1 - Location, background and project context
The ancient region of the Hirpini, bounded by Campania and Samnium, occupies a crucial portion of the southern Apennines at mid-distance between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas (fig.1).
The region has been a genuine crossroads since at least the later prehistory. Frigento, one of the oldest towns of Hirpinia and indeed a former regional capital endowed with rich historical memories, is itself located very close to the Apennine watershed where it is at its lowest and most negotiable. Here the mountain range has a reticulate configuration rather than linear. This sum of factors has made the Frigento area a central area for human circulation between an eastern and a western geo-climatic province within southern Italy. There is little doubt that such pre-conditions and their consequences have been in effect for a very long time, and presumably through...
