Dalla città «etrusca» ai Sanniti. Le dinamiche della trasformazione a Pontecagnano tra V e IV secolo a.C.

During the 5th century BC, the center of Pontecagnano faced radical changes, after an overall reorganization at the end of the 6th century, when the city walls were built and a new town planning was realized, with regular blocks delimited per strigas et per scamnas (same the countryside was regularly divided). Until this period, the community of Pontecagnano reveals a prevalent «Etruscan» identity (as shown by the epigraphic record). From the middle of the 5th century, the archaeological evidence indicates a crisis of this system, as the building activity decreased, and some funerary areas were abandoned. Starting from this period until the 4th century, the Pontecagnano’s necropolises were progressively occupied by graves characterized by an «Italic» burial habits. Size and origin of these groups were diversified. The arrival of large groups from the Sangro area can be dated during the middle/third quarter of the 5th century BC. The burial plots have a regular planning, mostly rectangular and oriented along the ancient road course: they limited dozens of tombs, with a reduced number (or without) of grave goods. Some men exhibit the spear and the bronze belt. Women often wear a characteristic brooch, as the so-called «airplane fibula», similar to the types found in the Sangro area (Alfedena; AQ) but also in the necropolises of Gildone (CB) and Benevento. In the following decades the arrivals of «foreign» individuals and groups increase. They can be recognized by the funerary customs: the fossa grave, typical for the previous periods, is often replaced by chest made and covered by stone slabs; the male burials are characterized by the possession of weapons (especially spear and bronze belt, rarely by bronze cuirass and greave) and catalyze the internal organization of the new funerary groups. This first phase of «samnitization» of Pontecagnano (the second and even clearer is dated during the 4th century) is determined by the movement of groups from the inner area of central Italy, but also from the italic groups of Neapolis (as suggested by the onomastics in Greek inscriptions). It does not completely upset the previous organization of the town and its community, as demonstrated by the continuity of Etruscan elements in the written record and also in the use of the urban sanctuaries and necropolises. The urban planning of Pontecagnano was preserved as well during this period, although sometimes the reconstruction of houses and variation of the blocks dimensions suggests changes in the ownership.