doi: 10.2143/AWE.12.0.2994444 AWE 12 (2013) 71-116 THE CONTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH ON INCORONATA TO THE PROBLEM OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREEKS AND NON-GREEKS DURING PROTO-COLONIAL TIMES MARIO DENTI* Abstract Excavations at Incoronata (region of Basilicata, southern Italy) provide an exceptional record of the meeting of non-Greek and Greek peoples between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, revealing the crucial importance of this site in our understanding of the relations, in proto- colonial times, between the indigenous Iron Age communities established throughout the Ionian coastal belt of Oenotria and the first groups of Greek peoples coming from the Aegean. Following the results of research and excavations over the last ten years by the University of Rennes 2, there have been marked changes in the archaeological framework of the site, as well as the more general heuristic view. The time is ripe to give a progress report on the work, since it concerns a ‘cross-over’ area representing an important phase in the development of Mediterranean archaeology, which is especially significant in character- ising the transformation of working methods and philosophy of research applied to studies of the Iron Age. Historical and Geographical Context When the archaeological expedition of the University of Rennes 2 resumed excava- tions on the hillside of Incoronata, in the torrid heat of September 2003, everyone was convinced that this archaeological site had already yielded up almost all its secrets. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, it had indeed been the target of several excavation campaigns by the University of Milan, under the direction of Piero Orlandini. Many publications, as well as the complex interpretative discussions which followed, have revealed the crucial importance of this site in our understand- ing of the relations between the indigenous Iron Age communities established throughout the Ionian coastal belt of southern Italy (Oenotria) and the first groups of Greek peoples coming from the Aegean. Following the results of research and excavations over the last ten years, there have been marked changes in the archaeo- logical framework of the site, as well as the more general heuristic view. We consider * Translation by Michael Carpenter. The Editor-in-Chief is most grateful to the late David Ridg- way for editing the translation of this paper. 96073_AWE_12_04_Denti.indd 71 24/10/13 10:46 72 M. DENTI that the time is ripe to give a progress report on the work, since it concerns a ‘cross- over’ area representing an important phase in the development of Mediterranean archaeology, which is especially significant in characterising the transformation of working methods and philosophy of research applied to studies of the Iron Age. The small hill of Incoronata is about 60 m above sea level, overlooking the southerly approaches to the Basento river valley, 7.5 km from the present-day coast- line of Basilicata (Figs. 1 and 2, A). Excavations at this site provide an exceptional record of the earliest meeting of non-Greek and Greek peoples between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 7th century BC.1 To place this phenomenon in its historical and cultural context, we need to highlight some essential features, specific to this area, which remain implicit in the analysis of the archaeological record undertaken throughout our study. The ancient coastal regions of Basilicata during the Iron Age – the territories of Siritide and Metapontino – are defined at least by the following characteristics: – following the Bronze Age, continuity is maintained in the density of relations with the Aegean world; – the cultural dynamism and high degree of development of the indigenous com- munities that occupied these regions during the Iron Age; – the ‘non-colonial’ (or, if one prefers, ‘proto-colonial’) territorial and institutional context of the ‘experiments’ that the Greeks carried out in these regions; – the ‘exceptional’ nature of the archaeological record concerning the Incoronata hillside, characterised by the incomparable quality and quantity of the data with respect to any other known site in the surrounding area at this time. We will see that this exceptional status, far from being a generic argument, is actually an important concept with a particular significance in antiquity. In the area studied, the meeting and the earliest relations between Greeks and indigenous peoples in the Iron Age followed on from a phase of particularly close contacts that were established during the Bronze Age with the Mycenaean world, as shown by the remarkable evidence coming from the settlements of Termitito (Fig. 1), San Marco and San Vito. The fact that most of the excavated Mycenaean ceramics were produced on the spot supports the non-episodic nature of this occu- pation.2 We note that the protagonists of post-Mycenaean history will probably remain strongly influenced by this phase of cultural contact on several levels. This is indicated, for example, by the choice of certain vase forms or the specific imagery of painted ceramics manufactured at Incoronata (sometimes directly evoking models 1 The bibliography in the footnotes is kept to a minimum. 