Greek colonists and indigenous populations at L’Amastuola, southern Italy

Abstract

This article presents a second preliminary report on fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2010 in and around the Archaic site of L’Amastuola (Apulia) by VU University Amsterdam. It presents and discusses the results of field surveys (from 2005 onwards), satellite image analysis (2007-2008) and excavations of the settlement (2007-2008) and of the necropolis (2010). Especially the final two seasons of excavations in the settlement area yielded more evidence in support of our thesis of Greek-indigenous cohabitation, as well as some invaluable information about the post-abandonment phase at the site, when a cult of the Dioskouroi was installed, presumably by the Tarentines occupying L’Amastuola. A tomb-like cult structure associated with this cult was erased in during the early third century BC, possibly in the wake of the Roman conquest of southern Italy.