Apulia and the north-Central Adriatic coast between420 and 380 B.C.: peculiarities and similarities in the importof Attic pottery in the light of recent discoveries in the two areas

Abstract

The recent publication of monographs on the discovery of Attic pottery in the lower, middle and upper Adriatic coasts, both in burial areas and in residential contexts, lead us to re-examine a theme that has been much debated in past decades, namely the possible inclusion of the various areas of the western Adriatic coast in a single trade circuit: a hypothesis that presented, on the one hand, “geographical” obstacles – the importuosa Italia litora mentioned by Livy (“alimenoi” also, according to Strabo) along the stretch of the Middle Adriatic – and, on the other, the different consistency of the ceramic finds in the three areas. Numerous attempts have been made to explain the dynamics of trade along the Adriatic west coast and, recently, the island of Palagruza has been identified as a possible intermediate stop in the navigation from the Lower Adriatic west coast to the rich markets of Etruria Padana.
However, the pottery documentation in Palagruza alone is not sufficient to explain the large number of workshops that have their reference markets in the Lower and Upper Adriatic: We just consider, for example, the production of the Talos Painter, of whom a splendid example of a volute krater is preserved in Ruvo di Puglia,  with the depiction of the mythical Bronze Giant, guardian of Crete, a subject that returns, painted by the same painter on a calyx krater from Spina, or the cups and kraters of the Meleager and Jena Painters, which are very numerous in Spina, are now beginning to acquire numerical consistency also in the Peucetian sites facing the Adriatic Sea (in Ruvo above all) or the askoi and gutti, previously known only in Spina in Valle Pega and Valle Trebba. The most recent studies and publications therefore pose the problem of the inclusion of the lower and upper Adriatic west coast in a single distribution route, and our intention is to give an account of the new ceramic workshops that have been identified, which document this phenomenon, and which are also partly known in the Middle Adriatic coast, where research is highlighting an ever more consistent penetration of Attic and Magna Graecia potteries.