LETTURA TOPOGRAFICA DEI DATI ARCHEOLOGICI

Abstract

The area under examination, which falls within the ager Calenus and is intersected by the via Latina, is located in a highly
strategic topographical position, between Cales to the west and Capua to the east, with the Agnena river to the south separating
it from Casilinum and the Volturno river. The favourable topographical position, the fertility of the soil and its proximity to the
river Agnena, determined the human settlement in the area since the Proto-Historic period (evidence of this was found during
excavations carried out in the Torre Lupara area). A significant territorial transformation can be traced back to the founding of the
Latin colony of Cales in 334 B.C. with the sending of 2500 settlers. In the area located between Vitulazio and Pastorano, intensive
land exploitation during the Middle and Late Roman Republican periods was documented by the survival of limitatio and, above
all, by areas of materials as well as small to medium-sized farms. The burial site with a wealth of grave goods, discovered in 1929 in
Vitulazio, flanked by a road, can be dated back to a period spanning the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century B.C.
As from the 2nd century B.C., in the foothills and in the southern belt near the Agnena river, intensive farming developed, based
on the “slave-run villa”. This type of land use includes the complex near the Capece Galeota hunting lodge, located on the slopes of
Mount Tutuli: it was built on sloping terraces, near the via Latina and had a monumental cistern. Intensive occupation is found in
the southern sector: large areas of materials and leftover structures have been identified, relating to farms and country villas, some
of them considerable in size (the remains of these can be seen in the areas of Masseria San Vito, Masseria Tuoro, Masseria Pozzuoli,
Taverna and Rivolo Agnena near the Agnena river, a major attraction for the population during that period). Following the end
of the Roman Republican period, the sites appear to have remained inhabited until the Early Roman Imperial period, with little
evidence of new dwellings. A road and an incineration necropolis belonging to the Early Roman Imperial period have been found
in the Torre Lupara area. Evidence of human settlement in the Late Antiquity and Early Medieval periods stems from a necropolis

: ager Calenus, via Latina, limitatio, farms, villas.