Location | Francavilla Marittima, Province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy |
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Coordinates | 39°48′28″N 16°22′7″E / 39.80778°N 16.36861°E |
Type | Settlement, later sanctuary |
History | |
Periods | Middle Bronze Age to Classical Greece |
The Timpone della Motta is a hill 2 km to the southwest of Francavilla Marittima in Calabria, Italy that was inhabited since the Middle Bronze Age. In the Iron Age the hill was the site of an Oenotrian settlement. The Oenotrians were influenced by the culture of the Greek colonists from nearby Sybaris, who eventually took over the site in the second half of the seventh century and transformed it into their acropolis and an important sanctuary, which was notable as the site of the first known ancient Greek temples of Magna Graecia on the Italian Peninsula.
The hill was abandoned when the Bruttians conquered the region in the fourth century BC.