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Excavation

  • Muro Tenente
  • Muro Tenente
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    Credits

    • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

      MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

      ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

      AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

    • AIAC_logo logo

    Summary (English)

    • In 2007 and 2008 a series of trenches were excavated on the south part of the external defensive walls at Muro Tenente. The surface accumulation of stones and earth were removed and a trench circa 10 × 27 m was opened along the internal curtain of the defences, revealing the primary characteristics of this inner wall. The dry-stone facing comprised local stone blocks of irregular shape and size, some of which had been squared. Despite the irregularity in the size of the stones and in their positioning, a certain linearity could be seen in the construction of this section of wall. However, these linear alignments did not run the entire length and were often interrupted by irregular ill-fitting stones which left gaps then filled with smaller stones. The characteristics of this internal facing were similar to those of the fortifications at Valesio.

      A stairway was uncovered along the internal curtain wall which provided access to the summit of the fortification. Four steps in a very good state of preservation, circa 0.80 m wide and circa 0.30 m deep, were exposed. The stairway descended to the east and was built along the wall, causing it to narrow at this point. It was reached by a road circa 5 m wide, running along the curtain wall. The occupation level was exposed in the western section of the trench, mainly constituted by a large quantity of uniformly distributed small stones, tile and pottery fragments. Whilst the south side of the road was bordered by the fortification, the north was bordered by a low dry-stone wall that was contemporary with and ran parallel to the curtain wall. It was damaged in several places but this did not compromise either the interpretation or the stability of this structure. In some points it was preserved to a height of circa 0.80 m and in the damaged parts the differences between the construction of the foundations and the wall itself could be seen. The foundations were mainly constituted by large blocks of rough-hewn limestone laid flat; the wall itself was made of medium sized flat limestone blocks, roughly worked on the outer face of the wall.

      The wall was preserved for circa 30 m, the length of the excavation trench. It constituted the back of a series of buildings abutting the fortifications and divided by a road on an north-south alignment at a right-angle to the curtain wall and on the same axis as the stairway linking the walkway along the curtain wall to the centre of the settlement. At present the function of these structures remains uncertain.

    • Lucia Di Noi 
    • Gert-Jan Burgers - VU-Università di Amsterdam/Reale Istituto Neerlandese di Roma 

    Director

    Team

    • Assunta Cocchiaro - Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia
    • Daphne Lentjes - VU Università di Amsterdam

    Research Body

    • VU-Università di Amsterdam/Reale Istituto Neerlandese di Roma

    Funding Body

    • Comune di Mesagne
    • European Regional Development Fund
    • Regione Puglia

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