Monti Picentini

The ancient Campania is a frontier region, where Italics, Etruscans and Greeks produce over time various forms of relationship.
The phenomenon becomes particularly evident in the second half of the eighth century B.C. with the arrival of the Greeks: the system of exchange that they promote, focused on the settlement of Pithecusa on the island of Ischia, produces a powerful dynamism in the local populations that are part of the trade network.
In this context, phenomena of personal mobility lead to the Campanian coast individuals and groups from the inland regions, particularly from Hirpinia and Oenotria. They establish themselves in existing centers or in new settlements placed in strategic spots for maritime and terrestrial communication, as in the case of Monte Vetrano that protects the access routes from the north into the Agro Picentino.
In the necropolis the groups coming from Irpinia are easily recognizable by their funeral rites and a distinctive material culture that refers to ‘Oliveto Citra-Cairano’ facies. They arrive in Pithecusa, they are present at Monte Vetrano in the second half of the eighth century B.C., and then they become an integral component of the nearby Etruscan community of Pontecagnano where the necropolis reveals various and complex forms of integration.