Archaeologists in southern Italy have uncovered the graves of two children who were buried with large bronze belts nearly 2,500 years ago. The metallic accessory is unusual because it is usually only found in adult male burials from the pre-Roman Samnite culture.
During recent work at the site of a former tobacco factory in Pontecagnano, a town in the Campania region of southwestern Italy, archaeologists excavated part of an ancient cemetery containing 34 burials dated to the fourth and third centuries BC, according to a translated statement from the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Salerno and Avellino. About half of the graves contained skeletons of children between the ages of 2 and 10.
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Pontecagnano was first settled in the ninth century BC. of people from Villanovan culturewho introduced highly skilled bronze working practices to southern Italy. Two centuries later, Etruscan groups transformed Pontecagnano into a commercial hub for Greek, Phoenician and Italian traders. And by the fifth century BC, the Samnites—warlike tribes who lived in the mountains of southern Italy and spoke a language called Oscan—had moved into Pontecagnano. The city remained a Samnite hub until Novel the conquest of southern Italy in the third century BC
The Pontecagnano cemeteries have revealed key information about Samnite burial practices. Their graves were organized by family unit, and most took the form of earthen pits covered with tiled roofs. Grave goods offered to the dead included a variety of ceramics, but some items were gender-specific: Men were buried with warrior-coded items such as spearheads, spears and bronze beltswhile women received rings and brooches.
But in the new excavation, archaeologists discovered two children between the ages of 5 and 10 who were buried with bronze belts typical of adult male burials. Archaeologists had previously uncovered at least one additional example – a 12-year-old child wearing a bronze belt – at Pontecagnano. “It is a discovery of great importance,” archaeologist Gina Tomay told the Italian news agency ANSA in 2021. Tomay also said the boy lived in the fourth century B.C. and was buried with ceramic cups to ensure he had food and wine in the afterlife.
Experts are not sure why these children were buried with an accessory typical of a warrior. However, Anglo-Saxon graves from the sixth century AD may of boys buried with belts and other war gear in Britain have been placed there to speak of “the men these children may have become“, archaeologists have previously suggested.
Excavations are ongoing in various sectors of the city of Pontecagnano due to public and private construction projects, so the overall results of the archaeological work have not yet been made public. The superintendent plans to announce the new findings at this important pre-Roman settlement once the research is complete.
