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Modern Description: Toppo Castelluccio is a large hill with small plateau at its peak. It is situated about 6 kilometres north‐east of Raia San Basile. It overlooks a section of the Platano Valley that contains the confluence of several rivers: the Platano, Muro, Avigliano and Picerno. Toppo Castelluccio is intervisible with a large number of contemporary sites in the Platano Valley: Raia San Basile, Ripa Della Scala, Baragiano and Ruoti. It is also intervisible with Serra di Fagato, six kilometres to the south east of Raia San Basile which would have controlled southern access to the valley along the steep gorges of that section of the Platano. Toppo Castelluccio is analogous with several other smaller fortified observation centres in and around the Platano valley. These include the Guardiola, Monte Nuovo and Monte Giano. Even though they are not intervisible with each other, they form a strong visual control network all reporting to Raia San Basile which appears to be at the centre, both geographically and defensively of this network. Little is left of the original wall, but it can still be roughly traced by the topography of the hill and observer points were placed using a combination of this observation and De Gennaro’s reconstruction.

Info: Myers Lucania

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

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