Il compascuo dell'Altopiano di Navelli: un contributo per lo studio delle strutture insediative, economiche e religiose dell'Abruzzo interno tra Antichità e Medioevo

The Plateau of Navelli (AQ) is one of the units in which the mountainous area of Abruzzo is articulated. During the 60s of last century, it has been affected by a land reclamation that altered the formation of a seasonal lake in the middle of the plain. This natural phenomenon is linked to the karst nature of the subsurface and also to the presence of a sinkhole – located at the base of a small and low circular hill – which regulated the dynamics of formation of the lake. Currently only a swamp appears in periods of heavy rain. Despite this, it is possible to reconstruct the extent of the lake and, more importantly, it is possible to investigate the relationship between the local population and the natural phenomenon, and how this has affected settlement, economic and religious patterns during the Ancient Age and the Middle Ages. In fact, the lake was located in an area of pasture and therefore it represented an important resource of water for the local breeding economy. The archival documentation introduces us to the ways in which this pastureland area was exploited, that is, according to a system of promiscuity which benefited both people of Navelli and Collepietro, the two settlements dominating the plateau, developed as a result of the Medieval fortification in the late 11th century. At the same time, archival sources allow to reconstruct the gradual suppression of the common pasture between the second half of the 14th and the beginning of the 16th century, until the placing of a definitive boundary in early 1800, through whom the territories of the two municipalities are still divided. The witnesses deposited in the proceedings of the various lawsuits that led to the dissolution of the common pasture, argue that this originated from the union of nine villages and the commoning of their goods, aimed at the creation of the two castles of Navelli and Collepietro. Altough toponymical and archaeological sources essentially confirm this tradition, several evidences lead to the hypothesis that this pastureland had ancient origins. In the territory of one of the Early Medieval villages, Montone, there was the archipriest church of St. Salvator, situated on a small and low hill facing the seasonal lake and dominating the plateau: here it was found, in the early 20th century, a thesaurus of the Republican period connected to a cult of Jupiter. Other archaeological, topographical and toponymical evidences allow to hypothesize the function of this cult as belonging to a pagus sanctuary, probably connected with the presence of the lake and the area of pasture. It probably was involved in the management of this resource, which had to be exploited by the two Roman centers (vici) of *Incerulae and *Benaterum. Evidences of a connection to the relevance to a pagus of this pastureland, together with toponymical considerations, have finally led to the formulation of a hypothesis about the identification of the pagus N[---], epigraphically documented in the ager of the near Roman municipium of Peltuinum.

Questo contributo intende porsi nel dibattito relativo al tema della continuità/ discontinuità tra l’età antica ed il Medioevo – a livello insediativo, economico e religioso – presentando come caso di studio una situazione inedita riscontrata nell’Altopiano di Navelli, una delle unità nelle quali si articola l’area montana dell’Abruzzo. Indizi di natura toponomastica, archeologica e topografica hanno consentito di formulare, per l’età romana, ipotesi circa la gestione paganica di un’area di pascolo legata alla formazione di un lago stagionale, area che in età pienamente medievale troviamo sfruttata a regime di compascuo. Di questa promiscuità si delineano le origini e la fine, sancita con il suo scioglimento nel XVI secolo e l’apposizione di confini stabili agli inizi del XIX, per giungere alla bonifica del lago negli anni ’60 del secolo scorso.