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Modern Description: Guardiola is a small fortified centre located on medium size hill overlooking the north‐western entrance to Muro‐ Platano valley. It appears to be part of a ring of smaller fortified centres that overlook the territory of Raia San Basile. In particular Guardiola controls the pass through the valley of the Muro river which leads to the tributary with the Sele river and ultimately the coast in the region of Poseidonia. Guardiola is also part of a visibility network with other smaller fortified centres that report directly to Raia San Basile. Monte Giano and Monte Nuovo guard the north, Serra di Fagato the south and Toppo Castelluccio the east. The larger centre of Baragiano also plays a part in this easterly control but further discussion on this system will be found in the ‘network’ catalogue. Guardiola is a smaller (0.9h) and higher than many of the other sites in this area and Pagliuca describes it, along with Toppo Castelluccio (1.2h) as: complementari al sistema difensivo del territorio e fungono, probabilmente, da punti di osservazione e segnalazione He also points out that some remnant of their function can be found in the toponymy of their names.

Info: Myers Lucania

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

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