Megalithic polygonal walls on Elba Leonardo Giovanni Terreni Foto dell’autore

Megalithic polygonal walls on Elba? A suggestive research idea

This paper doesn’t intend to be a scientific essay on the which has a number of constraints larger than the real origins and the dating of the so called polygonal one necessary to eliminate its mobility, actually more megalithic town walls on Italic ground (despite being stabile. An example is the ones in “Opus Antiquum vel an amazing opportunity), but just a striking hypothesis incertum” mentioned in the building technique by to identify one of them on Elba. Moreover, I also felt Vitruvio and quoted in the studies of 1957 (now too obliged to pay a little tribute to a painter from Elba, dated, so to be thoroughly revised) by Giuseppe Lugli. who is worth being known by a wider public. They represent a technical innovation of the town walls So, is it legitimate to ask whether polygonal megalithic usually known as cyclopean or Pelasgic. Walls that are wall have ever existed on Elba? Megalithic (a term almost still intact today thanks to their resistance to which is often misused in archaeology) walls are to telluric and crest movements which normally stress be meant not only the plain wall structures made up wall structure, particularly the ones in hilly areas. of large dry stones, as we can find in many places of Typical examples are the walls of Alba Fucens, in the the Mediterranean, but real walls composed of huge Fucino basin, remained almost intact after the terrible many sided stone blocks and polygonal face laid earthquake of Avezzano in 1915, or the many walls without mortar but with the technique of in Greece, where earthquakes are frequent the “hyperstatic” arch. In building and very intense. I have been able science, hyperstatic is called to document such structures the system or the material all over the Mediterranean

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1 Autoritratto di Giuseppe Mazzei 3 La monografia su Giuseppe 2 Alba Fucens: arco iperstatico Mazzei a cura di Lucio Scardino che ha retto al grande sisma del (1993) 1915 4 Il podio del tempio di Apollo a Delfi in opera poligonale ad archi iperstatici

2 area, sometimes discovering some “new” ones, after observing every single detail which can be useful to detect the presence of such walls in very area I have 4 visited. Those structures, often really huge, like in in the province of , where the western polygonal architecture also played a sacramental role, spur reaches 23 metres of height, have been a major as one can see in the case of the Sanctuary of Fortuna defensive feature of the many civilizations of the Primigenia at Palestrina and of the Temple of Jupiter Mediterranean area from proto-history to the early Anxur (Youth) at Terracina or the famous base of the Ellenistic Age. Anyway, this technique is present all temple of Apollo at Delphi. over the world, especially in South America with the I had known the Elban artist Giuseppe Mazzei for a typical pre-Colombian architectures of Mexico, nearly long time, and above all I know his beautiful oil on a sort of engineering-architectonic “koinè”. Despite canvas painting called “Le saline Elbane” (“The Elban having a primary defensive function, the megalithic- salt mines”), housed in the Pinacoteca Foresiana at Portoferraio. It attests the presence of salt mines similar to the ones of Trapani, which long, during the Grand Ducal period, supplied the big salt storehouse of Empoli, today home of the Glass Museum. But I had never had the opportunity to explore his life as an artist and his works. This opportunity has arisen thanks to my dear friend Gloria Peria, in charge of the coordination of Elba’s historical archives, who gave me a rare monographic publication of 1993, edited by reviewer Lucio Scardino from Ferrara, about the life and works of the painter (b. Portoferraio, 1867 – d. Fiume, 1944). An exceptionally precocious artist, who was annoyed about the risk of not being remembered by anyone, since he had no official reviews despite

Article in english Artikle auf deutsch ubersetzt 3 www.milliarium.it/elba/art8.html MILLIARIUM 73 Megalithic polygonal walls on Elba

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5 La Porta dei Leoni sull’acropoli di Hattusas, tratto megalitico poligona- 6 Mura di Micene, il tratto restaurato in età Geometrica presso la fonte le di età protostorica (Altopiano Anatolico, Turchia) Perseia (Argolide, Grecia)

having taken part in important exhibitions with many While reading carefully his biography, I was stuck by works. That’s why he once said to his son Leo, “they the episode, similar to one in Giotto’s life, when in should erect a monument to the unknown painter, so I 1880 he, just a 13-year-old boy, headed from Poggio, would at least be satisfied of being a part of it and of where he was on holiday, to imposing Mount Capanne being recognised as an artist”. Mazzei deserves a better with his paints and brushes, and there he portrayed consideration, and his remains should be brought back a farmer resting near some rocks. It happened that to from Kosala churchyard in Fiume. Telemaco Signorini, visiting Giuseppe’s father, Luigi Now the reader may be wondering what the topic Mazzei, on Elba, passed by that place and saw the mentioned in the title of this article has to do with the young boy painting. Signorini realized that he was life and works of an Elban painter lived between the talented for that activity, which he could better learn at 19th and the 20th centuries. But here is the amazing an Accademia di Belle Arti. Indeed, he first attended the thing. Academy in Genua and then some courses about figure

7 Foto del piccolo quadro dipinto da Giuseppe Mazzei all’età di 13 anni, presso la località Il Poggio, citato nel testo dell’articolo

