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Modern Description: Madonna Del Vetere sits on a high hill overlooking a small stream ‐ the Sciaura ‐ which empties into the Agri some seven kilometres away. Madonna Del Vetere derives its name from the church presently standing on the summit of the hill and is quite close to the modern town of Moliterno. It has a good view of first section of the upper Agri valley, entered after traversing the pass overlooked by Gallicchio Vetere. Although it only has direct visual contact with one other site ‐ La Civita ‐ it is part of a local visibility network that includes Tramutola and Marsico Nuovo, sites that are situated along alternate sides of this section of the Agri valley. This part of the Agri valley is a wide fertile plain, with a large flat expanse of arable land with good access to water, eminently suitable for farming, similar to the situation in the Diano valley. This would have been a valuable resource in a predominately mountainous area and presumably closely controlled. The wall line of the hill is not particularly visible but can be traced in small sections on the south and east slopes of the plateau following the natural contour lines.

Info: Myers Lucania

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

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