L’ECONOMIA PER IL SACRO: IL CASO DI LUCUS FERONIAE

Abstract

Maria Gilda Benedettini – Anna Maria Moretti Sgubini

This contribution emphasises the economic context and dynamics that characterised the Lucus Feroniae sanctuary, as revealed through the analysis of the results of the, albeit limited excavations, conducted on the temple area between 2000 and 2010, which have recently been published.
The important commercial role of the sanctuary had previously been known from the documentary sources, which noted that it was a flourishing trade centre of and the location of famous markets where people of a wide range of ethnicities flocked.
This picture has been fully confirmed by the the excavation: the richness of the material goods, themselves of diverse origins, reflects the wealth and breadth of the exchanges taking place at the sanctuary. An analysis of the types of offerings deposited at the sanctuary also reveals how, from the earliest phases of the site, while there was a preponderance of ceramic goods, these were found alongside metal gifts, both worked and worked, with a subsequent significant rise in monetary offerings. As with the ceramics and the votive offerings of varying value that were found in the fill that marked the rebirth of the temple following its sacking by Hannibal, these monetary offerings were more often than not destroyed before deposition. Aside from underlining the votive character of the deposits, the presence of these types of items, such as the substantial numbers of metal ingot, constitutes tangible proof of the significant economic resources and hoarding capacity achieved by this place of worship between the Archaic and Middle Hellenistic periods. The recurring presence among the artefact records of metal sheets, rods, thread-like elements, beads, slag and shapeless residues in iron, bronze and lead, which were probably intended for re-smelting, linking them to a metallurgical activity that was elusive at the time, finally indicates their precise role in the complex system on which the flourishing economy of the sanctuary must have hinged.