Gruppo BISACCIA

The chosen asset is an archaeological museum, located inside the Ducal Castle of Bisaccia. It is full of finds deriving from the excavation campaigns carried out in the necropolises discovered in the Cimitero Vecchio area starting from the 70s of the XXI century. under the guidance of archaeologist Giancarlo Bailo Modesti.

In May 2009, the Civic Museum of Bisaccia was opened to the public on the ground floor of the Ducal Castle; inside a permanent exhibition entitled "At the origins of the Irpinia", displays the finds dating back to the first and second Iron Age, relating to the culture of Oliveto Citra-Cairano. The itinerary allows the history of the Irpinia community and of Bisaccia to be reconstructed through a chronological itinerary marked by the various funerary objects of fifty pit tombs, chosen from the approximately 150 found during the excavations carried out under the direction of prof. Giancarlo Bailo Modesto, on the hill of the Old Cemetery, located on the western side of the historic center of the city. The finds are arranged in three rooms of the museum and highlight, through the manufacturing transformation, the evolution over time of the community that settled in the area. Among the most significant objects we find the large jug in the characteristic biconical shape of the early Iron Age, the globular olla for foodstuffs, which defined the status of the owner, dating back to the last quarter of the eighth century BC. C., and the different types of fibulae. Inside the museum, one of the most important tombs was then reproduced on a 1:1 scale, that of the so-called "princess", whose rich equipment consists of objects and jewels of rare value such as amber necklaces, bronze pendants, numerous inflected bow fibulae and bracelets. In addition to the educational panels and captions, the visitor is informed by the continuous projection of an animated 3D video that reconstructs the primitive protohistoric settlement with scenes of daily life. The typical kits of this age have biconical shapes in unpurified ceramic and bronze objects, such as fibulae and weapons. From the second half of the eighth century B.C. they are enriched in objects, a mirror of the well-being that had pervaded society, perhaps due to new forms of exploitation of the earth. A prime example is the grave goods from tomb 76, which belonged to a young weaver, rich in personal ornaments, emblem of the high status of those who had the privilege of manufacturing fabrics. As regards the first half of the VII century B.C. the necropolis documents the transition from a society based on extended family groups and without differentiation at the social level, to a nobility-client system in which the economic differences were also social. All this is testified by the kits: bracelets, earrings, bule, pendants, rings and imported achromatic and decorated ceramics, which testify to the existence of commercial relations with nearby Daunia and the Tyrrhenian coast. A nucleus of burials relating to the noble group that "governed" the indigenous community of Bisaccia was also identified. The last room displays personal ornaments and objects of common use, weapons, as well as tomb 82, which belonged to a woman, whose dowry consists of very precious bronze jewels. Emblematic is the section dedicated to the class of fibulae, objects used in both women's and men's clothing. In order to make the archaeological heritage contained within the Museum fully usable, this last room provides for the performance of educational activities in which multimedia plays a fundamental role.

Preparation by the Director of the Museum the Archaeologist Dr. Giampiero Galasso.

Museum installation: May 2009

Archaeological Museum of Bisaccia inside the Ducal Castle (C.so Romuleo)

Property of MIBACT (Ministry of Culture)

