Offerte di armi dal santuario di Punta Stilo a Kaulonia. Tipologia e contesti

The sanctuary of Punta Stilo at Kaulonia, an Achaean colony along the Ionian coast of southern Calabria which was founded at the beginning of the 7th century B.C. and frequented from the middle of the 8th century B.C. onwards, has been excavated since 1999 by the University of Pisa and Scuola Normale Superiore. The excavations have uncovered 187 pieces of armour and weapons in bronze and iron, including functional and miniaturized offensive and defensive weapons, from the old (1911-15, 1961, 1970-71) and the new excavations.  The quantitative analysis has revealed that offensive weapons are more numerous than defensive ones; among the offensive ones the arrowheads are the most copious with 83 examples, while among the defensive ones the helmets are the most represented. In most cases the Kaulonian weapons have the same features as those from the most known Greek sanctuaries, like Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia or Kalapodi. Nevertheless, there are several cases in which the Kaulonian weapons do not have any comparisons to other Mediterranean sites, such as a right greave decorated on the knee with a Gorgon’s head, or they have comparisons with the Phoenician world, such as an unusual bronze arrowhead with two spurs on the socket having only few occurrences in the Mediterranean sea. As a result of the quantitative analysis, it has been important to contextualize the Kaulonian weapons in their reliable layers to know their chronology, the spread of the typologies and, in the case of primary contexts, the significance of their deposition. Unfortunately almost all the weapons from the sanctuary of Punta Stilo at Kaulonia were found out of contexts, only few in primary contexts; despite that, the analysis of each context, both primary and secondary, could help to rearrange an invisible mesh of connections inside the sanctuary as to understand the social status of those who dedicated weapons, as well as the nature of the dedication ritual itself.