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Modern Description: Timpone del Ponto is a small site on a hill overlooking the Sinni River near the confluence of the Sarmento. The site has a Hellenistic lookout tower and is connected with Monte Coppolo. Timpone del Ponto was presumably used for relaying information about movement along the approaches to Monte Coppolo along the stretch of the Sinni Valley that leads from Heraclea. This is the route taken by the modern Strada Statale 653 today. There is also the intriguing possibility that ‘Timpone del Ponto’ was situated to control a port regulating aquatic river traffic along this lower stretch of the Sinni which Strabo explicitly mentions was navigable in Antiquity. (Strabo 6.1.14.) Timpone del Ponto is only intervisible with Monte Coppolo and there seems to be little doubt about its tactical function. Timpone del Ponte is analogous with other sites in the area such as Masseria Ruppurella which would have performed a similar function in relation with Monte Coppolo.

Info: Myers Lucania

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

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