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Modern Description: Montrone lies on a small hill just above the modern‐day town of Oppido Lucano. The site is equidistant between three major Lucanian era fortified centres: Torretta di Pietragalla, Serra di Vaglio and Civita di Tricarico and is intervisibile with two of them: Pietragalla and Tricarico. It is situated between the Bradano and Alvo rivers. It has little visual control over the Alvo valley but visually dominates the eastern section of the Bradano valley (and its minor tributaries) for some 20 km along the approaches to Montrone from the east. The site itself is easy to identify on the ground with large amounts of black gloss pottery, spindle whorls and locally decorated ollas all present in the freshly turned soil on the fields that cover the site. However the location of the walls is more difficult. An ad aggre rampart that preceded the Lucanian era fortification walls is still visible at the site. Disturbed boulders of the right shape and size to be have been used in a polygonal wall system are also present but because of modern farming practices, it is impossible to tell if they are still in situ. So just a single observer point was placed at the highest point of the hill. Access to Pietragalla could have been regulated by Montrone through its control over the eastern approaches of the Bradano valley however this was not the only route to Pietragalla, although it was one of the easiest, especially coming from the Ionian coast.

Info: Myers Lucania

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

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