Ancient Topography of the Mid Calore Valley: the City of Aeclanum and its Territory Immacolata Ditaranto Laboratory of Ancient Topography, Archaeology and Photogrammetry (LabTAF), University of Salento, Lecce, Italy email: [email protected] Abstract Keywords: Ancient Topography; Aerial Archaeol- ogy; Archaeological Map; Photogrammetry; Field The study area is located in the mid Calore valley, Survey. between the Calore and the Ufita Rivers. From prehistoric times, the territory has constituted an important crossroad among Campania, Apulia and The Archaeological Map of the City: Lucania, ensuring a connection between the Tyrre- Methodology and Results nian and Adriatic coast. The importance of the area grew with the construction of the via Appia, in the Most frequently the lack of suitable cartography third century BC. Along its route, as documented for archaeological research on the ground deter- by itinerary sources, in the early first century BC mines the need to create cartographic bases from the municipium of Aeclanum (Passo di Mirabella – scratch. All the more true and necessary when Mirabella Eclano, AV) was founded. A significant the research is related to ancient cities where the part of the research project regards this city: amount of remains on the surface is usually such archaeological field surveys were carried out in to require a base-map characterised by a good the urban area and along the city walls, still par- detail in scale and themes. The new aerophoto- tially preserved, with the aim to clarify its route. grammetric map of Aeclanum (Passo di Mirabella, The new collected data were georeferenced in an Mirabella Eclano, AV) was created, in the first aerophotogrammetric map, together with the data place, to fill in for the lack of updated cartogra- deriving from 1960s archaeological excavations phy. The map was done in a large-scale (1:2,000) and systematic study of archival documents of the and suitable for the positioning of archaeological Superintendence of Salerno, Avellino, Benevento features discovered during the activities of pro- and Caserta Province. The map was realised in the tection carried out over the last 80 years (such as LabTAF of the University of Salento and consti- the systematic excavations in the urban area and tutes the first large scale archaeological map of necropolises) by the Soprintendenza per i Beni the ancient city. Systematic archaeological field Archeologici di Salerno, Avellino, Benevento e walking was carried out on the territory corre- Caserta. Second, the map constitutes an indispen- sponding partially to the ager Aeclanensis. It aimed sable tool during archaeological field walking for at the reconstruction of the ancient topography of the correct positioning of new evidence surveyed the territory surrounding the Roman site thanks along the city walls, in the urban and suburban to the large number of settlements documented. area (Ditaranto 2013). The ultimate goal of the These settlements attest to the inhabitation of research was to allow an overall understanding the area since the prehistoric and proto-historic of the data, overcoming the fragmentation of the times to the Medieval period. All collected data are knowledge by integrating all data collected (fig. georeferenced in the archaeological map that also 1). Also integrated into the map were all traces allows diachronic analyses of the territory. identified in the rich data-set of aerial photographs available, starting from the historic ones of 1950s LAC2014 Proceedings | DOI 10.5463/lac.2014.36 1 Fig. 1. A, Detail of archaeological map of Aeclanum: 1, baths; 2, residential quarter; 3, Paleochristian basilica; 6072, 6074, 6075) when the via Herdonitana also 4, macellum; 5, “fountain”; 6, “area of Theatres”; 7, was paved (CIL IX 1156, 1175, 1414). The last one Sanctuary of Mephitis. B, Aeclanum in an historical aerial directly connected Aeclanum, probably the caput photographs (ESACTA 1974, phot. 1736, strip 7). viae, to Herdonia. The knowledge of the urban area and city walls, after the nineteenth century studies (Guarini 1812; Ruggiero, 1888: 480-83) and those conducted to the oblique images collected during low flies in during the first decades of the twentieth century the last years. (Sgobbo, 1930: 400-11; 1931) results from the ar- The urban area of Aeclanum covers approx- chaeological excavations carried out in the second imately 22 ha on a plateau with a characteristic half of the 1950s of the twentieth century (Ono- triangular shape with the tip pointing south-west, rato 1960). Until now, several excavations of the defined by walls in opus incertum, only partially Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Salerno, preserved, erected after the establishment of Avellino, Benevento e Caserta continue to involve the municipium (CIL IX 1140; Sgobbo, 1931: 6-8) the main monuments of the Roman and Late which took place after the conquest by Silla (App. Antique city (Lo Pilato, 2010 with previous bibliog- 1.51). The city is mentioned in literary sources and