Ancient settlement dynamics and predictive archaeological models for the Metapontum coastal area in Basilicata, southern Italy: from geomorphological survey to spatial analysis

Abstract

In the ancient territory of the Greek settlement of Metaponto and its Chora (Ionian sector of Basilicata, southern Italy) geomorphological mapping, GIS-supported statistics, and landform topographic features were investigated and combined to extract settlement rules and site dynamics. Analyses of environmental dynamics as well as of spatial and temporal settlement evolution were carried through an integrated approach that, starting from a detailed geomorphological analysis, tried to extract the spatial relationships between archaeological site locations and landform/landscape features. Spatial analysis was used to investigate the relationships between environmental parameters and archaeological sites. The advantages to develop a predictive model using Archeological Spatial Evaluation (ASE) analysis lay in the possibility to deeply study the relationships between man and the environment. In the present study, the analysis was carried out in a pioneering way in the ~400 km² Metaponto territory in order to robustly validate - in the aftermath data - human and territorial dynamics. A model describing interactions between sites and parameters such as elevation, slope, aspect, landforms, land use, and distances from rivers was constructed. Sensibility maps were produced, which will help archaeologists to know how many and which are the parameters increasing the probability to find new archaeological sites as well as how the main geomorphological features of the study area, contextualized within the most likely paleoclimate scenario, affect ancient site arrangement though time. The preferential occupation of mid-altitude marine terraces, and the consequence spreading of agriculture on these territories, is likely due to the existence of well-developed soil profiles on them. Clearly colonists recognized that on these landform units there were the better conditions for the development of massive agricultural practices: since the SP age (4,1 to 2,0 Kyr B.P.) the settlers expands inland looking for most fertile territories as well as for areas sufficiently protected (being far away from the coast). The increase in farmhouses on the top of marine terraces from the FC up to EC-EE periods and the modifications of settlement distribution (gradual abandonment of alluvial) in the Metaponto area is likely related to the acceleration of alluvial processes. The progressive decrease of human occupation during the Hellenistic up to the Roman Age is clearly consequence of the Roman conquest. However, a role played by the increase in flooding occurrence in the coastal plain/floodplains of the main rivers in triggering the abandonment of these territories and marking the beginning of the decadent phases should not be neglected. Productive areas (locally associated to farmhouses) are preferential set along the fluvial incisions (sometime associated to farmhouses), thus implying that productive area setting is strongly linked to the presence of rivers, and of their lower rank tributaries, both as an intrinsic need of manufacturing and to facilitate the spreading of products. From the Classical to the Hellenistic Age until the Roman Age, Necropolis are spread in the entire area, from marine terraces to alluvial plain. On the other hand, Sacred areas - which appearance is recorded starting from the Colony Foundation Age - exhibits a settlement continuity in the study area starting from this time up to the entire Roman period, and the sacred areas setting is strictly associated to the category of Settlement.