Late Neolithic village north of Matera in southeast Italy. It has given its name to a type of pottery found in abundance here in the 4th millennium be, characterized by a fine hard buff ware with dark purplish-brown painted decoration and elaborate handles. The commonest forms are cups and jars. The high quality of the ware and the fact that it most often occurs in graves and other ritual contexts suggests that it was produced for special purposes. It was traded over a wide area, occurring in Sicily, Lipari and in central Italy, but only in small quantities.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied