Facies Palma Campania

Palma Campania, the type-site of the Early Bronze Age Palma Campania culture, was covered by the products of the Avellino Pumice eruption, and was thus preserved in a similar way to the Roman sites in Campania covered by the AD 79 eruption. The devastating effects of this Plinian eruption led to the beliefthat it had killed a large part of the local population and/or caused large-scale emigration and landscapedesertification. However, new sites have been found that were established shortly after the eruption andgeoarchaeological studies of areas close to the Somma-Vesuvius volcano (Boscoreale, Boscotrecase, Torre Annunziata/Oplontis, Pompeii) and also further away (the Benevento area, Irpinia and the Salerno area) haveshown continuity of occupation after the Avellino Pumice eruption and during the later, Middle Bronze Age, AP1 and AP2 eruptions. Palynological analysis also shows great similarity between the environments beforeand after the Avellino Pumice eruption. The pottery evidence is typologically very similar before and afterthe eruption, which suggests that the people who resettled the Campanian plain after the eruption wereclosely related to those living there previously, whose material culture is that of the Palma Campania culture. Radiocarbon dates also suggest a rapid recolonisation of some sites. In this paper we shall show thatalthough the pyroclastic products of the Avellino Pumice eruption certainly had a major impact on thelandscape (soils, flora, water resources) and may have killed off a percentage of the population in someareas, this eruption was not the main cause of the socio-economic and political transformations that occurredin this area during the Middle Bronze Age, which we believe to have been mainly caused by the cumulativeeffect of the later AP1 and AP2 eruptions.

Settlements and houses from the Early Bronze Age
in Campania: three case studies
Three Bronze Age settlements in Campania are examined and discussed here: Nola, Gricignano, and Afragola. All were affected in different ways by the Avellino Plinian eruption of Mount Vesuvius (355o ± 2o BP, 1952–1778 cal BC 2σ). Nola and Afragola were destroyed, while in Gricignano, an older settlement already deserted when the eruption occurred, the agrarian structures were fossilised by the eruption.
In Gricignano, the main axis of the settlement ran in a
north-west/south-east direction, and the same orientation
appeared again in the house structures. Most of the houses had a rectangular ground-plan with an apse, and were of various sizes (ranging from 1o m or less to more than 2o m). A similar typology appeared at Afragola and Nola, where timberbuilt houses with a single nave, an apse at one end, and a ridge beam supported by internal posts were attested.
Small, square or rectangular structures probably served
either as storage facilities, possibly silos, or as stables. The three sites appeared to lack any defensive structures, a common characteristic of Early Bronze Age settlements of the region (Palma Campania Culture). At Afragola, the eruption razed the village to the ground – both houses and ancillary structures. At Nola, the specific nature of the eruption (with a phreatomagmatic phase following the deposition of pumice) resulted in the creation of a layer of hardened ash, forming a natural negative mould that permitted the documentation of the structures to a height of 1.4 m. At Nola, it was also possible to investigate in detail the building construction techniques,
the arrangement of domestic items (vessels and utensils
found in situ in different rooms) and the methods of preserving and storing foodstuffs, and to calculate the original height of the houses (3.75–7.5 m).
Finally, the detailed analysis made it possible to model
both the « horseshoe-shaped » dwellings typical of the region and the common metric unit upon which their construction  was based, which was found to correspond exactly with the units of measurement used in Roman times.

the “gallerIa deI VasI“ In the caVe of s. angelo II - The analysis of the pottery found in the “Galleria dei Vasi” in the cave of S. Angelo II (Cassano allo Jonio), provides important information for understanding the development of the Bronze Age in the Sibaritide. The study materials are characterized by typological features belonging to the facies of Palma Campania and to the Protoapennine 1 and attest to cultural interactions with the Adriatic coasts at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age.

Palma Campania, the type-site of the Early Bronze Age Palma Campania culture, was covered by the products of the Avellino Pumice eruption, and was thus preserved in a similar way to the Roman sites in Campania covered by the AD 79 eruption. The devastating effects of this Plinian eruption led to the beliefthat it had killed a large part of the local population and/or caused large-scale emigration and landscapedesertification. However, new sites have been found that were established shortly after the eruption andgeoarchaeological studies of areas close to the Somma-Vesuvius volcano (Boscoreale, Boscotrecase, Torre Annunziata/Oplontis, Pompeii) and also further away (the Benevento area, Irpinia and the Salerno area) haveshown continuity of occupation after the Avellino Pumice eruption and during the later, Middle Bronze Age, AP1 and AP2 eruptions. Palynological analysis also shows great similarity between the environments beforeand after the Avellino Pumice eruption. The pottery evide...