Vivara

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Vivara
Waters Tyrrhenian Sea , Gulf of Naples
Geographical location 40 ° 44 '40 "  N , 13 ° 59' 37"  E Coordinates: 40 ° 44 '40 "  N , 13 ° 59' 37"  E
Vivara (Campania)
Vivara
surface 35.63 hectares
Highest elevation 110  m
Residents uninhabited

Vivara , one of the Phlegraean Islands in the Gulf of Naples , is 0.36 km². The island is located near Ischia and southwest of Procida , with which it is connected by a bridge.

etymology

The most likely origin of the name is from Latin , vivarium , meaning place where animals live .

geography

The 35.63 hectare island has the shape of a rising crescent moon; the circumference is 3 km, the highest point in the center 110 m. In ancient times Vivara was connected to Procida by a natural land bridge. The now uninhabited island is administratively subordinate to Procida. It is located in the Area naturale marina protetta Regno di Nettuno .

geology

The volcanic origin is clear: it is the western edge of a crater formed with Procida, which today is mostly under water.

history

The island, which is now uninhabited, was an important port of call for maritime trade during the Middle Italian Bronze Age , as evidenced by numerous fragments of Mycenaean ceramics . So far, three different sites have been archaeologically researched on the island : As early as the 1930s, Giorgio Buchner excavated the remains of a Bronze Age settlement at Punta Capitello , in the north of the island. a. Mycenaean pottery. However, his research results were never published in detail. Punta di Mezzogiorno , in the south of the island, the site where the oldest artifacts came to light, was explored in the 1970s and 1980s; Punta d'Alaca, in the west of Vivara, was excavated from the 1970s to the 1990s, but the interpretation of the exact sequence of layers and the dating of the finds are still the subject of archaeological research.

The finds on Vivara showed that Greek imports from the early and middle Mycenaean period ( Late Helladic I and II), i.e. from the 17th / 16th to 15th century BC BC, to prove a brisk trade of the Mycenaean culture with the island. In addition, objects from the Capo Graziano culture of the Aeolian Islands were found - in addition to contemporary Italian ceramics , which further substantiate Vivara's importance as a Bronze Age trading center. In addition to clay seals for goods with individual characters, fragments of a tuff tablet with numerical notes were discovered that are very similar to the palm-leaf- shaped linear B clay tablets from Greece and Crete. It is an indication that Vivara also had Mycenaean inhabitants who kept records of the trade.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, p. 88.
  2. ^ Obituary for Giorgio Buchner by David Ridgway in The Independent of April 8, 2005.
  3. ↑ In detail: Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, pp. 88–94.
  4. ^ Nancy H. Demand: The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History. John Wiley & Sons, 2011, p. 145 (with further references).