The protohistoric site in Longola, Poggiomarino, is located in the upper Sarno valley, about 10 km east of Pompeii. Its accidental discovery in 2000 and the subsequent research carried out by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii revealed the existence of a riverside settlement in a wet environment, inhabited from the Middle Bronze Age to the 6 th Century B.C. The settlement system, which can be compared to Arab Marshes (Iraq) and Ganvie (Benin) from an ethnographic point of view, is made up of artificial islets surrounded by canals of varying capacity. Huts built with perishable materials, but differing in orientation, shape (rectangular or apsidal) and arrangement of interiors, were located in dry areas, while canals allowed travel both within and beyond the settlement.
Since the Iron Age the site has been characterised by craft-working areas, where skilled craftspeople worked metal, bone, glass paste, and amber. It has therefore been an important centre of production and exchange of artefacts. Its strategic position, well connected to the nearby internal areas and the coastal strip, and the discovery of a wet dock and three canoes, prove that the local community was able to interact with other people living along the Sarno
Valley between the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Water has always been an essential element in the life of the village and has also enabled many perishable materials to be preserved, giving life to an extraordinary archaeological dossier and making Poggiomarino a one-of-a-kind site in southern Italy. This documentation fills an important gap regarding the population of the Sarno Valley, which, thus far, has been mainly documented by funerary contexts, throwing much light on the settlement dynamics in the periods preceding the foundation of Pompeii.
CONTACTS
Via Longola, Poggiomarino (NA)
Tel. +39 081 865 8111
Mail info@longola.it
Any extraordinary openings will be communicated.
By car: trunk road SS 268 del Vesuvio (exit Poggiomarino – San Giuseppe), A30 Motorway (Exit Sarno) or A3 (Exit Scafati).
