Luceria
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Luceria is an ancient city in the northern
Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or  – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...
, located in the
comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
of
Canossa Canossa ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077 and stood three days bare-headed in the snow to reverse his excom ...
in the
Province of Reggio Emilia The Province of Reggio Emilia ( it, Provincia di Reggio nell'Emilia, Emilian: ''pruvînsa ed Rèz'') is one of the nine provinces of the Italian Region of Emilia-Romagna. The capital city, which is the most densely populated comune in the provin ...
, on the right bank of the river
Enza The Enza (; egl, Èinsa) is a river in northern Italy, a right tributary of the river Po. Its source is at the Alpe di Succiso, in the northern Apennines (Tuscan-Emilian Apennines), at . The Enza is the current boundary of the provinces of Par ...
.


Toponym

The name might derive from ''lucus'', which means "sacred grove".
It is not clear if this was the proper name of the city or if it was called ''Nuceria''.
The little stream which separates Canossa from
San Polo d'Enza San Polo d'Enza ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, located about west of Bologna and about southwest of Reggio Emilia. San Polo d'Enza borders the following municipalities: Bibbiano, Ca ...
is still called the ''Rio Luceria'' today. The name of this stream is fairly old as it appears in the 1364 property records of Azzo da Correggio as ''Rivum Luxerae''. The
Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
and
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
(85-165 AD) describes the position of the city with great precision in his ''
Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'',  "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...
'', indicating the
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
and
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
according to the system he invented, but he calls it Nuceria. However, Luceria is the best-attested and most used name, even in official documents.


