Archaeological area of Rossano di Vaglio

The archaeological area contains an important Lucan federal sanctuary, located in a wooded area near a spring and dedicated to Mefite, an Oscan goddess characterized by the power to heal with water. In the 2nd century BC, the sacred area underwent a massive restructuring, linked to the Roman presence in the territory, and remained active until the first half of the 1st century AD. Lucanian community. The sacred complex consists of a churchyard, a large area paved with large irregular limestone paving stones, at the center of which is the so-called "altar". Around the churchyard there are a series of rooms that bear traces of the restructuring and monumentalization of the Roman age. Central is the role of water, an element linked to the Lucanian divinity, as a symbol of purification and fertility and wealth; in the churchyard the drainage channel of the spring waters captured and led to the sacred area is preserved. Significant are also the hydraulic works of the Roman age for the outflow of water that characterize some of the environments outside the churchyard. The latest investigations carried out by the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Basilicata have allowed us to better understand the phase of attendance of the Lucanian age with the discovery of a large wall that delimited the sacred area towards the valley, obliterated in one of the subsequent phases of monumentalization. and restructuring of the sacred area due to the continuous landslides that have affected the area since ancient times.