Before the Iron Age: the oldest settlements in the hinterland of the Sibaritide (Calabria, Italy)

Francesca Ippolito

E-mail: f.ippolito@rug.nl

Period of Employment:  2009-2014

Promotor: Prof. Dr. P.A.J. Attema

Financed by: GIA

Project Description:

The aim of this project is to study distribution and organization of settlements in the valley of the Raganello in the Northwestern Sibaritide region during protohistory. To that aim, since May 2008, a first phase in this project was carried out as part of a partnership between the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and the University of Bari. During this phase, the typological and chronological analysis of handmade ‘impasto’ sherds acquired through field survey by the GIA in the Raganello Archaeological Project was studied. This preliminary catalogue of the materials is now part of a wider programme including the study of the development of settlement and landscape, the analysis of the relationship between settlements, ancient roads, economic and hydrogeological resources, the analysis of land use and of the distribution of religious places. Since there are among the finds of the Raganello Archaeological Project fragments of hut plaster, the programme includes also archaeobotanical analysis of imprints and botanical remains. The data will be confronted to and combined with the results of the archaeological excavations carried out on the Timpone della Motta (Francavilla Marittima). In particular, the project aims to analyze unpublished materials of the Bronze Age and their contexts, found on Plateau I. The obtained data will be analysed using GIS.