The Lucanians () were an Italic tribe living in Lucania, in what is now southern Italy, who spoke the Oscan language, a member of the Italic languages. Today, the inhabitants of the Basilicata region are still called Lucani, and so is their dialect.
Language and writing
The Lucani spoke the Oscan language. There are a few inscriptions and coins in the area that survive from the 4th or 3rd century BC; they use the Greek alphabet.see Conway, Italic Dialects, p. II sqq.; Mommsen, C.I.L. x. p. 2I; Roehl, Inscriptiones Graecae Antiquissimae, 547.
History
Around the middle of the 5th century BC, the Lucani moved south into Oenotria, driving the indigenous tribes, known to the Greeks as Oenotrians, Chones, and Lauternoi, into the mountainous interior.
The Lucanians were engaged in hostilities with the Greek colony of Taras/Tarentum and with Alexander, king of Epirus who was called in by the Tarentine people to their assistance in 334 BC. In 331, treacherous Lucanian exiles killed Alexander of Epirus.
In 298 they made alliance with Rome, and Roman influence was extended by the colonies of Venusia (291), Paestum (Greek Posidonia, refounded in 273), and above all Roman Tarentum (refounded in 272). Subsequently, however, the Lucanians suffered by choosing the losing side in the various wars on the peninsula in which Rome took part. During the Samnite Wars they were sometimes in alliance with Rome but more frequently engaged in hostilities.
The Lucanians and Bruttians laid siege to Thurii in 282 BC and a Roman army sent to its relief under Gaius Fabricius Luscinus defeated them.Pliny xxxiv. 6. s. 15; Valerius Maximus 1. 8. § 6
When Pyrrhus of Epirus landed in Italy in 281, they were among the first to declare in his favour and after his abrupt departure they were reduced to subjection in a ten-year campaign (272). Enmity continued to run deep; they espoused the cause of Hannibal during the Second Punic War (216), and Lucania was ravaged by both armies during several campaigns. The region never recovered from these disasters and under the Roman government fell into decay to which the Social War, in which the Lucanians took part with the Samnites against Rome (91 - 88 BC), gave the finishing stroke.
In the time of Strabo (63 BC – 24 AD) the Greek cities on the coast had fallen into insignificance and, owing to the decrease of population and cultivation, malaria began to obtain the upper hand. The few towns of the interior were of no importance. A large part of the province was given up to pasture, and the mountains were covered with forests, which abounded in wild boars, bears and wolves.
Art
Lucanian art mainly survives in Lucanian vase painting and paintings from tombs, which the elite commissioned in rather large numbers, like the Etruscans but unlike their Roman and Greek neighbours. There is a good display in the museum at Paestum. A high proportion feature horses, often racing.Lucanian painted tombs at Paestum Vase painting was practiced between about 420 BC and 335 BC, and at its height vases were exported to all Apulia. The painters, some of whom have been assigned notnames, were probably Greek emigres, or trained in Greece - probably Athens to judge by their styles.
Funerary rites Burial customs were not homogenous across the entirety of the Lucanian territory, with at least three distinct subareas—each marked by their own particular mortuary rites—identifiable in the archaeological record. Of these, the "Oenotrian" area—which comprised the Agri and Sinni river valleys and the Tyrrhenian coast—produced burials wherein the deceased was laid in a supine position, the North Lucanians—who dwelt between the Basento and Bradano rivers—interred the dead in a fetal position, and the Eastern Lucanians—who lived in the modern Matera province—entombed the dead in a compacted position. Lucanian necropoleis were located outside of the settlement areas, and thus symbolically separated from the "world of the living." At Paestum, for instance, the graves were localized to two separate areas north and south of the city walls respectively, both of which consisted of several burial clusters organized around a central tomb. During the period of Lucanian dominance at Paestum, around the mid-5th century BCE, grave sites at the nearby Località Gaudo necropolis began to incorporate significantly higher quantities of funerary items than during the prior Greek period, implying that the new occupants of the city greatly valued displays of wealth or status in mortuary contexts.
Gender roles Within Lucanian cemeteries, male burials are associated with weapons and items related to the symposia, such as kraters, all of which imply an idealized image of a warrior who also held a prominent role within the social affairs of their community. Food items appear in one male burial from Montemurro—more specifically a cookie, a fig, a honeycomb, a grape, cheese, and a clay bun. These items were perhaps representative of the economic activities of the deceased in life—those being cereal growing, cheese production, and the cultivation of fruit trees. Female graves, in contrast, include items such as ornaments, loom weights, spinning tools, , , or a (nuptial-bowl), all of which emphasize the role of the woman as a wife or domestic worker. Both male and female tombs may contain lead or iron sets, varyingly consisting of andirons, spits, a candelabrum, or a knife.
