Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border

The broad valley of the Bradano river and its tributary the Basentello separates the Apennine mountains in Lucania from the limestone plateau of the Murge in Apulia in South East Italy. For millennia the valley has functioned both as a cultural and political divide between the two regions, and as a channel for new ideas transmitted from South to North or vice versa depending on the political and economic conditions of the time. Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border aims to explain how the pattern of settlement and land use changed in the valley over the whole period from Neolithic to Late Medieval, taking account of changing environmental conditions, and setting the changes in a broader political, social and cultural context. There are three levels of focus. The first is on the results of a field survey (1996-2006) in the Basentello valley by teams from the Universities of Alberta, Edinburgh, and Bari, directed by the authors. The second concerns the discoveries of earlier field surveys in the late 1960s and early 1970s undertaken in connection with excavations on Botromagno near Gravina in Puglia. The third is a much broader synthesis of the results of recent scholarship using archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources to reconstruct an archaeological history of the valley and the surrounding area. The creation of a vast imperial estate at Vagnari around the end of the 1st century BC and its long-lasting impact on the pattern of settlement in the area is a significant theme in the later chapters of the book

Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border

The broad valley of the Bradano river and its tributary the Basentello separates the Apennine mountains in Lucania from the limestone plateau of the Murge in Apulia in South East Italy. For millennia the valley has functioned both as a cultural and political divide between the two regions, and as a channel for new ideas transmitted from South to North or vice versa depending on the political and economic conditions of the time. Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border aims to explain how the pattern of settlement and land use changed in the valley over the whole period from Neolithic to Late Medieval, taking account of changing environmental conditions, and setting the changes in a broader political, social and cultural context. There are three levels of focus. The first is on the results of a field survey (1996-2006) in the Basentello valley by teams from the Universities of Alberta, Edinburgh, and Bari, directed by the authors. The second concerns the discoveries of earlier field surveys in the late 1960s and early 1970s undertaken in connection with excavations on Botromagno near Gravina in Puglia. The third is a much broader synthesis of the results of recent scholarship using archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources to reconstruct an archaeological history of the valley and the surrounding area. The creation of a vast imperial estate at Vagnari around the end of the 1st century BC and its long-lasting impact on the pattern of settlement in the area is a significant theme in the later chapters of the book

Le catacombe ebraiche di Venosa: Recenti interventi, studi e ricerche

[Italiano]: Questo primo volume della serie Judaica Venusina è dedicato alle catacombe ebraiche nella collina della Maddalena di Venosa (Basilicata) e ospita undici contributi, suddivisi in due parti. Nella prima parte sono stati accolti tutti i testi (di M.L. Nava, V. Cracolici, G. Di Pace, M. Di Lieto, M. Savarese, A. Mantrisi) già elaborati per i convegni svoltisi nel 2003 e 2009 in occasione della riapertura al pubblico delle catacombe, i cui atti non sono stati mai pubblicati. I testi, rivisti e integrati, illustrano in dettaglio le metodologie seguite, le ricerche svolte e i risultati ottenuti nel corso dei lavori di consolidamento e restauro compiuti principalmente agli inizi degli anni 2000. Sono presentati per la prima volta, fra l’altro, i dati sulle cosiddette catacombe “di Santa Rufina”, a loro volta interessate, nelle stesse circostanze, da ampi lavori di consolidamento e restauro. La sezione si conclude con un saggio aggiuntivo (di S. Mutino) in cui si traccia un bilancio di alcune delle strategie di conservazione a suo tempo adottate. La seconda parte ospita quattro nuovi contributi (di J. Dello Russo, M. Lazzari, G. Lacerenza, V. Muscio) presentati nel corso del workshop sulle catacombe che, nel 2019, ha visto riuniti tutti gli autori presso l’Università di Napoli L’Orientale. I testi offrono, rispettivamente, il quadro della storia delle scoperte ebraistiche a Venosa, dalle prime esplorazioni alla riscoperta del sito di “Santa Rufina”; una discussione sugli aspetti geologici e geomorfologici della collina della Maddalena; un excursus sulle tipologie e caratteristiche del materiale epigrafico che vi è stato rinvenuto; la presentazione di alcuni recenti esperimenti di digitalizzazione della catacomba, utili sia per finalità di ricerca che per la sua fruizione a distanza ./[English]: This first volume of the Judaica Venusina series is dedicated to the Jewish catacombs in the Maddalena hill in Venosa (Basilicata). It features eleven articles, divided into two thematic parts. The first part brings together all the texts (by M.L. Nava, V. Cracolici, G. Di Pace, M. Di Lieto, M. Savarese, A. Mantrisi) elaborated upon during the conferences held in 2003 and 2009 on the occasion of the reopening of the catacombs, the proceedings of which have never been published. The texts, revised and integrated with additional information, illustrate in detail the methodologies that were followed, the research carried out, and the results obtained during the consolidation and restoration of the complex, carried out mainly in the early 2000s. Here, for the first time, among other things, new data on the so-called “Santa Rufina” catacombs make their scholarly debut, subject, in turn, on the same occasion, by extensive consolidation and restoration works. The section ends with an additional essay (by S. Mutino) in which an assessment is made of some of the conservation strategies adopted at the time. The second part comprises four new contributions (by J. Dello Russo, M. Lazzari, G. Lacerenza, V. Muscio) presented on the occasion of a workshop on the catacombs held in 2019 at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. The texts offer, respectively, a full picture of the history of the Jewish discoveries in Venosa, from the early explorations to the rediscovery of “Santa Rufina”; a discussion on the geological and geomorphological aspects of the Maddalena hill; an excursus on the contents and characteristics of the epigraphic material found in the catacombs; and the presentation of a recent digitization of the main catacombs

