It is the path 518 of the National Park of Cilento, Aburni and Vallo di Diano, the ancient Casiliccio path, that connects Old Roscigno immersed in its lethargic sleep to New Roscigno where life flows.

 

That is the path to climb Mount Pruno, that from its 879 meters high has earned the reputation of "balcony of the Alburni". An extraordinary position, his, on Sentinel Pass and on Sella del Corticato, the pass that connects Cilento and Vallo di Diano. It was for that reason and for the presence of water sources that the plain on the summit was occupied by groups of Enotri since the VII century BC. They were shepherds building small settlements all around the area near the mountain.

The Enotri, one of the most ancient Italic populations, were followed in the last decades of the fifth century by the Lucani, in their phase of expansion towards the coast, where they had taken control over the Greek Poseidonia, that they renamed Paistom. It was the new colonizers to build a defensive wall around the settlement on the summit in the following century, where all the inhabitants scattered around the area took refuge in case of danger. A mighty, massive opera, with foundations anchored in the living rock and five meters wide, of which a section of about seventy meters was brought to light.

Abandoned at the end of the third century rather hastily, perhaps in conjunction with the arrival of the Romans, the site on Monte Pruno gradually fell into oblivion until its traces and memory were lost. Many centuries had to pass before a farmer, working his crops, came to find fragments of amber that could only come from the past. It was 1938 and since then grave robbers came into action, extensively plundering the area, before it was explored in the 1960s by the archaeologist De La Genière, engaged in excavating the Heraion in Paestum plain. But it was only in the Eighties that systematic excavation campaigns began, highlighting the presence of a 6th century necropolis from which valuable information came to decipher the history of the site and many important finds. And not only from an archaeological point of view.

Among the discoveries of Mount Pruno the most famous is the Tomb of the Prince. Next to the deceased, a man, in a supine position, a precious funerary kit was found: red-figure vases of Magna Graecia origin, bronze objects of Etruscan manufacture, including a finely decorated candelabrum, a silver kantharos and golden pendants. The richness of the objects undoubtedly identifies him as a noble, the typology of some finds identifies him as a leader, of enotria lineage: the wheel of a war chariot, bronze strigils and a silver crown. A set also indicative of the variety and importance of exchanges and relations with the different populations present in that period in Campania.

Numerous burials of both men, including another princely from the 5th century, and women have come to light at the site. Men burials always had weapons, helmets, swords and iron spear points, women burials instead were filled with amber necklaces and ceramic kits. As many as 46 amber objects were found, including the small heads of women with almond eyes and heads of silenes.

On the slopes of the mountain, just over a kilometer from the plain of the summit, in the small valley of Cuozzi, a residential structure of about 400 square meters has emerged, consisting of several rooms, arranged around the courtyard, with a roof decorated in clay and walls plastered. Both male semi-chamber tombs, with a characteristic bronze belt indicative of Lucani culture, and female tombs have also been found. All the finds, first of all those from the Tomb of the Prince, are displayed in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Salerno.

The site of Mount Pruno is an archaeological park, managed in collaboration with the Federico II University of Naples, which also created an excavation school there, because the archaeological investigation continues ...