Oppido Lucano (Potenza, Italy): Second Interim Report

OPPIDO LUCANO (POTENZA, ITALY): SECOND INTERIM REPORT MAURIZIO GUALTIERI, HELENA FRACCHIA Background 111e Rom;111 site of Masseriil Ciccotti/Oppido Lucallo disclissed in this report lies ilt the centre of an inland basin of Southern Italy (fig. 1) along the upper Dradano vililey (average elevation 4{Ml m above seil level).1 Extensive excilvations of the central part of the site (the surfilce so far stripped is overl,lXIO m2 ) and systematic surface survey in the surrounding territory (including an (lfe(l of ca. 20 km2 ) have been carried out by a learn from the University of AlbertClstem Italy is highlighted by P.C. Dorrell, "The Regional Llnd-Forms," in A. M. SmClll, Gravi"a: All Iron Age ami RqJIIl1/icnll Sl'ftlc1IIl'/I1 ill ApI/lin (London 1992) 19-21. HI) 102 GUALTIERI AND FRACCHIA Fig. 1. General map of area (adapted from A.M. Small, ed., The Excavations at S. Giova""i di Rlloti, vol. 1, Toronto 1994) archaeological survey2conducted by till;' Fondazione Lerici Prospezioni Archeologiche (Rome) over an area of ca. 8,(X)() or and through a 2Both the electric resistivity and ll1ab 'lletnmeter survey were conductL-'CI under the direction of Dr. M. Cucarzi, Directur, Fondazione Lerici Prospezioni Archeologiche (Rome) and will be presentt:'d in greater detail in a forthcoming issue of Prospeziolli Arc11col/Jgiclte, published by the University of Milan. Thanks are owed to the Scientific Committee of Ule Lerici Foundation, Milan, for including the Oppido project in the research progr A r~ently defl:.'llded M.A. thesis by J. Christianson (Univen-oity of Albertil, Edmonton, Nov. 1994, unpublished) hasilllempted n plnnillletric reconstruction of this pnrt of the vil1n, with reference to published villns of the same period in Lucnnin ,-,nd Apulin. JOS GUALTIERI AND FRACCHIA To judge from the structural e\'idence so far unearthed, the restructuring of the portico in the late ::.econd century A.C. did not entail a modification of its plan, which can be compared to those of averagesized peristyles of the Late Republican period.7 An important, although so far isolated, element of the roof decoration of the early peristyle is the almost intact terrdcotta antefix with palmette decoration (pI. 3) found in a topsoil context along the slope immediately to the south of the portico. Its Augustan dateK (1150 provides another chronological peg for the early phase of the peristyle. PI. 3. Terracotti'l antefix found south of portico area 7 A good parallel can be found, in a somewhat different geugraphicill context, at Settefinestre: see the detniled study, 5etfctillcsfre, vol. 2, 15-24 nnd 81. II For close compartllldn, see V.j. Bruno olnd itT. Scott, Cosn IV: Tile HOllses (University Pnrk, PA 1993) "181 nlld pl. 100 (,1 complllvillm nntefix from the House of the Birds); nlso Notizic degli 5Cl1vi 37 (19ft3) 161 fig. 32, from the Vin Cnbinil, OPPIDO LUCANO (POTENZA I ITALY) 109 2. The basis villae In 1991-92 we surveyed a group of massive walls along the south slope of the piateaul about 60 m east of the Late Roman apsidal halll which had been partly exposed to their foundations by recent landslides (Gualtieri-Fracchia 1993/ 316). Further study of this part of the site in the context of the 1993 geomorphological survey of the ravine and a thorough surface cleaning of the area have enabled us to identify the easternmost part of those structures as belonging to a powerful basis viILae like those found in quite a number of Late Republican hillside villas; many extant examples are to be found in southern Latium.9 These powerful terracing struchlres presumably served as retaining walls for the ravine overlooking the stream and as supporting foundations for the rooms of Areas 3 and 7 (the residential core of the villa) overlooking the ravine and the hilly landscape to the south. Furthermorel a closer inspection of the struchlres during the survey and planning of this sector of the site has discerned at least two clearly distinct building phases. The later phase is well documented at the southeastern tum of the basis villael where the main east-west terracing wall meets at right angles the powerful retaining wa III exposed by landslides almost to...