ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK OF SERRA DI VAGLIO: A FORTIFIED SETTLEMENT OF ANCIENT ITALY. IL PARCO ARCHEOLOGICO DI SERRA DI VAGLIO: UN INSEDIAMENTO FORTIFICATO DELL'ITALIA ANTICA

The archaeological area of Serra di Vaglio dating back to the the 5th-4th century to. C. dominates the Basento valley and is a fortified settlement built with local stone and raw earth armed with straw. Settlement remains characterize a fortified landscape at 1100 m. above sea level, that overlooks a hills series dominated by other city walls. This set of fortified landscapes testify to urban solutions of two cultures, the Lucanian and the Oscan. The boundary wall of Serra di Vaglio is seven kilometers long and made of large stone blocks laid in dry-stone square work. The rigorous geometry and the fine workmanship of the blocks are the work of skilled workers, as documented by the initials imprinted on the faces of the stone blocks. At the same time, they testify Oscan alphabet used by local people. The fortification has three doors, placed in strategic positions. Thanks to the discovery of the western gate it was possible to define the construction phases of the walls. There are surprising similarities with other settlements of Italic populations, which reinforce the correspondence between the culture of living and the culture of building. The formal, linguistic and constructive principles go beyond the identity values of the place and unite other local Italic cultures, before succumbing to the dominion of Rome. The construction of the walls is typically Greek with a double curtain of dry-laid blocks. The front facing is made of squared sandstone blocks, well worked and marked with quarry marks in the Greek alphabet. They are placed in horizontal rows. Instead, the internal facing has irregular stones. Between the two vestments there is a filling in earth and stones. Surprising is the analogy between the sandstone blocks of the settlement of Serra di Vaglio with those in tuff of the Greek walls of Naples. In fact, even the latter are well squared and present the characteristic signs of the ancient Greek quarrymen, with the letters of the Greek alphabet. The fortified settlement of Serra di Vaglio is the subject of innovative experimental archeology interventions during the 1980s. Today access to the site is difficult and additional enhancement strategies are needed for the dissemination of knowledge and for reception.