This is the second in a series of special volumes of the Bollettino d’Arte presenting pieces formerly in the collections of the Institut für klassische Archäologie of the University of Bern and the Department of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, that were determined to be from the site of Francavilla Marittima.
The different forewords to the first volume outlined the fate of these pieces since their illegal excavation at the site on the Timpone della Motta in the 1970s; they were shared out into various lots, which found their way to the two above mentioned institutions as well as to other collections such as the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek at Copenhagen. In 1996, the «Project Francavilla-Bern-Malibu» was created: An international team was to research and document the pieces in Bern and Malibu and prepare for their return to Southern Italy. In 2001, the repatriated objects were exhibited in the Museo della Sibaritide at Sibari under the title «Offerte alla dea di Francavilla Marittima da Berna e da Malibu».
In the first volume of this special series (II.1) John Papadopoulos published the 571 metal objects from the amalgamated Bern-Malibu material, mainly bronzes, but including also a few pieces of gold, lead and iron, as well as a silver coin.
The next two volumes present the remaining 4377 objects of the Bern-Malibu material, as well as the 64 objects of terracotta (vases and figurines) and faience of the Copenhagen lot; these were inserted in the respective catalogues of volumes I.1 and I.2. This material includes a large majority of ceramics (4022), as well as a number of terracottas (362) and varia (57).
Pending the full publication of the results of the old and of the recent excavations at the site of Francavilla Marittima, as well as that of the study of the different classes of materials brought to light, the editors of the present volume thought it useful to start out with an analytic overview of the large number of publications dedicated to this archaeological area.
The catalogue of the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen material starts out in this volume (I,1) with vases and fragments of vases imported from the Greek mainland, mainly from Corinth (2807), but also from Athens (56) and Sparta (10); it also includes two pieces representing the so-called Argive monochrome (1) and Pontic (1) classes. The remaining ceramics follow in volume I.2, which is in preparation; they include East Greek and related productions (179), Achaean-type (205), colonial (667) and indigenous (90: «matt-painted» and «impasto») productions, as well as the architectural terracottas (12), the terracotta figurines (350), and a small group of «varia» (57). Given the absence of a documented archaeological context, the objects have been classified in the catalogue according to closed and open shapes and, within each subdivision, following chronological phases or indications.
The earliest Corinthian objects belong to the Thapsos class (second half of the 8th c. B.C.); they are followed, at the beginning of the 7th c. B.C., by various types of vases with linear decoration, such as drinking vessels (kyathoi, kotylai and kylikes), closed vessels (broad-bottomed and narrow-footed oinochoai, amphora) and containers of other types (conical lekythoi, pyxides and kalathiskoi). Figurative decoration appears on these vase shapes as well as on other types, such as ovoid aryballoi and alabastra. Towards the end of the Protocorinthian production various shapes with linear decoration gradually disappear (cups, aryballoi and kalathiskoi) to make place for vases with figurative decoration of the Corinthian phase, in particular kotylai, aryballoi, alabastra, pyxides and amphoriskoi, as well as large-sized closed vases, such as amphorae, oinochoai, olpai and hydriai, and in limited quantities plates, craters, plastic vases, phialai and bottles. The quality of these vases is relatively good, but only few pieces are outstanding. Among those with linear decoration, the kotylai, kylikes, aryballoi and alabastra were generally mass-produced. Pieces with figurative decoration present samples of the best-known painters or their workshops. Only two fragments show a mythical scene: Heracles attacking the centaur Nessos (name inscribed) who tries to abduct Dejanira, and the Trojan horse with warriors inside. The last scene could furnish an argument in favour of the proposal to identify the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta with the mythical Lagaria, founded in the neighbourhood of Sybaris by Epeios, who dedicated the instruments with which he had constructed the wooden horse in the Athenaion of that town.
The Attic material comprises mainly drinking vessels (kylikes and skyphoi), but also some amphorae, lekythoi, amphoriskoi and lekanides, dating from the third quarter of the 6th to the very beginning of the 5th centuries. Only one lekythos fragment represents the red-figured production.
The Laconian material consists of 1 lakaina, 5 kylikes and 4 aryballoi, all from the first half of the 6th century.
It has appeared that a considerable number of pottery fragments from the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen material joined with others from the controlled old (Stoop) and recent (Kleibrink) excavations at the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta; this made evident that a large part, if not the majority of the pottery that made its way to the three collections abroad, are from the so-called Stipe I, the location of which has now been assured in the area South/South-East of Building V. However, as John Papadopoulos has observed for the metal objects, it should be taken into account that some objects among the other materials of the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen lot may also originally stem from other archaeological contexts at Francavilla Marittima (sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta or Macchiabate necropolis), or even from other sites in Southern Italy or Sicily.
The analysis of the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen material, compared to that from the Stoop excavations (Stipe I), clearly shows not only the correspondence, but also the differences between both groups regarding their general composition as well as the numbers of objects in each class. For instance, in the first group, the number of imported vases largely exceeds that of locally produced vessels, whereas the contrary has been observed for the Stipe I material; also, various types of locally produced vessels are clearly under-represented or entirely missing in the first group, as they had probably been discarded by the clandestine excavators because of the difficulty to sell them on the antiquities market.
This notwithstanding, and taking into account the objects unearthed during the recent controlled excavations in the area of Building V, the comparison between these two groups of materials has shown many parallels between them and the different classes of objects represented. For instance, among the imported ceramics Corinthian production prevails, followed by that of East Greek, Attic and Laconian vases; Corinthian shapes most frequently represented are kotylai and pyxides; as for the «ceramica coloniale», which is represented by a substantially higher number in the Stipe I material, it is (nearly) entirely composed of «ceramica depurata» in both groups.
The chronological classification of the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen material has been confirmed by the discovery of similar objects during the recent excavations in the area of Building V, which date to the period running from the second half of the 8th until mid-6th century B.C.
Thus, a certain number of the Bern-Malibu-Copenhagen pieces have now recovered their original archaeological context and their original function, i.e. votive gifts to the deity venerated in Building V on the Timpone della Motta near Francavilla Marittima. These objects can now be integrated in the history of this important sanctuary of the archaic period.