On 6 August 1909, archaeologists Francesco Samarelli and Angelo Mosso set out for Bisceglie, in the narrow stretch of Apulia lying between the gentle hills of the Murge plateau and the waters of the Adriatic Sea. Local farmers had reported the emergence of large stone slabs while working the fields in the rural area known as “La Chianca“. The two scholars immediately suspected that the site might conceal a significant prehistoric monument dating to the Bronze Age1. The area was already known for its ancient settlements and had yielded numerous archaeological discoveries. Around twenty years later, the discovery of the Cave of San Ciriaco would confirm that the region had been inhabited since the Neolithic period.
The Dolmen of Chianca
By the time Samarelli and Mosso reached the site, the farmers had already removed the earth covering a monumental structure built from local limestone. The megalithic monument consisted of three massive upright slabs, or orthostats, known locally in Apulia as chianche. These supported a horizontal capstone measuring approximately 240 × 380 centimetres. Extending from the burial chamber, which stood about 1.8 metres high, was a narrow entrance passage, or dromos. The corridor was approximately 7.5 metres in length.
It soon became clear that this ancient megalithic structure was a dolmen intended to serve as a collective burial site.
Finds from the dromos and Later Excavations
The discovery proved to be extraordinary. The Dolmen of Chianca was unique within the archaeological landscape of Apulia: exceptionally well preserved, it had retained its original function as a funerary chamber. Excavations continued for several years under the direction of archaeologist Michele Gervasio2. Inside the burial chamber, archaeologists uncovered fragments of pottery, stone tools, and animal bones. Most significantly, they found the remains of eight individuals of varying ages3. Additional artefacts were recovered from the dromos, including several blackened vessels – probably scorched by ritual fires – as well as a jug and a pendant, now housed in the Archaeological Museum of Bari, and dated to between the 12th and 10th centuries BC.
Ancient Rites of Passage
During the Bronze Age, the Dolmen of Chianca undoubtedly held profound ritual significance for the communities living in the area. Indeed, several clues discovered near the communal burial chamber suggest that the monument’s architecture accommodated elaborate rites of passage. The dromos, aligned eastwards toward the rising sun, symbolically represented the journey that the deceased’s soul was believed to undertake on its way to the afterlife. The passage led directly into the burial chamber, itself a symbolic representation of the otherworld. The ritual fires lit along this metaphysical path may have been intended to ease the soul’s passage. The presence of pottery and animal bones may have provided sustenance for the journey, as attested in numerous contemporary cultures. In this sense, the dromos served as an antechamber for the funerary banquet4.
Equally significant are the holes visible in one of the orthostats. These openings allowed the soul of the deceased to enter the burial chamber and reunite with the body. Similar features recur in collective burials across a range of prehistoric cultures. The apertures may have fulfilled a function comparable to that of the openings found at the base of the exedrae in the contemporary Giants’ graves of Sardinia.
The Dolmen of Chianca as a Metaphysical Boundary
Despite extensive research, the ritual function of Apulia’s dolmens remains only partially understood. These megalithic monuments continue to captivate scholars and visitors alike, not only because of their exceptional historical and archaeological importance, but also because they bear witness to one of humanity’s earliest expressions of belief in an existence beyond death. In this sense, the Dolmen of Chianca stands as a metaphysical threshold between the world of the living and that of the dead, between the known and the unknown, between the enduring solidity of stone and the ethereal nature of fire, the timeless symbol of passage into the beyond.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- Francesco Samarelli, Il Pulo e Navarino, stazioni neolitiche nel territorio di Molfetta e Bisceglie, ed. Conte, Molfetta, 1909. ↩︎
- M. Gervasio, I dolmen e la civiltà del Bronzo nelle Puglie, Bari, 1913. ↩︎
- M. Piperno, A. Guidi, Italia preistorica, editori Laterza, Bari, 1992. ↩︎
- E. Allen, Pietre di Puglia, dolmen trulli ed insediamenti rupestri, Mario Adda Editore, Bari, 1969. ↩︎