raphy; Nava, 2011: 748-49). itineraria from Late Republican times with some Archaeological field surveys, together with the little variations that mark the progressive change analysis of a rich data-set of aerial photographs, from an Archaic diction, Aeculanum, to the consol- have allowed the addition of new data on the city idated one of Aeclanum (Colonna, 1960: 207-208; walls, about two kilometres long and only partially Hulsen, 1894: 443-44). In the Republican period preserved on the western side. Nevertheless, it the city assumes considerable importance within is easily seen in the air photographs due to the the communication network between Campania orography and the peculiar shape of the plateau on and Apulia, being crossed by the via Appia, which which the city lies. These data were well integrat- was renewed in the mid Imperial Age (CIL IX ed with those coming from archival documents 2 LAC2014 Proceedings | DOI 10.5463/lac.2014.36 Fig. 2. View of archaeological remains at Aeclanum from south-east, taken during a low fly on May 2010: A, baths; the west is the only one that is non-orthogonal as B, residential quarter; C, Paleochristian basilica. compared to the others, assuming an orientation slightly divergent with respect to the internal walls and giving the block a trapezoidal shape. This of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di anomaly is easily interpreted as a ruse adopted to Salerno, Avellino, Benevento e Caserta, describing overcome the extreme irregularity that charac- some stretches of fortifications and two towers on terises the morphology of ground surface at this the western side of the perimeter. point, or as a change of orientation in a phase of Some issues remain open and will only be urban renewal. answered with new excavation campaigns. Among Furthermore, it is conceivable that the monu- these issues, the most important are the layout of mental buildings of the Roman Imperial period that the urban area, the correct location of the forum, are visible were conditioned in their orientation, at and the area of the theatre and amphitheatre. The the time of construction, from pre-existing struc- aerial photographs show the absence of a con- tures, such as those recently discovered and dated stant orientation of the visible structures and the between the third and second centuries BC (Colucci presence, on the contrary, of individual areas of Pescatori, 1991: 99; Di Giovanni, 1996: 241, 250). the city oriented in dependence of orography. In Moreover, the orientation of the block is slightly the residential district, archaeological excavations rotated to the north compared to the thermal baths, have identified a block determined by four roads, located on the hill occupied by the western sector of which two basolate, which seem to be charac- of the city, from which the residential district is terised by a side of m 50 circa (Di Giovanni, 1996: divided by a cleft (fig. 2). This orientation may have 242). The paved road that borders the block to been influenced by the direction of the via Appia in LAC2014 Proceedings | DOI 10.5463/lac.2014.36 3 Fig. 3 here: Fig. 3. The territory of Aeclanum in a detail of Map 15 of Atlante Geografico del Regno di Napoli by Rizzi Most part of the territory was investigated by Zannoni (1808). direct and systematic field survey using large and medium-scale cartography (1:5,000 and 1:25,000). The investigated area, which covers this sector of the urban area, as at Herdonia, where approximately 74 km2 from the Calore to the Ufita buildings, including the basilica and baths, follow Rivers, had been focused on in the past only by the route of via Traiana, modifying also the size and sporadic field surveys. The aim was to achieve an shape of the blocks (Mertens, 1971: 11). integral knowledge of the considerable material and settlements present in the territory and to allow a historic reconstruction from pre-historic Exploring and Reconstructing the Ancient times to the Medieval period. In addition, all Landscape of Aeclanum the collections preserved in the Archaeological Museum Irpino in Avellino and in the Civic Museum The central role that the city plays from the Late in Mirabella Eclano were studied, as also the Republican period, with the creation of a municipi- two largest private collections housed in Bonito um along the via Appia and afterwards with the in- (AV). Moreover, using this perspective, the site of crease of Colonia, undoubtedly invests the dynam- provenance of the archaeological evidence found ics of population in the territory. The boundaries in the territory of Grottaminarda and unpublished, of the territory relating to the colony are unknown preserved in the Antiquarium at Grottaminarda (AV) but they probably extended beyond the Ufita River, has been carefully positioned on the map. Finally, to the east, while to the west, the Calore River may the archaeological map of the area converged have actually been the boundary with the agri of data already in the SIT of LabTAF and released Beneventum and Abellinum.