Pisticci
An Oenotrian and Lucanian center 30.6 km S of Matera on a hill overlooking the ancient territory of Metapontion and a large part of the valley of the Basento river. It is covered by the modern town. The origins of the native settlement date to Iron Age II, but there are traces of a weak settlement dating to Iron Age I. In the second half of the 8th c. B.C., the settlement was consolidated on the NW end of the hill and, so far as can now be determined, gradually expanded over the remainder of the land extending to the N and E. On the extreme E end, around and below the mediaeval site of Santa Maria del Casale, is the main necropolis (6th-5th c.). By this period, the site had been so permeated by the Greeks that it is to be considered more Greek than native. In this period it took on the appearance of a phrourion because of its division into parcels from the territory of Metapontion between the Bradano and Cavone rivers.
The same change can be seen in the other new centers that sprang up during the Iron Age in the vast Pisticci plain, particularly in the area of San Leonardo, San Teodoro, and San Basilio. At the end of the 6th c. and during the 5th c. B.C., all these new settlements were overspread by the coastal civilization and, more exactly, by the Metapontine civilization.
Contrary to what happened in other centers of the area under the influence of the Greek coastal colonies, the life of Pisticci and of the other smaller centers, except the hillside of Incoronata, assumed an ever more lively existence during the 5th c. B.C. until the end of that century. At that time proto-Italic ceramic shops probably developed at Pisticci itself or in its territory and their products spread throughout Lucania.
The tombs of Pisticci are among the richest in bronzes and in Attic vases dating to the end of the 6th c. and throughout the 5th c. B.C. The tombs are like those at Metapontion, but their grave gifts are far richer. Helmets and weapons, certainly products of some native hellenized center, are totally lacking at Metapontion. The greatest prosperity came during the first quarter of the 4th c. when the necropolis was filled with vases and bronze objects, either imported or made in the area. The production of local ceramic ware started at the beginning of the 8th c. and continued until the end of the 4th c. or the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. Thus far, no trace of life during the Roman period has appeared.
BIBLIOGRAPHYNSc (1902) 312ff; (1904) 196ff; (1947) 128-30; (1969) 139-57; D. Adamesteanu, “Problèmes de la zone archéologique de Métaponte,” RA (1967) 28; id., BdA 1 (1967) 48; G. F. Lo Porto, BdA 2-3 (1968) 115-22; J. de La Genière, “Contribution à l'étude des relations entre Grecs et indigènes sur la Mer Jonienne,” MélRome 82 (1970) 624-30; F. G. Lo Porto, “Civilta indigena e penetrazione greca nella Lucania orientale,” MAL 48 (1973) 154-81.
D. ADAMESTEANU