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8 Acropoli di Zarax, l’autore di fronte al tratto megalitico poligonale ad 9 Il tratto rimasto in opera poligonale dell’acropoli di Asine di età tardo- archi iperstatici di età tardo geometrica (Laconia, Grecia) arcaica (Argolide, Grecia) and nude at the Academy of Florence under Giovanni artist, in order to get my original, personal impression Fattori’s guidance. Reviewer Lucio Scardino reports: “... without being influenced by reviews about that painter. frutto dell’incontro a small oil painting with a farmer So I did with the monograph on Giuseppe Mazzei. seated among basalt rocks, which makes a particular When I came across the picture of the small painting contrast with Nature – terrific – towering over him: mentioned above, I was literally startled because I the naive romanticism of an adolescent, improved by immediately recognized the rocks depicted behind a taste for the “blot”, probably influenced by the the farmer as being the ones of a complex megalithic enchanted wanderer Pygmalion”. The small painting polygonal wall! I had to dampen my enthusiasm and (13 x 18 cm.), “Elban landscape”, painted with mixed great emotion in order to better evaluate my “discovery”. technique on cardboard paper, went lost, so we only But the reader might object that an artist, even though have its photographic reproduction. I usually check the in his early production, can afford any “fantastic” catalogue of the works mentioned in the publications, license, so we shouldn’t think of a real reproduction of when I intend to analyse the work of a contemporary the surrounding landscape and environment. 10 La stessa foto del quadro di Mazzei con l’elaborazione grafica con evidenziate 4 strutture poligonali ad arco iperstatico individuate dall’autore

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PARAGONI TRA ARCHI IPERSTATICI

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Anyway, this is not the case due to the period and the was the written by a learned and independent woman, style, as well as due to some details that a 13-year- too atypical for the Italian society of her time. Later old boy living in the late 19th century couldn’t have Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821-1891) published the “five recognised or depicted. volumes of Italian walks” (1856-1877), which were only He had been living in Genua for a long time, after an exterior description of the town walls of (part a short stay in France, in a family of traders, hence of Latius vetus and the one adiectum, that is added) mentally far from those megalithic walls that can be seen during her Grand Tour in Italy. The first official seen in other places in Italy, which might have inspired excavations by the Italian State, under the Ministry of him. In Genua are only some traces of Roman walls. Public Education, were conducted in the early 20th What most stuck me was the plenty of details about century at Norma (the ancient Norba) in the province the wall depicted in his small painting, which was of Latina, by Luigi Pigorini, who studied the foundation actually impossible to reproduce without having seen layers. Only in 1957, the archaeologist Giuseppe Lugli it directly in Italy or in Greece. The very young age (1890-1967), published “La tecnica edilizia romana of the artist may exclude that he would directly know con particolare riguardo a Roma e ”, where he huge town walls, which in 1880 were still little known. recognized the four ways of building techniques for The very first studies about megalithic walls were by megalithic walls, which need to be updated though. Marianna Candidi Dionigi, painter and archaelogist, So the lack of bibliography and iconographic material (1756-1826), in her volume “Viaggi in alcune città about town walls in 1880 couldn’t have allowed del Lazio che diconsi fondate dal Re saturno” (1809), Giuseppe Mazzei to paint them in such a realistic way. which also features her great sketches of the town walls Now we need to have a look at the details of both of . This work wasn’t much appreciated since it the painting and the so called polygonal building

11-12 Elaborazione grafica dei 13 Elaborazione grafica di un par- 14 Elaborazione grafica di un particolari di due archi iperstatici ticolare di un arco iperstatico della particolare di un arco iperstatico riconoscibili nel quadro di Mazzei Porta dei Leoni di Hattusas del Nekromanteion

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15 technique. and undulatory vibrations. The system consists of The figure of the peasant (if it is really a peasant. I grossly modelled stones (generally by means of cutting am not totally convinced about that, because of his tools), which form blind arches on several parallel, clothes) is perfectly proportioned with the average staggered alignments, in order to make up what I like size of the stone blocks (about 1-2 m long) of a calling “corollas”, with petals and central pistils closing megalithic polygonal town circuit, which here results the pseudo-arch. They were usually built exploiting to be approximately 15-20 metres long and 6-7 metres a quarry placed on a hilltop, then worked and laid high in its highest point. The style of the wall face, on an fitting foundation after having the stones slide which is illogically very oblique, isn’t atypical but downwards, since they were huge blocks weighting perfectly consistent with building on steep slopes, as tons and as big as a medium-powered car. we can see in the town walls of Segni in Latium, near The possible existence of a wall circuit of this type Porta Saracena (Saracena Gate). Even admitting the questions the presence of some ancient civilizations on coincidental reproduction of a polygonal town circuit, the island. First of all, we have to say that the Etruscans this could be explained with the presence of a detail or didn’t build their own walls with this technique, since of a part of the wall itself. The picture actually shows they preferred the isodomic or pseudo-isodomic one at least six hyperstatic arches (I found four of them), (like the one used at Roselle). Neither in Volterra nor regularly aligned or superimposed, to build the real in Veio, in Vetulonia or Cerveteri, but not even in the megalithic polygonal system. small hilltop fortresses like Monte Castello di Procchio The polygonal technique is based on the “engineer” or Castiglione di San Martino on Elba are found walls principle of the hyperstatic arch, which is a blind arch that partly resemble the ones built according to this featuring several factors of stability thanks to a complex technique. Also the walls of the proto-historic village system of joints between the stones that allows to of the Valle dell’Inferno (the “Valley of Hell”) or the relieve the strengths due to the weight force of the ones of “Le Mure” above Pomonte, at the western foot wall. This technologically advanced system, which of Mount Capanne, between Mount Cenno and the surely inspired the creation of the arch, allows to resist Colle della Grottaccia aren’t to be assimilated to the to landslides caused by shakes and both sussultatory megalithic walls. Two exceptions of the Etruscan area