History

Luceria probably arose as a mercantile centre in the 4th century BC. It was located in ''Gallia Cispadana'', at the meeting point of three important communication routes: the old road which travelled from the river Po along the right bank of the river Enza to the south where it crossed the
Apennines The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or  – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...
to
Tuscia Tuscia is a historical region of Italy that comprised the territories under Etruscan influence and the name adopted for Etruria after the Roman conquest. While it later came to coincide with today's province of Viterbo, it was originally much lar ...
; the foothill track which connected the western zone to the east; and the mountain track which led up towards the hills where the Medieval castle would later be built. The first inhabitants of the place were the
Ligurians The Ligures (singular Ligur; Italian: liguri; English: Ligurians) were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named. Ancient Liguria corresponded more or less to the current Italian regi ...
, probably the Friniati, who developed close ties with the neighbouring
Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
of ''Servirola'' (modern San Polo d'Enza), after some initial hostility. They took advantage of the strategic position of their settlement to trade with settlements which were further afield too. In the 2nd century BC, the
Roman Republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
colonisted the
Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain ( it, Pianura Padana , or ''Val Padana'') is a major geographical feature of Northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetic ex ...
and became very interested in the nodal points of the various territories for both economic and military reasons. They settled at Luceria, leading to the development of a mixed population and the transformation of what had been just an open-air market into a proper town with houses, public buildings, paved roads, sidewalks and services for travellers, like accommodation for livestock with running water and warehouses for storing goods. The customs and traditions of the Ligurians did not disappear and the Romans did not impose their own culture. Instead, Roman culture merged with the native one slowly, probably accompanied by cross-cultural marriages. The
Romanisation Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of Luceria dates to the Republican era, but the city actually became important later on, in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, under the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. At this time there were small neighbouring villages south of the ''rio Vico'', which still exist today, such as ''Vico'' (Latin for "village"), ''Taverne'' (from the Latin ''Tabernae'') and ''Carbonizzo'' (from ''carbonescere'', "to collect charcoal"). Traces of a vast fire which destroyed all the wooden structures in the city date to this period. They were replaced with brick buildings on strong stone foundations. Thereafter Luceria expanded to its maximum size, occupying around 100,000 m2, bordered on the north by the ''Rio Luceria'' and to the south by the ''Rio Vico'' and crossed diagonally by a major paved street, which reaches up to 6 metres in width. Luceria is also mentioned in a letter written by the Emperor
Valentinian I Valentinian I ( la, Valentinianus; 32117 November 375), sometimes called Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor, he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces. Vale ...
to his prefect Rufinus about grazing rights, which ends (23 September 365). Subsequently, the city of Luceria was suddenly abandoned for unknown reasons. Although these years were hard for the Empire, the battles which took place on the frontiers probably could not have drastically affected an economically prosperous settlement in the interior, like Luceria. But it cannot be ruled out that the settlement was attacked by soldiers or deserters in search of food. A catastrophic natural disaster has found more support. This is deduced from the many coins which have been found through excavation and random finds during
tillage Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
over the centuries. A particularly strong earthquake or flood could have caused the inhabitants to flee, abandoning all their possessions, treasures and plate.In 788 AD,
Paul the Deacon Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes suffixed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk, s ...
recorded that the whole Po Valley was devastated by an enormous flood, which caused destruction and death. But by this time, Luceria had probably already ceased to exist.
Paul the Deacon, ''Sancti Ambrosii Mediolanensi Episcopi Opera''-Epistolarum-Classi I
There is a document in the state archives of
Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...
from 1660, which mentions a destructive flood caused by the small, apparently safe ''rio Luceria'' the previous year, which had devastated 80 biolca of land. Afterwards there was litigation among the neighbouring communities over the assignment of the land.
Document in Archivio di Stato di Modena, ''Confini di Stato'', Filza 45 B.I.
M.Jotti, ''I Feudatari di S.Polo d'Enza: Gonzaga e Gherardini (1591-1796)'', in "Bollettino Storico Reggiano", Reggio Emilia 1987
After such disastrous events it was very easy for the survivors to move back and reconstruct what had been destroyed. Apparently economic activity had also declined and commercial traffic probably declined ever more, impoverishing the area. After Luceria was abandoned, it was repeatedly spoliated, as common in the Middle Ages, for valuable building materials to be reused in new constructions (the place was called ''Predàro'' until the 18th century).). Thus the settlement disappeared from view and, in time, from local memory too. Interest in this lost city revived during the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
when the work of Ptolemy was rediscovered and published. Many authors mentioned Luceria, with varying degrees of specificness, in their works, like Raffaele Maffei da Volterra in his ''Commentari Urbani'' from the early 1500s;
friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
Leandro Alberti Leandro Alberti (1479–1552) was an Italian Dominican historian. Life Alberti was born and died at Bologna. In his early youth he attracted the attention of the Bolognese rhetorician, Giovanni Garzoni, who volunteered to act as his tutor. He e ...
in his ''Descrittione di tutta l'Italia'' of 1577Frà Leandro Alberti, ''Descrittione di Tutta Italia'', Anselmo Giaccarelli ed., Bologna, 1550, pag. 328verso: "Going further into the mountains one sees Caran, Cian. It is reported that Nuceria was in this area, as mentioned by Volaterranus in the sixth book of his ''Commentari Urbani'' since people find coins and other things which indicate that there was something there in antiquity and Paul van Merle in his ''Cosmographia'' published in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
in 1605. Scholars like
Johann Jacob Hofmann The ''Lexicon Universale'' of 1698 is an early modern Humanism, humanist encyclopedia in Latin by Johann Jacob Hofmann of Basel (1635-1706). It appeared in four volumes with 1,000 pages each. :''Lexicon Universale, Historiam Sacram Et Profanam ...
(1698)Johann Jacob Hofmann
''Lexicon Universale, quatuor tomis distributum''
Leiden, 1698, léber II, p. 854: ''Luceria, sive Nuceria, Ptol. opp. Gall. Cispad. nunc est castr. Luzara, ad Padum, in Duc. Mantuano; ...'', (Luceria, or Nuceria, known from Ptolemy, a town in
Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts (Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was con ...
, is now the fortress of Luzara near Padua in the duchy of Mantua)
and
Ludovico Antonio Muratori Lodovico Antonio Muratori (21 October 1672 – 23 January 1750) was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New Testament books. Biography Born ...
(1744)Lodovico Antonio Muratori, ''Annali d'Italia'', Milano, 1744, II, p 438: "As recorded in the Laws of the
Codex Theodosianus The ''Codex Theodosianus'' (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 a ...
... for a good part of the present year the Augustus Valentinian stayed in
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
; then he made an assize through various cities of Italy, as demonstrated by those of his laws which were issued in Sinigaglia, Fano, Verona, Aquileja, and Luceria (which cannot be the city in the Kingdom of Naples, but perhaps Luzzara in Mantua or in Guastala)"
thought that Luceria was ancient
Luzzara Luzzara ( Guastallese: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Reggio Emilia, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is located at the northern end of the province, on the right bank of the river Po. Luzzara is the birthplace of the composer Maurizio Cazzat ...
, which is usually considered to have been founded by the
Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...
, although recently Roman and pre-Roman remains have been discovered in the apse of the Church of San Giorgio, which make the equation more plausible.


