chapter i 6: Etruscans in Campaniaurban restructuring with the realization of great public works projects (walls, hydraulic
construction, sanctuaries) and of a fertile season of artisanal creativity. A preferred
archaeological indicator of the cultural synergy between the two cities is the “Campanian
system” characterized as early as the first half of the sixth century BC by female-head
antefixes, by the last quarter of the sixth century BC arising from a lotus bud. The
“Campanian system” would be met with noteworthy popularity even outside the region
(Rome, Pyrgi, Volterra and southward even as far as Sicily; D’Agostino-Cerchiai 2004).
From these homogenizing characters the main Etrusco-Campanian centers present
peculiarities and specific developments that should be considered individually.
PONTECAGNANO
The Etrusco-Campanian center of Pontecagnano rose near the River Picentino, 10 km to
the south of Salerno (Fig. 16.5), on a plain bounded by mountains of the same name; it is
actually known above all for the vast necropoleis (Cuozzo 2003; D’Agostino 2006) that
have furnished up to today more than 10,000 tombs mainly datable between the ninth and
fourth centuries BC, although still little is known about the settlement, in spite of important
finds in recent years (Cerchiai 2010; Pellegrino-Rossi 2011; Scavi Autostrada 2012). The
principal necropoleis of Pontecagnano are located to the west and east of the town, in the
locality of S. Antonio a Picenza: a plateau extending 80 hectares, defined by surveys and
by recent archaeological campaigns (Fig. 16.5). The settlement occupied a strip of land
today almost entirely bounded on the north by the route of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria
autostrada, to the south by the Strada Statale 18; to the west and south the ancient boundary
followed natural ravines, in the first case corresponding to the river bed of the Picentino. The
name of the ancient city of Etruscan origin is still unknown, while today we may consider as
sure the identification of the Roman phase with the oppidum of Picentia (268 bc).
Figure 16.5 Pontecagnano: necropoleis and old settlement.N(^0) 125250 m