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are the walls of Orbetello, where the fortifications are the regions of the Ernici and of the Volsci up to Rocca built according to the polygonal megalithic technique, d’Arce and , travelling through the ancient which is officially dated to the 5th century BC (yet, Trisulti (today’s Ciociaria, in Latium). There are also there are further interesting suggestions following examples in Spoleto, in the Albornoz fort, in Amelia, the surveys performed by former Superintendent dr. etc. The archaeologist Filippo Coarelli claims that these Francesco Nicosia along with ing. Mario Pincherle, both walls were erected by Greek “itinerant” craftsmen in the recently passed away),and to those of Saturnia, in a very 7th-6th centuries BC, even if the construction times of short length near Porta Romana, on the Via Clodia. The these works were so long that we cannot assume these polygonal walls are mainly attested in the Greek area skilled workers directly made them. This technique was (not much in the Greek colonies, with the exception of probably reused in the Italic area during the Roman Naxos in Sicily) and in the Anatolian area (the Lions republican time, but actually never used in Rome for Gate in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite empire, the reinforcements or restoration works of still existing modern Bogazkoy), embracing a time span which goes walls or even in Latin colonial areas like the town from the late Bronze Age to the whole archaic period, of Cosa near Ansedonia. The Syracusan presence on with a few examples in late-classical age (like the case Elba couldn’t have inspired these walls, since Syracuse of Asìne, in Argolide). But the height of the use of this seems not to have adopted these building techniques, technique is the geometrical-late geometrical period, preferring an isodomic square work for the 34 km when it became much widespread, as it is possible to long town walls. Maybe an older Greek influence, the see in the enlargements and in the restoration work of one of the first colonisations, may have inspired the the northern and eastern walls (near the Perseia spring) architectonic style, directly or indirectly. Anyway, the of Micene or in the base of the temple of Apollo at presence and above all the origins of the polygonal Delfi, in the almost unknown acropolis of Zarax in technique with hyperstatic arch in middle-southern Laconia, or at the Nekromanteion, on the Acheron Italy are still today one of the questions, which modern River in Epyrus. In Italy, megalithic walls are attested archaeology hasn’t been able yet to give an answer. in the base of the retaining walls of the Sardinian The point is now to find where this structure may nuraghi, even if they don’t feature a particularly refined stand and whether it still exists, given the strong polygonal technique, but above all in the Italic area, in human presence on the island in the last decades.

16 La struttura megalitica poligo- 17 Tratto Superstite in opera 18 Opera poligonale delle mura 19 Tratto delle mura a Rocca nale nella parte basale del nuraghe poligonale della Porta Romana della città di Orbetello (Toscana, d’Arce in Ciociaria (Lazio, Italia) Succuronis (Sardegna, Italia) sulla via Clodia a Saturnia (Toscana, Italia) 20 Tratto delle mura a Trisulti (Tre Italia) Salti) in Ciociaria (Lazio, Italia) 78 MILLIARIUM Megalithic polygonal walls on Elba

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In the biography of the artist it’s mentioned a trail has given an interpretation other than mine, or maybe between Poggio and Mount Capanne, though without they lie ruined and unrecognizable, considering that a specifying its direction. Another element needing part of the walls (the ones above and to the left of further investigation is the fact that the biography also the “peasant”) feature two free hyperstatic arches, not mentions Poggio di Marciana Marina as a place where linked to any others, therefore more subject to failures. the young artist used to go, while we know that today’s Probably, we should look for the traces of these walls in Poggio is actually in the area belonging to the town of the area around Poggio or downwards. Marciana. The autonomous town of Marciana Marina Hopefully, we have helped to stirring new ideas up was indie established in 1884, so after he did the in archaeological research on the island, so we can painting. Is it the case of a typing mistake of the author say that if the presence of these megalithic walls or does the microtoponym “Poggio” really exist, which was confirmed, we would have new developments in may be closer to the marina, where the vineyards were the knowledge about the activity of workers, who located? Anyway, this detail would only say that Mazzei were highly specialized in defensive or sacramental was looking for scenic views (like in another painting, structures, a further element in support of the great where the village of Poggio is seen from above), but strategic value of Elba. he may have also chosen other itineraries. The certain Investigations may start! thing is that he couldn’t walk so far from home, since he needed the time necessary to draw and to paint. Perhaps somebody has already found those walls and

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