2 Peroni 1994; Carter 2005, 52. 96073_AWE_12_04_Denti.indd 72 24/10/13 10:46 THE CONTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH ON INCORONATA ... 73 from the Bronze Age), and also the mythical-historical accounts transmitted by ancient sources, as these would seem to suggest. We should point out that, in this sense, the Oenotrian communities were perceived, in Greek historiography, as being of Trojan origin. From the Iron Age, archaeological evidence attests the existence of a complex relationship between Greeks and indigenous people, which appears in an historical and geographical context unanimously considered as predating the colonial phe- nomenon. While Tarento, to the north, and Sybaris, to the south, had already been founded towards the end of the 8th century BC, the coastal belt of Oenotria only shows evidence for a true colony at the end of the following century, with the establishment of Achaean Metapontion/Metaponto. However, we should bear in mind the date suggested by Eusebius of Caesarea for the foundation of Metaponto (773 or 772 BC),3 which now should perhaps be partially reconsidered in the light of the recent archaeological discoveries relating to a Greek presence prior to the documentary evidence of the colonial polis (dating from the 6th century BC). More- over, such a date corresponds curiously well to the earliest occupation of the Incor- onata hillside. Indeed, several lines of evidence point to the presence, in the Metapontino, of an important Greek component at some time before the colonial phase, throughout the 7th century BC. Apart from the data from Incoronata (which is the subject of this article), the valley of the Basento recently yielded the remains of two Greek dwellings situated just at the foot of the Incoronata plateaux (Fig. 2, D).4 ‘Hut dwellings’ of possible mixed Graeco-indigenous character5 were revealed during excavations within the future urban area of Metaponto (land owners: Andrisani and Lazzazzera), while remarkable evidence of ritual practices (Daedalic statuettes, decorated friezes made of terracotta dated to the 7th century BC) is found at several sites all around Incoronata, towards the valley of the Basento and the sea: even in Metaponto, the Incoronata-San Teodoro area (Fig. 2, C–D) and the sanctuary of San Biagio, located on the other side of the Basento valley6 (Fig. 2, E). Therefore, in the current state of our knowledge, the archaeological evidence of this ‘proto-colonial’ phase seems to lie within a framework marked by the presence of core areas of Greek settlement – or at any rate relatively stable occupation – dating from the beginning of the 7th century BC. This historical framework (which is therefore also epistemological) depends in any event on a territorial context that does not yet incorporate the 3 Chronicon, ed. Helm, Berlin 1924, 181; Bérard 1957, chapter IV. 4 De Siena 2000; Denti 2007. 5 De Siena 1986b. 6 Metaponto: Sestieri 1940; Incoronata-San Teodoro: Nava 2003, 671, pl. XXXVI.2; San Biagio: Olbrich 1979. 96073_AWE_12_04_Denti.indd 73 24/10/13 10:46 74 M. DENTI Fig. 1: Map of Basilicata showing main sites dating from the 9th to the 6th centuries BC (after Denti 2009b). Fig. 2: Map of area around Incoronata. A = hill of Incoronata ‘greca’; B = Masseria dell’ Incoronata, or ‘Incoronata indigena’; C = Incoronata–San Teodoro; D = Greek dwellings in the Basento valley; E = sanctuary of San Biagio (modified by M. Denti from a blow-up of an IGM map). 96073_AWE_12_04_Denti.indd 74 24/10/13 10:46 THE CONTRIBUTION OF RESEARCH ON INCORONATA ... 75 existence of a polis, and consequently the membership of a chora depending insti- tutionally on an urban space. During the period before the foundation of the col- ony, the Metapontino seems to have been occupied by scattered settlements of Greek peoples.7 In any case, the strong sacred connotation of most of the archaeo- logical finds of this period represents a major and highly relevant argument from this historical viewpoint, which we need to reconsider. The absence of a ‘politically’ determined Greek component appears directly related to the intensity and the quality of the indigenous presence along the whole of the Ionian coast of present-day Basilicata.8 To obtain some idea of the level of sociocultural development of these communities, it is sufficient to evoke the spec- tacular finds in the indigenous Iron Age necropoleis of Santa Maria D’Anglona, Chiaromonte and Alianello (Fig. 1). These grave-goods were discovered during the second half of the last century, and have literally made it possible to rewrite the early history of these areas.9 We do not yet have a sufficient knowledge of the ‘domestic’ aspects in the history of these elites (for example, the situation of Siris- Polieion [Fig.