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The Costa Palomba is
the south-western flank of the "Alburni Mounts"
(here, seen from across the Calore valley). The
town on the slope in the center is Castelcivita at
526 meters (c. 1700 feet). The plateau slopes
upward to the northwest from about 1100 m. with
peaks above 1700 m. (c. 5500 feet). The high
flank, dropping off on the left, is directly above
the Paestum plain. The
term
costa in
Italian generally means the same thing as "coast" in
English—a stretch of
land bordering on the sea. It can, however, also mean
"mountain side," or "flank of a mountain." Thus, in
the Cilento Hills just a few miles inland from
Paestum, the remarkable geological feature uplifted
between the Calore river (in the valley in the center
of the above photo) and the Sele river (on the other
side, not visible in this photo) is called i monti Alburni,
the Alburni Mounts,
named for the principal height on the plateau, Mount
Alburno, visible in the photo (the peak sticking up to
the right of center). Costa Palomba is the local name for
the south-western flank visible in the photo. (Palomba is
dialect for the Italian colomba, dove. Note the similarity
to the Spanish, paloma.)
Indeed,
there is something aerodynamic about the
entire massif, as it if it were about to go airborne,
to take off. The plateau extends for some distance
beyond the photo to the right. The entire tableland was for many
centuries one of the target grazing lands, the end of
the road, on the long seasonal migration of shepherds
and livestock from the plains in the interior. In
Italian, this type of seasonal movement is called transumanza (from
Latin for "across the ground"). The area was apparently
first used by an early Italic
tribe called the Enotrians many centuries before
the Greeks arrived to settle the nearby coast at
Poseidonia (Paestum) in 600 BC, and then around 700-600
BC by the "transhumant pastoralists" who displaced the
Enotrians, the Lucanians. The Lucanians were cousins of
the Samnites, who were
centered somewhat to the north near Benevento and who
became later known as implacable enemies of the Romans.
Most of these early Italic tribes had spread from north
to south through Italy many centuries earlier as part of
the Indo-European expansion. The myths of their
expansion involve the so-called "rites of Spring" during
which excess population was expelled from the parent
group through a ritual of vicarious animal sacrifice;
those sent off to seek their own valleys, hills and
fortunes would, in turn, later stage their own "rites of
Spring" and send off others. Thus, the peninsula filled
up with Samnites, Lucanians, Enotrians, Sabines and, of
course, Latins—the
Romans, who made us forget all the others. Anthropologists
and
archaeologists
generally
divide
pastoralism
into various kinds. You can have true
migratory tribes who tend animals as a way of life and
lead a nomadic life-style. In the case of southern
Italy, however, pastoralism was of a different kind.
These were not simple herders of goats and sheep,
constantly on the move and eking out a
subsistence-level life. The pastoralists in southern
Italy were often from a solid, substantial culture for
whom the ownership and migrating of livestock during
the transumanza
were cultural constructs, part of a much more complex
life. The Samnites, for example, also great
pastoralists with their own transumanza routes farther north,
were a powerful and warlike culture. Moving animals
back and forth along migration routes did more than
just feed the animals; it gave the owners the
opportunity to make themselves physically known
in adjacent territory; it gave them the prestige of
showing off their wealth of livestock; it let them
form unions, make allies and engage in trade using the
secondary products of the animals, such as wool and
milk; and seasonal migration renewed contact among
cousin peoples separated by the centuries—such as the Samnites
and Lucanians. Lucania in c. 600
BC
Local
lore
throughout
Italy
still contains traces of the ancient
migrations. There is, for example, a grotto near lake
Fucino in the Abruzzi in central Italy said to be the
abode of the snake goddess, Angitia; a cult to her
grew up in the presence of the many difficulties and fears
connected with the transumanza
such as the presence of wolves and poisonous snakes
that preyed on shepherds and livestock alike. The site became a target
for pilgrimages among local farmers and migrant
shepherds. The rituals were magical and therapeutic,
all aimed not just at cursing the snakes but at the
economic and psychological side of the long passage.
("Please get
me through this in one piece with some healthy
livestock left!")
Modern
times
have
rendered the ancient seasonal migration of
livestock obsolete, but the area is still full of
local livestock and shepherds. The shepherds still
tend their animals, the way they have always done. [Other
mentions
of
the transumanza
here and here.] |
The
presence of pastoralists at the high elevation of the
Alburni plateau was seasonal, limited to the warm
summer months, after which they began the trek back
down to the plains in the east. The extent to which
they may have left permanent sites in the area is
unclear, as is the exact relationship between the
inhabitants of these sites and the newcomer Greeks on
the coast at Paestum. At a certain point, around 600
BC, we do know that the Greeks were successful in
establishing colonies of