Historical outlines
Situated at 350 mt over the sea level the city of Gravina in Puglia is comletely sorrounded by fertile hills and lies in a valley.
At the border of Apulia with Lucania it is part of the Province of Bari. Its weather is rather temperate, the ground around the city is vey fertile and picturesque having a continue alternate of plains and valleys; it is populated by woods and and vineyards.
The city has a subsoil rich of drinkable and alkaline waters which allow the growth of vegetation and the presence of fountains spread along the streets.
The ideal geographical position and the wealth of the ground allowed the presence of men since very ancient times.
The first human settlement goes back to the Middle Neolithic (5th millennium b.C.)
Starting from the Iron Age there is the birth of a wide agglomerate on the hill called Botromagno, situated in proximity to the actual inhabited areas. Between the 8th and 9th century b.C. the city lives a period of great economic and cultural wealth thank to the influences of the greek world. Towards the end of this period the city, called Sidion, provides itself of big city walls and coins its own coin.
Conquested by the Romans around the year 305 b.C., the city turns its name into Silvium and becomes an important market center along the Appian Way, ancient lines of communication are replaced by more modern and efficient ones, in the while other centers loose their contacts, Gravina becomes the Appian “highway” and becomes place of exchanges and meetings.
The archaeological area
Along the territory of Gravina, excavations brought to light finds of the Iron Age. It is handed down the existence of a city called Silvium which in the year 305 b.C. was destroyed by the Roman army.
Since 1967 the Professor A. Perkins has been making researches on the hill of Petramagna. His students excavate for years and brought to light a Greek-Roman colony, a settlement born for strategic purposes to allow halts for Romans directed to Greece following the Appian Way.
The structure of Silvium risults the typical one of Romans settlements with traces of construction on ancient foundations, of earthenwares, of monumental and funeral dowries. Precious dowries, weapons made up of bronze and iron, many terracottas and ceramics were discovered inside tombs, they were saved from degradetion and today preserved in the most important museums of the world.
We can assert that the old settlement called Botromagno is with any doubt one of the biggest ones in the South of Italy (more than 430 hectars) and maybe the richest one because of the quality of the materials found inside burials.
In these last years, thank to the engagement of public administration, involved in the will to recover the historical memory of the place, other archaeological excavations. In the actual state all the studies are incomplete and need further researches to give certain answers.
There is no need of a great effort to understand the wealth which all these goods are able to give to all the territory of the Murgia: we talk about tourism, of handicrafts, commerce, and above all occupation.