The Timpone della Motta is a hill 2 km to the southwest of

Francavilla Marittima Francavilla Marittima is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy. It is known for the Timpone della Motta, a hill which was the site of an Oenotrian and ancient Greek Ancient Greek includ ...

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

that was inhabited since the Middle

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. In the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

the hill was the site of an

Oenotrian The Oenotrians (Οἴνωτρες, meaning "tribe led by Oenotrus" or "people from the land of vines - Οἰνωτρία") were an ancient Italic people who inhabited a territory in Southern Italy from Paestum to southern Calabria. By the sixth ce ...

settlement. The Oenotrians were influenced by the culture of the Greek colonists from nearby

Sybaris Sybaris ( grc, Σύβαρις; it, Sibari) was an important city of Magna Graecia. It was situated in modern Calabria, in southern Italy, between two rivers, the Crathis (Crati) and the Sybaris (Coscile). The city was founded in 720 BC ...

, who eventually took over the site in the second half of the seventh century and transformed it into their acropolis and an important sanctuary, which was notable as the site of the first known

ancient Greek temple Greek temples ( grc, ναός, naós, dwelling, semantically distinct from Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, ...

s of

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia (, ; , , grc, Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς, ', it, Magna Grecia) was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Sicily; these re ...

on the Italian Peninsula. The hill was abandoned when the

Bruttians The Bruttians (alternative spelling, Brettii) ( la, Bruttii) were an ancient Italic people. They inhabited the southern extremity of Italy, from the frontiers of Lucania to the Sicilian Straits and the promontory of Leucopetra. This roughly corresp ...

conquered the region in the fourth century BC.

Geography

The hill is composed of Plio-Pleistocene fan-delta deposits containing thick beds of conglomerated river cobbles, which form its cap rock and several terraces along its slopes. With an elevation of 280 meters above sea level, it overlooks the coastal plain of

Sibari Sibari is an Italian ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' (municipality) of Cassano allo Ionio. It lies in the province of Cosenza which is part of the region Calabria. Geography It is located close to the Gulf of Taranto and the archaeological sit ...

and the

Gulf of Taranto The Gulf of Taranto ( it, Golfo di Taranto; Tarantino: ; la, Sinus Tarentinus) is a gulf of the Ionian Sea, in Southern Italy. The Gulf of Taranto is almost square, long and wide, making it the largest gulf in Italy, and it is delimited by the ...

. It lies on the left (northern) bank of the seasonal Raganello river. Close to the hilltop is the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

, which was the location of a sanctuary with three temples. The acropolis was surrounded by a defensive wall. Several of the conglomerate-supported terraces have evidence of settlement and the Macchiabate

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

lies at the foot of the hill but is separated from it by the Carnevale gully. The

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

city of Sybaris was located at a distance of 15 kilometers to the southeast.

History

Oenotrian period

The oldest remains belong to a Middle Bronze Age dwelling which stood on the later site of Temple V on the acropolis. During the Iron Age in the ninth and eight centuries BC the hill was the site of a large Oenotrian settlement. Archaeological evidence indicates that a weaving house stood at the site of the Bronze Age dwelling in this period. This building was three times the size of a contemporary native hut discovered on Plateau I and might have had a religious function as well. In the last quarter of the eight century BC this house and the other Oenotrian

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

wooden dwellings on the acropolis were replaced by long rectangular wooden temples dedicated to

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...

. The temples followed a Greek design but were constructed with native techniques. They were built around a plaza in the centre, with Temple I to the northeast of the plaza, Temple V (built on the location of the weaving house) to the southwest and Temple III to the northwest. Temples I and V were built parallel to the length of the plaza, but Temple III had an entrance which faced the plaza. These temples were the first known ancient Greek temples on the Italian Peninsula. The Greek colony Sybaris was founded around the same time in 720 BC and it is likely that the Oenotrians and the Greeks co-operated in the construction of the temples at a time when Greek religion was transmitted to the Oenotrian culture.

