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Modern Description: The ancient settlement of ‘Marcellina’ or ‘Laos’ to use its more familiar ancient designation is situated between two rivers; the Laos and the Abatemarco, both near the Tyrrhenian coast. It sits on a low hill overlooking the modern town of Marcellina. According to literary evidence, The Lucanian fortified site of Laos was also the site of the colony founded by Sybaris after its destruction in 510 BC, however no (in situ) trace of the Greek settlement has as yet been found after extensive excavation of the site, although coinage ‐ and dies ‐ issued by Greek Laos have been recovered nearby. It is one of the largest Lucanian sites know at 28 hectares, but conversely has one of the lowest intervisibility rankings (E) of any of the sites in this survey. It is only intervisible with Scalea a few kilometres further up the coast. The location of Scalea itself is problematic and there is very little evidence for its existence as a Lucanian fortified centre. The lack of intervisibility between sites on or near the Tyrrhenian coast line is a feature of this area and is in contrast to the vast majority of the inland sites. For example the major Lucanian sites of this area: Serra la Citta, Moio Della Civitella, Totora and Policastro have one or at best two sites with which they are intervisible. The exception here is Roccagloriosa which has three intervisible sites but when compared to inland are such as Tricarico (10) or Monte Croccia (14) the difference is stark. Laos was densely occupied with a paved street system and had courtyard houses.

Info: Myers Lucania

Brett Andrew Myers, Visual Connectivity and Control in Ancient Lucania, MPhil thesis 2018, Univ. of Sydney

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