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Poggiomarino,
the harbour of Pompeii
An
extraordinary discovery, an installation of the II
millennium B.C., has come to light in Longola
– Poggiomarino, a few kilometers north-east of Pompeii:
an archipelago formed by islets and
artificial channels that allow to
suppose the meaningful existence of a river
harbour on the Sarno.
The
excavation, directed by Soprintendenza
Archeologica di Pompei for
the study of the territory in relationship to the construction of the
depuratore on the river Sarno, is
progressively showing a habitations
superimposed one to the other, datable from the II
millennium B.C. up to the whole VII
century B.C..
It’s
the first time that in Campania it
is noticed a continuity of installation from 1500
B.C. to 700 B.C. with
the presence of palafitte, recovered till now only in the North
Italy. Discoverings that open new sceneries and
interpretations of the history of the whole southern Italy.
The
place is characterized by small islets
delimited by channels, the edges of
which have been strengthened with trunks of tree thickened vertically,
then replaced by square beams. The surface of the islets,
improved and raised again with varied techniques during the centuries
of installation, preserves the rests of the huts
and varied furnishings that confirm the presence of a community
devoted also to the workmanship of the bronze and the amber.
The
place, according to a first reconstruction of the researchers, has been
abandoned, because of a flood,
at the beginning of the VI century B.C.;
and it is really from the migration of these inhabitants and of those
of the superior valley of the Sarno
that the ancient Pompeii could have
been born.
The
site, that is stretched on a surface than at least 7
hectares, appears as one of the discoveries with most relief
in the last 50 years. It is
attested in fact a housing continuity of almost a millennium
(XV - VI century B.C.) that it doesn't find comparisons in the panorama
of the history in Campania and that
results an exceptional case within the European
history.
For
the first time, it is individualized and dug out, in fact, an
installation area coeval to the graves of the age
of the iron in the valley of the Sarno
(IX - VII century B.C.) and that fills the cognitive gap between the
initial phases of the age of the bronze,
recovered in a large extent of Campania and testified besides in this
zone from the villages of Nola, Palma
Campania and Sarno and
the foundation of Pompeii (beginnings
of the VI century B.C.).
The
installation typology appears of extreme interest
with the occupation of reserved areas, real islets,
results of work of canalization and
reclamation that attest an elevated
knowledge of hydraulic engineering
and a careful selection of materials used for the realization of
housing structures.
The
exceptional state of maintenance of
the woods finds comparisons only with some lake and river sites of northern
Italy and continental Europe
and has allowed the recovery of a canoe.
The quantity and the quality of the finds, united to the recovery of
numerous semi-manufactured objects
and of discards of workmanship (of bronze, iron, amber and glassy
pasta) make Poggiomarino an
important center of production and exchange of prestige goods.
Particularly
interesting are the data that allow to reconstruct the ancient environmental
picture characterized from the presence of thick woods of oaks
and the abundant wild fauna (wild
boars, bears, roe-bucks, bucks).
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