TIMMARI
Basilicata, Italy.
An eminence
formed by two narrowly separated ridges overlooking
the broad valley of the river Bradano, ca. 11 km W of
Matera. Excavations have confirmed the occupation of
the E ridge from the end of the 2d c. B.C. until the late
Middle Ages. In addition to a strategic location, a good
water supply, especially on the W side of the complex,
favored the establishment of settlements and towns.
The first traces of habitation go back to a settlement
in Neolithic times followed by another, datable to the
beginning of the Iron Age, which practiced cremation
burials with situlae in unrefined clay of the proto-Villanovian tradition. In the late burials from the first phase
of the Iron Age, tomb offerings of vases or bronzes are
very rare. In the second half of the 6th c. Greek imports
from the colony of Metapontion supplement indigenous
vases characterized by geometric decoration. This indirect contact with Greece is indicated by so-called Ionic
bowls and by a few fragments of black-figure vases.
Although there is no evidence for habitation during
the 5th c., the site was reoccupied in the second half of
the 4th c. B.C. when the houses were built with regular
blocks or with river stones. In this period, black-varnished
and black-figure Greek pottery from nearby Apulia
predominated. A sanctuary was built on the NW side
of the eminence around a spring; and on the highest
terrace of the E ridge a large villa. The statuettes from
the votive deposit of the sanctuary are local but conserve Tarantine-Metapontine characteristics. Habitation
continued, although on a reduced scale, into the Hellenistic-Roman period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. Ridola,
BPI 27 (1901) 37-41; Q.
Quagliati,
MonAnt 16 (1906) col. 5-166; D. Adamesteanu,
Atti IV Convegno Taranto (1965) 134-36; id.,
Popoli anellenici in Basilicata (1971) 39-44.
D. ADAMESTEANU