The state of conservation is perfect, the scientific team takes care of the finds with great care. In the early Iron Age the grave goods are generally quite poor and not particularly exuberant; ornamental objects are extremely rare: in fact, only functional ornaments are found, such as the brooch that was used to fasten the dress on the chest. In addition to the brooch, women rarely have a few small rings or bronze buttons, but on the whole they are very sober outfits. Then there is the ceramic kit, which generally consists of the large biconical jug, inside which there is often a small ladle - a cup or a small amphora -, while, in the more exuberant kits, these two vases are adds a larger cup that we call bowl-ladle, because it represents an intermediate way between an open form and a closed form. The ceramic service was constantly placed at the feet of the deceased in both male and female tombs and the interesting fact, which sometimes is not found in other contemporary indigenous populations, is that it is always the same service for both the man and the the woman. The element that changes, however, and which distinguishes the two sexes already at the level of the examination of the objects at the moment of the final deposition, is instead represented by the ornamental objects, because men always have brooches of the winding arc type, while women women have the characteristic 'eyeglass' (or double spiral) fibula, which is one of the elements of the Adriatic tradition that refers to the Illyrian area and which does not appear in Pontecagnano or in the Sarno Valley. If the ceramic service at the feet of the deceased is the same for men and women, the man however is sometimes characterized by typically masculine objects such as weapons - the spearhead for example - or with tools functional to him, such as the razor . The woman, on the other hand, when she wants to connote her gender, presents the whorl whorl, which is an object connected with the art of spinning and, therefore, with typically female activities. The image of a not particularly rich community, which therefore did not have a large surplus which it could deprive itself of in order to donate it, for example, as funeral equipment to the dead, and a society all in all quite egalitarian. In reality, as modern anthropology teaches us, a truly egalitarian society probably never existed, but it can be said that it was egalitarian from the point of view of our modern categories, the economic categories through which we now measure equalities and inequalities. Probably, then, it should be considered that there are signs that have not remained with the archaeologist - remember that often not even all the objects of material culture that had possibly been placed in a tomb are found - or signs, not of material culture, which were not indicated in the tomb at the funerary level and which however signaled, within that community, a difference between individuals (think, for example, of the hypothesis that the corpses had tattoos, which we no longer have but which perhaps represented an element of prestige within the community). The difference passes instead, as often happens for these primitive populations, for the age groups. If we analyze the tombs of individuals who are not yet adults, therefore not yet initiated into the community, we see that even when they have a particularly exuberant supply of pottery, yes, they do have a cup and a large bowl, but they never have the typical service which includes the large pitcher and the ladle. They also have brooches, which connote, when they are older children, the male and female sex. But they are denied the service that identifies the adult individual. Sometimes they even lack the ceramic equipment and have only ornaments. After this second level of age groups, newborns or infants are placed at an even lower level, who are usually placed in small pits on the ground in which the skeleton often remains only in the form of small bits of bone. The newborn tombs are particularly interesting because inside they always and only have the large male brooch of the various types with a winding arch, present with specimens of normal dimensions - therefore not miniaturized for a child - if not, at times, even of considerable. There is also an example of an infant's grave in which the newborn was not placed in the grave, but there was a hole in the ground with a large vase containing the remains of the child. Together with the child's remains, an iron knife was found, absolutely improbable as an object of personal ornament for the newborn, an enormous snaking arched pin and a bronze spearhead, identical to that of the adult males.

This is the picture that from the beginning of culture, therefore from the full ninth century BC, continues until around the middle of the eighth century BC. Then suddenly, quite suddenly and without intermediate steps, the more recent tombs, which go from the second half of the eighth to the beginning of the seventh century BC, appear completely different. They are generally much richer in materials and above all it is observed that the ancient equivalence between the service of the man and the service of the woman at the feet of the dead has been broken. In fact, man constantly has a large olla at his feet which is no longer the biconical olla of the past but is the large olla for foodstuffs, the one that constitutes the symbol of agricultural wealth and the substantial good of the group; inside it is still often found the ladle, consisting of an amphora or a cup. Inside the funerary objects we also begin to find ceramic furnishings which are not produced locally but which are produced by nearby indigenous cultures, in particular from Daunia. And this tells us that we are now dealing with a community that produces even more than it needs for its own subsistence and that it has something that it can exchange. While the image of the previous community was that of a community aimed at survival and closed within itself, this is the image of a community in the process of development, which opens up to the outside and is in a moment of profound growth . At a given point, the Greek world needs raw materials and the surrounding populations are involved: one of the strong elements that interests the Greeks for some reason is the Daunia wool. Daunia and the Daunia centers are a short distance from Bisaccia and Bisaccia is located on the ancient sheep-tracks of pastoral tradition which already from the prehistoric age functioned precisely in reference to the phenomenon of transhumance. The populations of Oliveto-Cairano are located, as we said at the beginning, in strategic points, they control all the fundamental road junctions, not only the Ofanto-Sele system, but - Bisaccia in particular - also the river courses of the Calaggio, Carapelle and the various routes which then lead towards the coast of Campania and towards the Daunia. The Dauni were the producers of wool and that, since they were also linked by a common Illyrian origin by a sort of cultural similarity with the people of Oliveto-Cairano, collaboration with these populations came naturally to them. The people of Oliveto-Cairano took advantage of their strategic location to then act as mediators with regard to the coast, probably not directly with the Greeks, but with strong indigenous centres, such as Pontecagnano. But it is not only the wool trade that the people of Oliveto-Cairano bring into play, but also the high technological and artisanal capacity of their women. Indeed, at a certain moment, these women create real ateliers, small communities of immigrants in the centers closest to the market places, thus giving life to a complex system. From the middle of the 5th century BC. onwards they were crucial years for our areas and for Campania in general, because the phenomenon that has been called sannitization begins, which leads the whole region back to a high degree of political, cultural and military homogeneity. Moreover, our peoples are those suspected in the ancient sources for having supported the Samnite element of the interior: we know in fact that the Samnite transformation is also a seizure of the power of the Greek cities by the Samnite element, but it is probable - as evidenced by the sources - that to do this they also called together the tribes of the interior with which they had relations of solidarity. The culture of Oliveto-Cairano ends, but the ethnos of Oliveto-Cairano dissolves in this vaster moment of the Samnite transformation of Campania.