it was abandoned some time before 1430. For archaeological support for the violent destruction of the site, see below, pp. 201 and 205.
16 The relics of S. Laverio were taken to Tito, suggesting that this was the refuge for the majority of the inhabitants. The relics remained at Tito until 1857, when they were destroyed by an earthquake.
17 Visited in 1964 with Prof. Adamesteanu and Dr. Salinardi.
18 For the wide variety of functions for which towers were built, see Lawrence, A. W., ‘Early Fortifications near Rome,’ PBSR, xxxii (1964), pp. 89–122Google Scholar, particularly p. 110.
19 Satriani, p. 23.
20 Whitehouse, Ruth and Whitehouse, David, ‘Excavations at Anglona,’ PBSR, xxxvii (1969), pp. 34–75Google Scholar, particularly 36.
21 Stiesdal, Hans, ‘Three deserted medieval villages in the Roman Campagna,’ Analecta Romana, ii (1962), pp. 63–100Google Scholar, particularly fig. 9 on p. 78. See also Mallett and Whitehouse, fig. 7 on p. 126.
22 Compare the quoins with the masonry of the acropolis wall, Holloway, R. Ross, ‘Excavations at Satrianum, 1966,’ American Journal of Archaeology, 71 (1967), pp. 59–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially fig. 4.
23 Cf. Lawrence, op. cit., p. 108.
24 Satriani, p. 23.
25 For Lazio, see Stiesdal, fig. 13 on p. 85 and Mallett and Whitehouse, pp. 128–9. In Apulia, Dr. G. D. B. Jones found a flat-bottomed ditch surrounding the tower at II Casone, a deserted medieval site near San Severo (prov. Foggia). I am grateful to Dr. Jones for allowing me to mention this discovery.
25a See Postscript, p. 219.
26 Dr. Salinardi collected a small group of medieval pottery from the filling of a well at Ruoti in 1965.
27 An important collection of medieval pottery from Melfi is stored at the Soprintendenza alle Antichità, Potenza. For a complete vessel of type 5, see Megaw, A. H. S., ‘Glazed Bowls in Byzantine Churches,’ Deltion tis Christianikis Archaiologikis Hetaireias, Series 4, vol. iv (1964), pp. 145–62Google Scholar, particularly fig. 3 on p. 151.
28 Whitehouse, David, ‘Medieval Painted Pottery in South and Central Italy,’ Medieval Archaeology, x (1966), pp. 30–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘Italy: Recent Developments’, ibid., xiii (1969), pp. 137–43.
29 Whitehouse, David, ‘The Medieval Glazed Pottery of Lazio’, PBSR, xxxv (1967), pp. 40–86Google Scholar, especially 53–5.
30 The pottery from Taranto, which is now in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche at Faenza, is illustrated in Faenza, xxv (1937)Google Scholar, pl. XVI.
31 The vessel from Ugento is in a private collection. The pottery from Canne is in the local site museum. For the pottery from Brindisi, see Jurlaro, Rosario, ‘Per due stoviglie medievali della “De Leo” di Brindisi,’ Faenza, xlviii (1962), pp. 10 and 11Google Scholar. Polychrome ware from the Foggia plain is illustrated in Whitehouse, D. B., ‘Ceramiche e Vetri medioevali provenienti dal Castello di Lucera,’ Bollettino d'Arte, 1966, nos. III–IV, pp. 171–8Google Scholar, especially figs. 23 and 28, no. 2.
32 The finds are in the Museo dell'Isola at Porto d'Ischia and the site museum at Paestum.
33 A few fragments occur among the surface finds from Melfi, but none is reported from S. Antonio Casalini, Atella or Ruoti. For Anglona, see Ruth and David Whitehouse, op. cit. (n. 20), p. 71.
34 For North Apulia in general, see Harden, D. B., ‘Some Glass Fragments, mainly of the 12th–13th Century A.D., from Northern Apulia,’ Journal of Glass Studies, viii (1966), pp. 70–9Google Scholar. For Lucera Castle, see Whitehouse, D. B., ‘Ceramiche e Vetri medioevali provenienti dal Castello di Lucera,’ Bollettino d'Arte, 1966, nos. III–IV, pp. 171–8Google Scholar, particularly fig. 31.
35 Harden, p. 71 and Fig. 1.
36 Professor Erik Sjöqvist and Mr. Martin Bell have kindly told me of a prunted goblet from Aidone in Sicily. Fragments of prunted vessels are in the site museum at Paestum. Prunted goblets are known also in central and northern Italy.