FOREWORD

     The most important purpose of our project is the building of a virtual museum in which to exhibit through the WEB photo pictures of archaeological artifacts and sites, art objects, architectural works and ancient tools each of them explained by short and well researched captions, pertaining all of them, spatially, to the Miscano and Ufita river valleys and, temporally, to a time span beginning with the pre-Samnite prehistory and ending with the coming to the throne of Naples Kingdom of Charles III Bourbon (June 15, 1734 – October 1o, 1759).

    Both the spatial and temporal spans are, we are afraid, immense and we shall not obviously be able to deal with and illustrate but few of the historical periods enclosed within the chosen time limits mentioned above, even if we cannot ignore that all of these periods are intimately linked to our peculiar kind of civilization.
However, the historical periods we aim to illustrate are consequently the following:
- pre-Samnite prehistory;
- ancient Samnium;
- Roman conquest and romanization of the Hirpini’s territory;
- Gothic/Byzantine wars; Longobard invasion and Benevento duchy;
- Norman conquest and Frederic II empire;
- Angevin and Aragonese periods and various subsequent interregna;
- Spanish vice-reign;
- Charles III Bourbon.

    We are not afraid to embark in this endeavour, which may appear as Herculean, because we have chosen as method for building our museum a modular and progressive proceeding, so that by beginning with two or three archaeological artefacts and sites worthy of note, pertaining to whichever above mentioned periods, we postpone to a later time the accurate and reorganized classification of our “collection”, when, we hope, it will gain a certain consistency. In other words, when it will reach a critical mass, allowing, first of all ourselves and then also our callers via the Internet, to appreciate it from a cultural and informative vantage-point of view.

    Let’s add, in the end, that there are very pressing grounds at the bases of this project. They may be summed up as follows.
    Our important and precious artistic, architectural and archaeological objects lie almost always dispersed and forsaken (except, of course, in few virtuous cases), or owned privately by possessors who are often not aware of their cultural, formative and informative values; and even when these objects may be found collected in local museums, a fact seldom occurring, they are not valorised and shown to the local inhabitants by promoting cultural activities and guided visits.
    Lastly, it’s a pity but these objects of inestimable value are more and more often reported as being stolen.
    So, it is not a secondary goal of our initiative to stir possibly a participation of our Web callers so that they may give us a helping hand by sending photos of concealed or stolen things, or, without any worry to act as policemen, simply by giving us information on the archaeological patrimony in our area unknown to us, or, again, by visiting our in itinere museum. You can be in this way our companions in an adventurous trip that we hope may be of reciprocal satisfaction and advantage.
Thank you.

MarioSorrentino   Francesco Cardinale