BROGLIO DI TREBISACCE

The site of Broglio represents one of those most advanced towards the coast, among the series of sites located on high ground and overlooking the flat amphitheatre of the Sibaritide. It is located on a hilly terrace of an area of about 11 hectares, with good soil for agricultural use, on various levels but with unimportant differences in altitude (figures 1 and 2). The plateau presents a wedge-shaped appearance, with the point upwards, bounded to the north-east and towards the sea by the Marzuca stream and to the south-east by the Saraceno torrent . It lies at a relatively high position (150-180 m. a.s.l.) and gives excellent vision over both the sea and the Saraceno torrent .

                          Figure 1                                                                   Figure 2

The archaeological survey provided data on this site that filled the gaps in the panorama of North-Ionian-Calabrian proto-history, explaining the dynamics of settlement, and increasing the number of sites in Calabria where Mycenaean pottery has been found .
The excavations, which have been continued every year since 1979, have brought to light various structures and differing degrees to which the site was frequented from Middle Bronze Age to the VIII century b.C.
The site was indeed first occupied in the Middle Bronze Age, during the so-called Proto-apennine and Apennine periods (1700-1350 b.C.), which characterised the whole of peninsular Italy.
The housing structures were huts made of wood and other perishable materials (wattle and daub, intertwined wicker and other vegetal elements) laid directly on the ground or on a support of stones. The cultural facies which characterises the first phase is “apenninic”, with coarse ceramics decorated with simple geometric engraved motifs highlighted through punctulation (fig. 3). 

Figura 3

The first evidence of ceramics of Aegean execution, refined, decorated with spirals, waved motifs or with stylized vegetal ornaments (figures 4-5), and that of the so-called “grey” ceramics (fig.6), both produced with a fast lathe, date back to about 1400 b.C. With regards to the finest ceramics, they are divided between imported Aegean ceramics (mostly closed vases and amphorae) and derivative ceramics (the most common shapes are deep bowls, cups, urns, amphorae and jugs). Grey ceramics, distinctive of the fine pottery for meals, are a local derivative of Mycenaean ceramics, mostly in their decorative and formal form.

                              Figure 4                                  Figure 5

 Figura 6

From the end of the Middle Bronze Age and for the entire Late Bronze Age (subapennine facies), local populations came into contact with Mycenean sailors and, consequently, groups of Aegean artisans became part of the communities in the area of Sybaris, and groups of Oenotrian people travelled towards Greece. New technologies in the manufacture of ceramics were acquired, like the use of a fast lathe, and new methods of storage and preservation of victuals through the use of big corded dolii (figg. 7-8-9-10).

                           Figure 7                                                            Figure 8     

                                Figure 9                                               Figure 10 

The Late Bronze Age is largely attested to by ample structures, within the subapennine culture, which also spread to the centre and north of Italy.
During this period the diffusion of Mycenean and grey ceramics increased, indicating the interpenetration of the two cultures.
A typical example of this interpenetration, which indicates not only technical capability but also a complex economical and social organisation, is the local production of the lathed corded dolii ( figure 10), large containers for storing victuals, which are very similar to the huge pithoi found in the storerooms of Minoan and Mycenean palaces .
Five dolii from this period were found in a storeroom, adjacent to a large building, probably a house. This room had a rectangular layout with walls plastered with fire- baked clay. The dolii were overturned, following the abandonment of the room, and did not lie directly on the floor but on a layer of a black, greasy substance, probably formed from oil residue when the room was in use. The presence of a hole for a pole, on the west side of the room, and of burned bones belonging most probably to a sheep, has induced the archaeologists to hypothesise about a sacrifice offered for the foundation of such an important structure.
The building of a large hut was dated back to the early Late Bronze Age; it probably belonged to a eminent person who handled relations with the Myceneans, given the enormous quantity of Mycenean and derivative ceramics found in the place. The structure had a horseshoe-shaped layout, with an opening on the straight side, paved outside; the inside, most probably, was divided into two by a partition wall, which stopped more or less in the middle where there was a fireplace, built on a raised clay plate, adjacent to a clay dome oven.
It is to be noted that, in this structure too, a careened bowl with a broken handle, had been put between a wooden wall and the cut in the ground to level the floor, as an offering for the building of the hut.
These sacrifices and libations are related to similar rites, even though carried out in diverse manners, in the Aegean world.
During the Late Bronze Age (1200-1000 b.C.) a period of crisis and desertion started, and the native elements prevailed. Relations with the Aegean world stopped, and the aristocracy assumed a vigorously warlike nature. The excavation data revealed a settlement with rectangular buildings, which had walls of wood and were covered with clay, and an imposing fortification surrounding the acropolis with a wall of stone and wooden elements reinforced by ramparts, overlooking a ditch which was 10 metres wide and, at least, 4 metres deep. On the acropolis was found one of the oldest Bronze Age forges.
During the Iron Age, there was an upturn in the situation, even though through  Greek colonization and the foundation of Sybaris, the native community of Broglio, like many other villages on the plateau surrounding the valley, declined until it disappeared completely.
The latest excavation campaigns have brought to light a structure with a floor made of clay and a draining base made of stones and broken ceramics. It is thought to be a potter’s shop, dating  from the last phases of the live of Broglio. For this period, the ceramics found are mostly of the refined native type with geometrical decorations typical of Ionian-northern Calabria.