Archaeological complex in Vico Quercia – Hellenistic necropoli

Virtual Tour

360° Virtual Tour of the archaeological complex in Vico Quercia and the hellenistic necropoli.

The archaeological complex in Vico Quercia, located in the highest part of the town, represents the oldest part of ancient Mesagne. As will be explained in more detail hereafter, various excavations have unearthed archaeological finds from this area from the Iron Age (VIII century BC) to the late Medieval Period.

Little evidence of the Iapygian village remains but part of the necropolis from the Hellenistic Period is clearly visible. The medieval buildings, however, have been replaced with those from the 1800s which still exist today.

Mesagne, the Iapygian village

During the Iron Age (ca. 2700 years ago), Mesagne was a village with huts, surrounded by an imposing fortified wall. To your left you can see the foundations of this wall, which are partly reconstructed. During the Iron Age, many Greeks migrated to southern Italy. At Taranto, for instance, a Greek city-state (polis) was founded. At that time, the indigenous inhabitants of Apulia, including those of Mesagne, were called Iapygians. At Mesagne, the Iapygian village was located between Porta Grande and Piazza Mercato (Piazza dei commestibili). It was composed of families of hunters, peasants and shepherds. These produced weapons, metal tools, pottery and the necessities required to satisfy daily needs. The huts of the Iapygian village were modest in architecture. They were made of dry stone walls topped by a roof with reeds and branches, supported by wooden poles. In the center of the hut you would find the hearth. Outside the hut craft production took place as well as animal husbandry and the processing of agricultural products. In these areas you would find small-sized rudimentary kilns, grinding stones and animal enclosures. The finding of anthropomorphic stone stelae makes us think that in the village these gravestones were erected in honour of the high ranking dead. The stelae, like this one in front of you, found in the Salento area (where it is assumed that dead bodies were cremated), often had symbols such as carts, horses and javelins; emblems of the aristocratic class military power.

Stories from the afterlife
The Messapian necropolis of via Castello

Strories, objects and names from the far past: this is what the archaeological area of via Castello will evoke when visiting the basement of the building on your left. Althought plundered in 1882, the six Messapian tombs found in this site still tell us a lot about ancient Mesagne.
The graves date back to the third and second centuries BC. They are made by coating the pit in the ground and covered with limestone slab, all plastered and painted inside.
Tomb 1, in particular, holds a very interesting element, a small compartment (an ossuary) containing the remains of previous deposition, which communicates with the burial chamber through a revolving stone door.
Tomb 2, next to Tomb 1, reveals a name: Paivas Kebeirixoas, engraved on the inside of one of the walls; it probably is the name of a man of high social rank.
Tomb 3, found at 17, vico Quercia has been reburied immediately after the archaeological investigations. It carred another messapic inscription: Platoras Xoranneihi, likely alsoreferring to a man of high status. As often happened in the Messapian world, the tomb has been used to bury than one deceased. This tomb was plundered during the Middle Ages; it presented rich funerary goods, like a bronze basin, a funeral wreath with gold leaves, a gold ring with Nike, and a vase shaped in a panther, an animal dear to Dionysus.

You can admire all the archaeological finds from this area at the MATER Museo Archeologico “Ugo Granafei” just a few steps from here.

The Hellenistic Period in Mesagne

The Messapians were an ancient tribe which inhabited an area corresponding to the current Salento peninsula. The distinctive features of their culture emerged in the 6th century BC, alongside that of the Peucetians and the Daunians more to the north. In that phase the small hut villages of the preceding Iron Age period were replaced by more complex and better structured dwellings. From this period onwards houses were built with dry stone walls and covered with clay roof tiles; roads began to widen and neighbourhoods diversified with handcraft shops, places of worship and cemeteries. During the Hellenistic Period (between the 4th and the 3rd centuries BC), due to a large increase in population, settlements expanded and new neighbourhoods were laid out, often within large, walled fortifications. These were generally separated from each other by large empty spaces, used for small places of worship and necropolises, as well as for small scale farming and pastoral activities. In the Archaeological Area of Vico dei Quercia, here, on your right, you can see the remains of a street, parallel to the fortified wall of the previous Iron Age village. The street was probably flanked by a series of semi-chamber tombs (Necropoli di via Castello) and by a sacred precinct, of which only some square limestone blocks remain.

Medieval Mesagne, the Pendino district

During the Early Middle Ages, in the ninth century AD, the Apulia region passed under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire, governed by Byzantium. The Byzantines organized the defence and administration of the territory around the most important centers such as Brindisi and Oria. The territory is filled with small rural villages called chorìa or loci: among them, in the tenth century, there is also Meganghe. The first mention of Meganghe dates back to 947, when the abbot of San Vincenzo al Volturno gives to the imperial official of Byzantium some possessions of the monastery present in the land of Oria. In this area there are some burials, probably placed at the edge of a cemetery gravitating around the Mother Church. Among these, there is the limestone tomb of a child, between one and three years old.During the thirteenth century Mesagne is mentioned in the sources as castrum (an area protected by a fortress), but only in the fifteenth century the area of the historical center assumes its present appearance. During this period, after the conquest of Constantinople (1453) and Greece (1456), the Ottoman Empire, led by Muhammad II, is preparing for the invasion of Italy. Probably because of this, the Del Balzo Orsini feudal family strengthened the Castle’s defensive structures, protecting the town with a wall with twenty-two towers and two access gates. During the mid-sixteenth century, the area of the Archaeological Complex of Vico Quercia is part of a neighbourhood known as Vicinato del Pendino. The district of Pendino was used not only as a residential area but also housed several commercial and craft activities, connected with the castle. Also a big storehouse for wine, oil or foodstuffs must have been present, judging amongst others by the presence of silos. In theXVI century it was owned by the rich merchant Giovanni Corciulo.