There are certain Lucanian burials that seemingly defy the standard gender norms indicated by most funerary goods. Despite the association of warfare with masculinity, tomb 61 from Andriuolo—which belonged to a woman—is associated with slabs depicting a duel, two men greeting each other, a procession of multiple men, and also a separate frieze portraying weapons. To resolve the seeming incongruency between the gender associations of the items and the sex of the deceased, it has been suggested that the status of the interred woman was conveyed through depictions of their male family members. Yet another tomb from Andriuolo, this one belonging to a male, contains—alongside symposium equipment, a strigil, a bronze belt, and a knife—also a loom weight and a depiction of a funerary rite involving a deceased woman. Just as the aforementioned woman was represented through the male component of her family, this man was possibly represented via the female component of his family.
Symposia
Large ceramic or metallic vessels used for the drinking of wine were characteristic of upper-class burials in Lucania. In particular, kraters, which were usually red-figured, emerged as one of the hallmark traits of prominent male burials. Symposia equipment was not, however, confined exclusively to male graves—the skyphos vessel appears across tombs of both men and women, and it is one of the most common pottery styles for wine found in Lucanian tombs. The unisex distribution of the skyphos breaks with known Greek custom, wherein the vessel was reserved primarily for disempowered social groups, such as women or ephebes. There are numerous additional instances of female graves including sympotic equipment, such as tomb 8 from Montemurro, which includes a kantharos, a patera, a nestoris, a krater, amphorae, and small cups. This particular tomb is lavish, containing a total of 30 items all laid either by the sides or feet of the deceased. More traditionally feminine items do appear amongst this assemblage, such as a , alabastron, and a pyxis, though there are no personal adornments beside a silver fibula. Furthermore, in the Gaudo necropolis by Paestum, there lies—at the center of a burial cluster—a female grave containing a bell krater and a column krater, which itself includes a skyphos, kylix, and a black-glaze pot, all of which are placed at the feet of this deceased. These burial items also appear in the male interments at the same site. Sympotic material often appears in tandem with other nonceramic items, such as the andirons, spits, and also —a type of ladle used to remove wine from kraters.
The prevalence of sympotic material in female burials may indicate that—unlike Ancient Greece—women in Lucania were permitted to attend these events. If such a custom did exist, then it may have entered Lucanian culture via the Etruscans, who—besides allowing women at the symposia—were also major exporters of sympotic equipment to Southern Italy during the 5th-century BCE, and may therefore have spread cultural concepts alongside their trade routes. However, the majority of female tombs containing sympotic equipment were high-status, allowing for the possibility that these social freedoms were only available to upper-class women. In Ancient Greek society, symposia provided hosts with an opportunity to flaunt their wealth in front of their guests and community, which—if this cultural idea was shared with Italic peoples—could explain the deposition of symposia items primarily in more prestigious tombs.
If it is accepted that Lucanian women were involved with the symposia, then it is still unclear whether they were active participants or merely responsible for more tangential roles such as storing, preparing, or serving the food and beverages consumed at the banquet. However, according to the archaeologists Chiara Albanesi and Ilaria Battiloro, it is perhaps unlikely that a culture would choose to entomb an individual with grave goods relating only to a minor function within an otherwise important ritual. Alternatively, according to the classicist Sarah Pomeroy, it is possible that these sympotic goods were deposited by male relatives as a means of signifying the familia ties of the deceased woman or as a parting gift. Against this view, Albanesi and Battiloro argue that such a practice would be "odd," or even "offensive," if women were excluded from symposia.
Another burial located at the center of a funerary group—this one from La Scala, by Roccagloriosa—includes a neck amphora amongst its assemblage, which is typically considered a masculine item within Lucanian culture due to its association with symposia. This same burial also contains an olla, which was used to store food for sacrifices; a patera, which was used in libation rituals; and a knife, which was used to perform animal sacrifices. The religious nature of these grave goods may indicate that the deceased served as a priestess in life. Other tombs from the Lucanian area demonstrate a connection between sympotic items and ritual sacrifice: In a separate tomb, also from Roccagloriosa, knives were placed near a krater, whereas a different grave from San Martino d’Agri includes amphorae that itself contained a knife.
Religion
Sanctuaries
Archaic period