Red-figured Vases from Metapontion. The Evidence from the Necropoleis along the Coast Road

Research undertaken following the creation of the Soprintendenza della Basilicata in the nineteen-sixties has progressively increased our knowledge on Metapontine red-figure pottery. Trendall’s classification, involving the identification of the main groups of southern Italian red-figure pottery, was in the process of being formulated when the Metapontine kerameikos (the potters’ quarter) was discovered. This confirmed that Metapontine workshops situated in the urban centre were engaged in the production of red-figure pottery, beginning at the least with the Amykos Painter and continuing down to the end of the 4th century bc. Although a large part of the material brought to light still remains unpublished, what is known is of particular interest. Extensive excavations of sites in the chora, which led to the publication, by J.C. Carter, of the Pantanello Necropolis and of the minor clusters of tombs located at Saldone and Sant’Angelo Vecchio have already given us a detailed knowledge of the figured wares from the necropoleis of the chora. The range of information we possess for the urban necropoleis is on the contrary limited by the small number of published burials and by the large number of tombs plundered by clandestini or destroyed by agricultural activity before this was controlled. Consequently, the evidence from the new clusters of necropoleis excavated by the Soprintendenza of Basilicata under the direction of Antonio De Siena between 2004 and 2007 makes an important contribution to filling a gap in our knowledge. The excavations were undertaken as part of a wider project necessitated by the widening of the ‘Ionica’ coastal road, the Superstrada 106, the course of which cuts through areas likely to contain much archaeological material, as confirmed by the excavations. More than 700 burials ranging in date from the last quarter of the 6th to the 3rd c. bc. were discovered. On the whole, between the mid-5th and the end of the 4th there are 69 tombs with red figure pottery which have yielded 98 vases. They have been found in tombs located in almost all the burial areas though always in reduced percentage. The study of the necropoleis, begun less than one year ago, is still ongoing and the present contribution will consider only the period from the second half of the 5th to the first decades of the 4th century bc. The range of shapes adopted in funerary assemblages of the Ionica encompasses pelikai, squat lekythoi, hydriai, lebetes gamikoi, pseudopanathenaic amphorae and skyphoi. The selection of shapes is consistent with what already known for Metapontine necropoleis both in the asty and in the chora. Most of the painters and workshops already connected to Metaponto (such as the Pisticci Painter and the Amykos Painter and their workshop, the Brooklyn-Budapest Painter and the Creusa, Dolon and anabates Painters) have been recognized. A small percentage of vases are instead stylistically connected to the Tarporley Painter and artisans linked by Trendall to his workshop. The analysis of the red figured vases from the funerary areas along the Jonica integrated to what is known also from the chora confirms that Metapontine production of red figure was also thought for a consistent local consumption.