Coppa Nevigata e l'Area Umida alla Foce del Candelaro Durante l'Età del Bronzo

Coppa Nevigata was a key-site as regards southern Italy during the whole Bronze Age. In fact, this settlement played a central role in northern Apulia as a terminal of both transmarine and terrestrial exchange networks. Artefacts, productive activities and structures documented at the site testify how strong the connections with northern Adriatic regions, both Italian and Balkan ones, as well as with southern Adriatic regions and the Aegean have been. Moreover, multi-year field research at the site makes it one of the more extensively unearthed Bronze Age settlements in Italy so far. Systematic excavations have been carried out since the '60s and have brought to light a wide portion of both the elaborate defensive lines and the dwelling. Therefore we have been provided with good evidence about the transformations this settlement underwent over the one thousand years of his unbroken occupation, which furthermore were strongly related to the broader ongoing social and economic changes within the central Mediterranean.
This volume, which is divided into three parts, is aimed at giving a preliminary overview over the results of the research carried out at Coppa Nevigata during the last 40 years. In the first part overall results of the excavations led by Salvatore M. Puglisi in collaboration with Alba Palmieri between 1972 and 1975 are presented in detail. The second one, on the other hand, is devoted to discuss the results of the ongoing excavations, started in 1983. Finally, the third part collects papers by scientists and archaeologists that thoroughly approach various subjects, ranging from paleoeconomic and paleoenvironmental analyses, to archaeological and archaeometric analyses of artefacts linked to transmarine exchanges, to the study of funerary practices attested at the site, to the discussion of radiometric dates related to the different phases of the settlement. Given the great deal of data and hypotheses discussed, this volume represents a significant contribution to the understanding of a southern Italian Bronze Age community.