Southern Italy

A part from the Villanovan site of Sala Consilina, there were no permanent Etruscan settlements South of present day Campania after the end of the 8th century B.C.E. There is however archaeological evidence that there were individuals or groups of individuals of Etruscan origin present in the area South of the river Sele and a network of cultural contacts and commercial exchanges which linked the centres of Tyrrhenian Etruria and etruscanized Campania to local populations (Oenotrians and Iapygians, in particular) and to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy between the 7th and 5th (and in some late cases 4th) century B.C.E. The evidence for the existence of these individuals and contacts lies in the discovery in Southern Italy of objects related to burials, shrines and settlements which were certainly or likely to have been of Etruscan manufacture (i.e. made in Etruria, Etruscan Campania, Etruscan Po valley) especially bucchero pottery, bronze vessels and jeweller’s ware. On the basis of this kind of evidence, the paper aims at analysing the cultural and historical meaning of these artefacts, according to the various needs for self-representation of local élites (particularly Oenotrian and Daunian) and to the different routes of trading. With reference to this last aspect, the archaeological evidence allows us to identify a series of long-distance routes over land and sea by which “Etrusco-Tyrrhenian” artefacts entered and were distributed in Southern Italy.