di Brunella Campea
The presence of finds of Phoenician, Cypriot and Syriac origin in the Peligna Valley demonstrates that, although enclosed by high mountains, it was open to the currents of the various civilizations of the pre-Roman era (or, to quote Momolina Marconi, of that great Pelasgian or Mediterranean civilization) by direct immigration following the Pescara Valley, or by induction through the transhumance routes, or the Apennine passes.
When the Cretans came into contact with peninsular Italy through Sicily, it is plausible that they also penetrated the Peligna Valley from the Middle Adriatic and from the Piceno by going up the course of the Aterno, or coming into contact with our shepherds by the Apulia through the Tratturi, obligatory natural transit routes for livestock in the wild (the peligni Nuraghetti are in all respects similar to the Apulian ones with a pseudo-dome interior; they are very ancient and coeval with the Cretan period, as evidenced by the discovery of Neolithic vases inside them).
Around 1000 BC the Umbrian people, a tribe from the north, penetrated Italy and founded the civilization of Villanova in the plains of the Po. They continued their march across the Apennines, subdued the indigenous populations and settled in Tuscany and Umbria, where they built villages. The numerous Iron Age necropolises discovered in the Peligna area and especially in the area of Sulmona, Corfinio, Campo di Giove etc. from De Nino prove that they had offshoots even further south.
In this same period the Phoenicians become the masters of the Mediterranean and due to trade and commerce they follow the same paths as their Cretan predecessors. Their ships also land at the mouth of that Aternaunom river to which they have given the Semitic name, the Pescara. In the part of the Medio Aterno, then navigable, the Phoenicians certainly knew Corfinio, one of the great emporiums of the Peligna Confederation, important enough to become a metropolis. Among the various Phoenician symbols found in the area, from Cansano to Pacentro and Bugnara (found in sporadic tombs during road works), the graffiti incision in left-handed characters with the name of the oriental deity Isthar stands out, in the temple of Ercole Curino, in Sulmona.
But there was probably also another conquering people that was decisive for the history of the Peligni, that of Syria. Many traces: the mountain of Peligni Superaequani, the Sirente, took its name from the Siri, Surentos. The costumes of the women of Scanno, as Colarossi-Mancini warned, are Syriac.
The Proto-Sabellian engravings are written in Semitic letters and in Semitic-Syriac dialects.
The divinities of the Syriac pantheon Hadad, Astarte, Anait or Anceta-Cerri and Baal-Lord are engraved on the tombstones of the Corfinio museums.
We must therefore admit that the Peligna civilization owes much to the Syriac culture, as the customs, traditions and legends of a large part of the Abruzzo territory still demonstrate.
The astral cults Sun-Moon, the natural cults Water-Fire, i.e. the personification of the same natural forces, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. practiced until some time ago by strata of the Abruzzo population and especially in the area of the ancient territory of the Peligni and contiguous Vestini, constitute the sure confirmation of this.
On the basis of twenty years of research, it can be stated that the Peligna civilization has cultural characteristics similar to contemporary Mediterranean and Indo-European megalithic civilizations, such as those of Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Balkans, etc.
It flourished above all in the period between 2000 and 1000 BC, with a cultural level higher than that assumed by scholars at all levels who were interested in the problem of the ancient cultures that flourished within the major mountain ranges of Gran Sasso, Sirente, Maiella and related buttresses, including the coastal strip, defined as Middle Adriatic.
The conference that forever changed the history of Western Europe took place between our hunter-gatherer and farmer-breeder ancestors who came from far away and were defined as "The bearers of imprinted pottery" (precisely the one that characterizes the found in Popoli in San Callisto, together with the female statuette). The Peligna Valley can therefore be considered as the meeting point of a sum of civilizations that from various parts were able to converge there despite the orographic difficulties.
While a few years ago the thesis of the arrival of populations from the Near East had been rejected, currently, it is precisely the scientists, with studies published in notable scientific journals, concerning the variety of haplogroups in Europe, who have confirmed and testified that "In the Neolithic new arrivals from the Near East essentially belonged to haplogroup G2a. This indicates that, at least in Anatolia/Iran and Europe, agriculture was spread by members of haplogroup G”. And the highest European percentages relating to their presence, 10/15%, are those of the Apennines, in Central Italy.
The meaning of the chain of protohistoric sanctuaries of Monte Morrone is finally justified, such as the "Colle delle Fate" of Roccacasale, of Ercole Curino of Sulmona, of the Tempietto di S. Lopardo of Pacentro; of the remains of the temple complex of Cansano, of the remains of the small temple of S. Salvatore di Capo Pescara in Popoli and of others present on the heights of our mountains, some of which are rich in "Nuraghetti".
From the careful examination of these monuments and of the few finds, including epigraphic Peligna, we can state that the small underground well temples were dedicated to the cult of the Moon, the Sun and the stars and constituted real astronomical observatories during the interperiods of the solstices and equinoxes of the related seasons, in close relationship with the agricultural cults.
The Peligna temples were originally surrounded by a belt of Cyclopean walls and contained a complex symbolic structure made up of cisterns, menhirs, sacrificial altars, small fountains for ablutions, sunstones or pierced stones, mother goddesses in terracotta and from ex voto: animals, bullocks, swans, engraved bowls whose testimony is given to us by the finds and by the local toponymy.
Concerning the prehistoric surface stations of the Lower-Middle-Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic
and Neolithic ones reported and found specifically in the territory of Popoli, we recall:
1) Svolte di Popoli: Lower Paleolithic and Mousterian.
2) Buttresses of Morrone di Popoli: Middle Palaeolithic.
3) Popoli (Santo Padre locality): presence of an interesting artificial basin with a circular plan with a diameter of over 50 metres, with traces of circular perimeter retaining walls; presence of underground water pipes in masonry. Presence of perimeter walls from the Italic era.
4) Popoli (Sorgenti del Pescara): plan of a small temple with mosaic floor.
Brunella Campea - 2020
REFERENCES
- Dante Pace and Rocco Scarascia – Ancient Peligne Civilizations – A. Di Cioccio Publishing Library – Sulmona 1977;
- Maria Assunta Di Salvatore – The Marsi. History is more beautiful than all legends – Article on Terre Marsicane.