Geomorphological Fragility and Mass Movements of the Archaeological Area of “Torre di Satriano” (Basilicata, Southern Italy).

This paper describes the results of geomorphological and stability studies carried out in the archaeological site of Satriano di Lucania (Basilicata, Southern Italy), where an important sanctuary was built during the 4th Century B.C. This study is based on a mutidipliscinarity approach including accurate interpretation of aerial photos, geomorphological and geoelectrical surveys , and stability analyses. A description of the stability condition of the archaeological site with reference to the landslide that affects the sacred complex is provided in this work

X-ray fluorescence applied to yellow pigments based on lead, tin and antimony: comparison of laboratory and portable instrumentation

X-ray fluorescence is a diagnostic approach particularly suited to be utilized in cultural heritage sector since it falls in the non-destructive and non-invasive analytical tools. However there are big differences between portable and laboratory instrumentation that make difficult to perform a comparison in terms of quality and reliability of the results. The present study is specifically addressed to investigate these differences in respect of the same analytical sample-set. To reach this goal a comparison was thus carried out between portable and bench top devices X-ray fluorescence devices and techniques were used on different type of yellow pigments based on lead, tin and antimony obtained in laboratory, reproducing the instructions described in “old” recipes, that is: i) mortar of lead and tin produced on the basis of the recipe 13 /c V of the “Manuscript of Danzica” and “ Li tre libri dell’arte del Vasaio” by Cipriano Piccolpasso; ii) two types of lead and tin yellow (Pb2SnO4 and PbSnO3) produced starting from the indications of the 272 and 273 recipes of the “Bolognese Manuscript”; iii) lead antimonate (Pb2Sb2O7) obtained by following the instructions of the Piccolpasso’s treatise and those contained on the “Istoria delle pitture in maiolica fatte in Pesaro e ne’ luoghi circonvicini di Giambattista Passeri” and finally iv) lead, tin and antimony yellow (Pb2SnSbO6,5) obtained starting from the information contained in the paper 30 R of “Manuscript of Danzica” [1]. The XRF analysis were performed using a laboratory instrumentation (Bruker M4 Tornado) and a handset analytical device (Assing Surface Monitor). In order to perform a significant statistical comparison among acquired and processed data, all the analyses have been carried out utilizing the same sample, the same acquisition set up and operative conditions. A chemometric approach, based on the utilization of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and multivariate analytical based tools [2], was utilized in order to verify the spectral differences, and related informative content, among the different produced yellow pigments. The multivariate approach on the results revealed instrumental differences between the two systems and allowed to compare the common characteristics of the set of pigments analyzed