Excavations

Archaeological research was undertaken at Luceria in a very fragmentary way from the second half of the 18th century. The long gaps between excavations led to the destruction of the built structures which were brought to light and the loss of many important artefacts which were sold or reused by the local population.


Excavations of Angelo Schenoni (1776-1786)

The first excavations of the site began on 21 May 1776 and were continued after a nine-year gap in 1785.
At this time Canossa belonged to the
Duchy of Parma The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Ducato di Parma e Piacenza, la, Ducatus Parmae et Placentiae), was an Italian state created in 1545 and located in northern Italy, in the current region of Emilia-Romagna. Originally a realm of the Farnese ...
and the excavations were carried out by the
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
Angelo Schenoni, curator of the Museo di Parma.
Today
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
is viewed as a science for reconstructing the past, but in the 18th century it was understood as a method of recovering "antiquities." Trenches measuring well over three hundred and fifty metres in length were dug with the sole object of recovering vases, statues, and various other objects for display in the museum collections, with no concern for the precious information which the excavation works were destroying.
The archives describe the discovery of foundations made up of two semicircular walls nine cubits long and two cubits thick, linked by another two straight walls. No remnants of this monumental apsidal structure have been discovered by subsequent excavations. When the excavations ended in August 1786, the whole area was left in a mess and the structures which had not been recovered were looted. All the mobile objects discovered in these years, including clay lamps, glass vase fragments, keys and nails made of various metals,
fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
e, rings and jewelry, are now conserved in the Museo Nazionale di Antichità di Parma.
The coins deserve special discussion. Both silver and bronze of all types and denominations were found in large amounts in a good state of preservation. The dates of these coins range from the Republican period to the Late Empire, with the last coin belonging to the Emperor
Valerius Valens Aurelius Valerius Valens (died 317), rarely Valens I, was briefly Roman emperor from late 316 to early 317. He was proclaimed emperor by Licinius, emperor of the East, during his war against Constantine I, emperor of the West. Biography In ...
.
In later excavations also, the discovery of large numbers of coins is reported, but these were not recorded in detail, meaning that the precious information that they could have offered about the chronology of the city has been lost.


Excavations of Gaetano Chierici (1861–1862)

In 1861, a farmer ploughing his field discovered four relatively intact tombs.One of these tombs has been reconstructed in the Civici Musei di Reggio Emilia. This drew the attention of scholar-priest don
Gaetano Chierici Gaetano Chierici (1838–1920) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre works. Biography He was born in Reggio Emilia, and attended the Reggio Emilia School of Fine Arts in 1850 and 1851. Chierici continued his studies at the academies of Modena ...
, one of the fathers of Italian
prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
studies, and he began new excavations on the site on 9 September 1862. After the
Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century Political movement, political and social movement that resulted in the Merger (politics), consolidation of List of historic stat ...
, the area became part of the Provincia di Reggio Emilia. These excavations were conducted in a more scientific manner than the earlier ones and revealed the old paved road which crossed Luceria at an angle and was perfectly preserved. They also revealed foundations of houses next to it; a four-metre-tall stone column on a cone-shaped base, which was probably part of a building facade; pavements; and numerous tombs, both inhumations and cremations. Some of these tombs in addition to the usual contents, contained twisted and broken swords and jewelry – part of an ancient funerary ritual of the Ligurians. Don Gaetano Chierici produced a competent and detailed analysis of the discoveries, with the hope of aiding further work which was not possible at the time. The items unearthed by his excavations are now conserved in the Civico Museo di Reggio Emilia.
Afterwards the whole area returned to agricultural use.


