habitat rupestre.pdf - Società Friulana di Archeologia

SOME SITES IN THE TARENTINE AREAC. CrescenziDipartimento di Architettura, Disegno, Storia, Progetto; Facoltà di Architettura; Università degli Studi di Firenze, ItaliaThe popular work makes a note of the scientific acquirementsin the last decades, and of the contribution given by the archaeologicalstudies during the workshop of project.Briefly, the pan-monastic thesis of the early studies suggestedthat the rupestrian villages and churches were made by monks.They were considered refugees from the eastern regions of theByzantine Empire, escaped from the iconoclast persecution.Churches were all considered “hermitic”, “Basilian”, or, more,“hermitic Basilian”.The new studies show that the villages were lay communitiesof peasants, shepherds and artisans. In some villages, as inMadonna della Scala, there were metal manufactures, whichis testified by the presence of slag. Many of these villages dateback before the Iconoclasm (which occurred in the IIX and IXcenturies). The village of Madonna della Scala was alreadypopulated in the V and VI century, as the treasure of Byzantineand Vandal coins found in this village documents. Manychurches have been considered some centuries older than before,and others are waiting for a further investigation thatcould propose a more certain dating.A rupestrian church has always been dated after its most ancientfresco, so the unpainted church were not dated or evennot recognized. Now we know that many centuries could passsince the church was excavated before it was decorated. Thisis the case of San Posidonio (the crypt pozzo Carucci in Massafra):it was realized before the VI century and it was decoratedafter the XIII century.The Byzantine influence has been reconsidered; it was importantin the artistic life, but not as important for other aspects,including religious rites. The most of the rupestrian church inthe western Tarentine area held Latin rites (even on block altars)and the priest was always facing the believers (even if thechurch had an iconostasis, as im San Simine, Massafra, and inSan Cesario, Mottola). The orthodox rite was rare, and oftenit was limited to a single church, followed by Greek speakingpopulations since the X century.This introduction explains the basic elements for the study ofthe published churches and lay structures during the workshopof the Crhima-cinp project. These rupestrian monuments arein the western Tarentine area, which is the area where the rupestrianphenomenon is more diffused after Matera.1. MassafraThe ancient city centre of Massafra is flanked with two ravines:San Marco at east and the previously called Calitro,which is called Madonna della Scala since the XVII century,after the Sanctuary having the same name.Both the ravines contain rupestrian villages: the most ancientone is in Madonna della Scala. The archaeological researchhas certified that it was occasionally populated in the Copperand in the Bronze ages, and definitively populated from theV to the XIV century, when the village was abandoned. Inthe seventies, a treasure with Vandal and Byzantine coins wasfound in a late ancient oil mill.The ravine contains the rupestrian churches of Buona Nuovaand Inferiore, under the Sanctuary. Another early medievalchurch has been recently discovered, with traces of slag thattestify the presence of an ancient metal manufacture.Fig. 1 San Marco ravine, Ovest side. Massafra. (photo: C. Crescenzi)153volumeRicerca_OK_2012-11-15.indd 153 16/11/2012 15:02:40