In Italy, a school of archeologists tracks down the lost remains of the Samnites.

2024-08-23 15:14:13

Located at an altitude of 1,000 meters, in the heart of Molise – a poor and neglected region in central Italy – the Italic sanctuary of Pietrabbondante overlooks the Trigno valley. Seven hectares of which each stone tells the story of the life of the Samnites, an Italic community established in the region between the 5th and 1st centuries BC Left abandoned following the Romanization of the Samnites with the birth of the Roman Empire, the sacred was gradually covered by agricultural fields. It was the Bourbons, in the 19th century, who discovered the first buried building, a stone amphitheater, where conferences and political meetings were held. The National Institute of Archeology took over more than seventy years ago.

Discovery upon discovery

Adriano La Regina, president of the university, was still a student when he discovered this site at the end of the 1950s With a diploma of archeology in hand, he came to help an architect who had to take return to the amphitheater. “We forsook him, and wheat fields grew around him,” remember archaeologist, professor emeritus of Etruscology and Italian antiquities at La Sapienza University in Rome.

One day, by chance, you “find a little hole somewhere”and come across the structure of a gigantic temple. “It’s always like this in archaeologywe can spend years looking for something we will never find, but in return we get unexpected surprises”, he confides, with a smile on his lips.

Site construction begins. For almost twenty years, Adriano La Regina participated in excavations in summer. Each section is a way to learn more about the customs and traditions of this ancestral people. “We have very little information about this population, because we don’t have historical documents, everything we know comes from archeological data,” explained the professor.

Over the years, material sources, such as war implements, weapons, art and coins, have made it possible to understand the social, economic and religious characteristics of a society. “It’s interesting to be able to repeat pieces of their history end to end, even if it iswhat we know is often less than what we would like to know. And that’s what makes us look. »

A European project

In the mid-1970s, after twenty years of research, Adriano La Regina left the site to pursue a child in Rome. But in the early 2000s, after a thirty-year break and a busy professional life, the professor decided to return to it. “first love”, Pietrabondante. With his students, he organized summer camps. Germans, French, Americans, young scientists from all over the world are participating in research.

“We slept in the school in the neighboring village – Pietrabbondante, 600 inhabitants – on camp beds with our sleeping bags, and in the morning a bus took us to the place… it was a little military,” said Annalisa Citoni, enthusiastically.

On August 9, excavations at the site of the sanctuary, which spread over seven hectares. / Simone Boccardi

This Roman joined the profession in 2008, while still studying at La Sapienza, and never left it. Equipped with shovels, picks and wheelbarrows, they dug under the August sun. “Scandinavians with very white skin were completely burnt… I witnessed a lot of fun,” jokes the archaeologist.

He also remembers jokes between colleagues: “We will remove the writing on a 10 dollar bill and throw it somewhere on the site. There is always a time when someone runs to the professor with a fake treasure in hand, it is rather embarrassing. »

Against the Indiana Jones stereotype

Years of research followed the attempt to reconstruct the history of the Samnites. It is a painstaking job that has nothing to do with treasure hunting, underlines Palma d’Amico, scientist, former student of the professor, who has worked on the sanctuary for about twenty years.

“We do field studies and surveys to determine where we will be. You don’t search blindly like that in search of lost treasure.” confides the thirty-year-old who wants to take with the pictures of the archaeologist “excellent”, like Indiana Jones in search of buried loot. “Archaeology is a very detailed profession and discoveries are only part of it. “Sometimes, behind two lines in a museum, there are years of research,” continue important.

To make themselves better known, Palma, Annalisa and four other scientists created the Dedalo team in 2019. “We set up open excavations outside to show how we worked, but also to create links with the communities,” Annalisa explained. Despite their efforts, relationships with residents are sometimes complicated. “Almost all of us are from Rome, they see us as foreigners who come to dig on their land. Some of us are angry with us, because they took the agricultural land of their ancestors for coming, Annalisa continued, It is important to try to explain what you do and why. »

But it is above all the financial question that threatens the progress of the excavations on the site. “Lower and lower budget for culture and research”, regrets this enthusiasm, do urge to accept another project in the winter to be able to continue his voluntary research in Pietrabbondante.

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