Greek period

In the second half of the seventh century BC the sanctuary was taken over by the Sybarites, who changed its layout by erecting small temples, the first in

mudbrick A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also bee ...

on top of the old wooden temples, which were demolished. Pottery and bronze ''ex-votos'' have revealed that the site was dedicated to

who is mentioned in a famous inscription on a bronze tablet: : ''Kleombrotos, son of Dexilaos, an Olympic champion, dedicates an aedicule (a small shrine) to the goddess in exchange for keeping the tenth part of his winnings otherwise owed her''. They celebrated large festivals there regularly. In the sixth century BC an intensive building program was started at the site leading to the construction of large colonial houses on all the plateaux and the rearrangement of the sanctuary. The mudbrick Temple V was demolished and a

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

foundation was used to eliminate the height difference of the site of Temple V with the rest of the acropolis. A new Temple V made of stone replaced the older temple. New stone temples also replaced Temple III and I, which were built on a stone foundation of riverbed cobbles. Attic pottery found at the site is from the years in which Sybaris perished, 510 BC, suggesting that Timpone Motta continued after the demise of Sybaris and still imported pottery from Athens. The site must have been abandoned when the Bruttians conquered the region at some time in the fourth century BC. Centuries later a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

was constructed on top of the foundations of Temple V, but there is no evidence of a settlement existing in this period.

Identification as Lagaria

Thousands of '' hydriskai'' were found on the acropolis. Because there is no natural source of water on the Timpone della Motta, these ''hydriskai'' must have been used to carry water up the hill. The images of processions seen on the pottery found at the site show women carrying water and Athena is associated with

Epeius There were two characters named Epeius (; Ancient Greek: Ἐπειός ''Epeiós'') or Epeus in Greek mythology. * Epeius, an Elean prince as son of King Endymion. He ran a race at Olympia, against his brothers Aetolus and Paeon, winning his fath ...

in mythology. Combined with ancient literary evidence this had led to the proposal that the Timpone della Motta was the site of

Lagaria Lagaria (Greek: ), was an ancient town of Lucania, situated between Thurii and the river Siris (modern Sinni). According to legend, it was founded by a colony of Phocians under the command of Epeius, the architect of the Trojan Horse. Strabo an ...

. An older source places Lagaria much further north however, near

Valsinni Valsinni is a village and ''comune'' in the province of Matera, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. The village is bordered by Colobraro, Nocara, Noepoli, Nova Siri, Rotondella and San Giorgio Lucano. History The territory of the "comun ...

Excavation

The first excavation of the Macchiabate necropolis was started in 1963 by

Paola Zancani Montuoro Paola Zancani Montuoro (27 February 1901 – 14 August 1987) was an Italian classical scholar, archaeologist, educator and writer who specialized in ancient Greek art in Italy. After participating in the restoration of monuments around Pompei, in ...

. In the 1970s and 1980s illegal excavations took place on a large scale on the southern slope of the Timpone della Motta and in the necropolis. Many stolen artefacts were sold on the antiquities market to private collectors and museums. Eventually these were identified and most of them were returned to the Museo Nazionale Archeologico della Sibaritide, where the finds from Timpone della Motta are exhibited. Following a brief rescue excavation on the acropolis in 1986-7, excavations on the acropolis and terraces and surveys in the Macchiabate area continued from 1991 until 2008 by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. Excvations have continued from 2009.Scavi archeologici dell'Istituto di Archeologia Classica a Francavilla Marittima, Calabria https://francavilla.philhist.unibas.ch/it/ricerca-e-scavi/

References

External links

Virtual Museum Francavilla

International Francavilla Archaeological Project

Information from the FastiOnline database for excavations
{{Authority control Ruins in Italy Former populated places in Italy Ancient Greek sanctuaries Archaeological sites in Calabria Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Italy