 |
Archaeological excavations of Aequum Tuticum (territory of Ariano Irpino).
Aequum Tuticum was one of the oppida which had the function of
capital city for the entire Samnite League, not only because of its
importance as a most relevant junction-point along the main livestock
transhumance track-trails whose origins can be traced back to the
pre-Samnite Appennine civilization, but also by reason of its role as a
meeting centre for the whole Samnite people ( tuticum is an
adjective from touto , which means “people”, in Oscan ), when the
federated Samnite tribes had to take important political decisions in
times of war or peace.
The great oak visible in one of the
photos may induce one to think about the ancient cult to the goddess
Kerres (the noun of the oak in the local dialectical form “cerza” derives
from the goddess’s name : Kčrres>Kčrs>Cčrz-a). And we believe that it isn’t
improbable that at Aequum Tuticum precisely there stood one oak or many of
them sacred to the goddess’s worship, if we consider their extraordinary
generative powers through their stem-shoots that may extend their life for
centuries.
From this archaeological site it
is possible to see at a short distance a place called “Le Bolle” (because
of some boiling small mud-volcanoes), at the Malvizza, a locality in
Montecalvo Irpino territory, where there was an Italic temple dedicated to
the Oscan goddess Mephites. ( see Sect. n° ) |
