Archaeologists in southern Italy have discovered the grave of two children buried with large bronze bands around 2,500 years ago. Metal accessories are unusual because they are usually found only in adult male burials of the pre-Roman Samnite culture.
During recent work at the site of a former tobacco factory in Ponte Cagnano, a town in southwestern Italy’s Campania region, archaeologists excavated part of an ancient cemetery containing 34 burials dating from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, according to a translated statement from the Superintendent of Archeology, Art and Landscape of Salerno and Avellino. About half of the graves contained the remains of children between the ages of 2 and 10.
Article continues below
you may like
Pontecagnano was first settled by the Villanovan culture in the 9th century BC. The people of the Villanovan culture brought their highly technical methods of bronze working to southern Italy. Two centuries later, an Etruscan group turned Pontecagnano into a commercial hub for Greek, Phoenician, and Italian traders. And by the 5th century B.C., the Samnites, a warlike tribe who lived in the mountains of southern Italy and spoke a language called Osca, had migrated to Pontecagnano. The city remained a Samnite stronghold until the Roman conquest of southern Italy in the 3rd century BC.
The cemetery at Pontecagnano revealed important information about the burial customs of the Samnites. Their graves were organized into family units and were mostly in the form of earthen pits covered with tiled roofs. Grave goods offered to the dead included a variety of pottery, and some artifacts were gendered. Men were buried with artifacts inscribed with warrior codes, such as spearheads, javelins, and copper belts, while women were given rings and brooches.
However, in new excavations, archaeologists discovered two children, aged between 5 and 10, buried with bronze bands typical of adult male burials. Archaeologists had previously unearthed at least one other 12-year-old child wrapped in a copper belt at Pontecagnano. “This is a very important discovery,” archaeologist Gina Tomei told Italian news agency ANSA in 2021. Tomei also said the boy lived in the 4th century BC and was buried in a ceramic cup to ensure he had access to food and wine in the afterlife.
Experts do not know why these children were buried with ornaments typical of warriors. But archaeologists have previously suggested that the graves of 6th century AD Anglo-Saxon boys buried in Britain with belts and other warrior equipment may have been placed there to tell the story of “the men these children might have become”.
The overall results of the archaeological work have not yet been made public, as excavations are underway in different areas of the town of Pontecagnano due to public and private construction projects. The regulator will announce new discoveries at this important pre-Roman settlement once the investigation is complete.
Source link
