Amongst the archaeological structures investigated recently, several tomb groups from San Salvatore, on the right bank of the river Bradano, are of considerable importance. One monumental tomb, constructed with thick slabs of local conglomerate, contained a proto-Lucanian hydria of the Amykos Painter. The figured scene shows three young men and a woman in the act of displaying her wedding casket. Inside the vase were the cremated remains of the deceased. The burnt remains of the funerary ritual were identified outside the tomb and on top of its covering. In the necropoli of Metaponto, both urban and extra-urban, this type of ritual is quite rare. Its particular iconographical references usually seem to identify the exclusive role of people with important social status. The presence of a bronze strigil could indicate a male deposition, even though recent finds indicate that this instrument for use in the gymnasium is often a connotation of female depositions accompanied by rich tomb groups. (Maria Luisa Nava)

Excavation has been undertaken of a group of burials dating from the 5th-4th century B.C. The burials were found within a drainage channel, dug for the purpose of land reclamation, a practice which is well documented. The same area produced traces of a small neo-Enolithic cemetery in which all the bodies had been intered in a fetal position. For the first time evidence has been found of two distinct enchytrismoi. One was constituted by a so-called pseudo-Ionic amphora and the other by a banded hydria, containing a tomb group of small, imitation Corinthian skyphoi. Situated in the immediate vicinity was a tomb, dug at a great depth, containing an Ionian B2 type cup with reserved bands (second half of the 6th century B.C.). These finds represent the earliest funerary evidence from the colonies established within this territory. Basins for surface-water collection were found in the surrounding area. Numerous fragments of small jugs and drinking vessels ( second half of the 6th-5th century B.C.), left among the cobbles in the bottom of one of these basins, seems to suggest that this was a sacred place and that the basin held the remains of religious ceremonies. Another significant discovery was that of a section of drainage channel, whose axis is perfectly parallel to the other channels that run from inland down to the coastal plain. This channel was never used and the votive deposit placed inside it at the moment of construction has been conserved. The deposit was composed of small skyphoi with everted rims and reserved band decoration placed upside down amongst the cobbles, within a layer of ash. They can be dated to within the middle decades of the 5th century B.C., when the propitiatory sacrifice took place for the activation of the drainage system in the Metapontine territory. (Maria Luisa Nava)