20th century

During the construction of a local railway in 1909, further Roman Imperial coins were discovered, as well as a 30 centimetre long stone hatchet indicating the presence of prehistoric humans in the area,The hatchet is a characteristically prehistoric item, used both for warfare and agriculture.
O.Siliprandi, ''Scavi archeologici avvenuti nella Provincia di Reggio Emilia nell'ultimo cinquantennio (1886-1935)'', Reggio E.1936
and further tombs. The tombs, of Roman date, were clustered in three separate groups: one with Ligurian-Celtic period remains, one dating to the Liguria-Roman period and one dating to the Late Empire, with
Paleochristian The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teache ...
symbols of the 4th century AD. In 1925, the scholar Andrea Balletti published a volume on the history of Reggio Emilia, which put the existence of Luceria in serious doubt. He pointed to the paucity of discoveries and argued that the settlement was an unreliable invention of historians. From 1967 to 1985, despite the steady expansion of construction, the area was systematically monitored in order that any archaeological evidence that was recovered would not be lost.Società Reggiana d'Archeologia, ''Quaderni d'Archeologia Reggiana'',1971,1981,1991
A long campaign to protect the area began in 1985. Thanks to a joint effort of the
Soprintendenza The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the ''monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (via ...
, the
comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
of
Canossa Canossa ( Reggiano: ) is a ''comune'' and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077 and stood three days bare-headed in the snow to reverse his excom ...
, the group "Amici di Luceria" (Friends of Luceria) and the "Gruppo Archeologico VEA", supported by a grant from the Manodori foundation, Luceria became an archaeological area on 31 May 2014. This inauguration spurred a number of efforts to develop the area. Although small, the archaeological area allows visitors to see some parts of the well-preserved paved road which bisected the settlement and some adjacent structures (including a well and foundations of structures of various different building phases). The site is open every Sunday afternoon from 3pm to 5pm between 8 June and 1 November, except when there is bad weather.


Notes


References


Bibliography

# Otello Siliprandi, ''Notizie di Luceria'', R. Bojardi, Reggio Emilia, 1929, 14 pages. # Luciano Patroncini, "Luceria", ''Bollettino storico reggiano'', 2.4, Futurgraf, Reggio Emilia, 1969. # Enrica Cerchi, "Luceria e il popolamento romano nella bassa valle dell'Enza", pag. 69–83 in ''L'Emilia in età romana'',
vol. 97 of the ''Nuova serie della biblioteca della Deputazione di Storia patria per le Antiche provincie Modenesi'', 1987. # L. Malnati, E. Cerchi, I. Chiesi & D. Labate, "Gli scavi di Ciano d'Enza (RE) 1983-1985 e il problema del rapporto tra Liguri e Romani," in ''Miscellanea di Studi Archeologici e di Antichità III'', Modena, 1990: 75–110. # Luciano Patroncini, ''Luceria d'Enza, insediamento ligure-romano nel territorio di Canossa'', Associazione Industriali della Provincia di Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, 1994. # Enzo Lippolis,
Provincia di Reggio Emilia
" in ''Schede di archeologia dell'Emilia-Romagna'', (1996-2002). # Enzo Lippolis,

" sec. 3.17 o
''Archeologia dell'Emilia-Romagna'' I/2
Firenze, 1997. # Gennaro Riccio,
Le monete attribuite alla zecca dell'antica città di Luceria
', Google books (published by Virgilio, 1846) {{coord missing, Italy Ligures Roman towns and cities in Italy Archaeological sites in Emilia-Romagna