The middle valley of the Sinni (Italy, southern Basilicata). Analysis of visibility between medieval fortified sites (11th-14th century A.D.)
Abstract
Viewshed Analysis, or visibility analysis, allows you to evaluate the range of the observation area from a given location, tower, lookout, the creation of a hypothetical model of how these sites communicated and related to each other. The study, conducted as part of the author’s doctoral thesis, examines the ancient medieval landscape in the middle Sinni Valley in southern Basilicata, starting from the development of the entire system of fortifications between the municipalities of Valsinni and Colobraro, in the eastern portion, with the two respective fortresses of barrage locality “Il Pizzo” and locality “Cozzo Madonne della Rocca”, until you reach the innermost part in a Tyrrhenian direction westwards with the fortress of the “Castello di Seluci”, now in the municipality of Lauria (PZ). In the case of fortified settlements in the hinterland of this area, a central function was carried out by Chiaromonte (PZ), the center of the county already under the Norman Clermont family during the 11th century A.D. and also during the Regency of the Sanseverino family in the 14th century A.D. With these premises it is fundamental not only to highlight the area immediately visible from each site, but also to understand the level of intervisibility that had to exist in the settlement network of this given territory between the 11th and 14th centuries A.D., the moment when the entity and future vocation of this precise territory are consolidated.References
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