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Excavation

  • Fondo Torre
  • Giuggianello
  •  
  • Italy
  • Apulia
  • Provincia di Lecce
  • Giuggianello

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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)

  • Excavations were undertaken at Giuggianello in order to continue the 2006-2007 investigations, when parts of a large circular structure were uncovered that were interpreted as a Messapian watch-tower (4th-3rd century B.C.), situated between the settlements of Vaste and Muro Leccese. A curvilinear wall of stone blocks with a scarp face and standing to five courses was identified to a length of over 16 m.
    Three trenches were opened with the aim of defining its plan, function, and chronology.

    A. This was opened at the continuation of the structure already exposed. Below a thin surface layer (c. 15 cm) a single course of blocks with a curve line (US 31) was exposed. The blocks were trapezoidal and measured 1.20 × 0.65 (exterior) x 0.45 (interior); the width varied between 25 and 30 cm. The wall was carefully built, the blocks placed in a very closely fitted wedge formation with very fine joins. The upper face was oblique, the slope accentuated towards the interior. On the outside there was a destruction level (US 32) and on the inside a fill of medium sized stones bonded with reddish-brown soil (US 46), in phase with the blocks.
    A small trench opened outside the wall revealed two layers. The first contained several plain-ware pottery fragments of Hellenistic date and seems interpretable as an accumulation on which to place the blocks (US 40). Underneath was a layer containing fragments of Bronze Age impasto pottery (US 41).

    B. In the north area of this trench, another long section of the wall was uncovered. Here, a second course was preserved, although only partially. The blocks have a consistent module, apart from some smaller elements to the east. A destruction level was present outside the wall (US 43) corresponding with that found in trench A. It covered a thick layer of greenish compact clayey soil (US 33), which abutted the blocks. A fill of medium sized stones was present on the inside (US 46).

    C. This extended from trench B to the centre of the building. A fill of medium sized stones bonded with orange-brown soil was uncovered adjacent to the facing, in phase with the blocks. Proceeding towards the centre, below a layer of agricultural terrain (US 36), a fill was exposed that was made up of compact large irregular calcarenite stones and fragments from the stone blocks (US 39). The large masses, associated with loose soil, were removed: they lay directly a reddish-brown layer (US 42) containing Bronze Age impasto pottery and a flint blade.

    The excavations almost completely uncovered a ring of squared blocks forming a circular building 24.5 m in diameter. The walls were built of several concentric tapering courses. The module and typology of the blocks, together with the finds, suggest a date of between the 4th and 3rd century B.C.

    The facing built in opus isodomum, together with a stone-filled cavity, functioned as cladding for a large base built of stones. This corresponded with a middle Bronze Age “specchia” (watch-tower). In the Hellenistic period, the earlier structure, still visible, was restructured and monumentalised and a timber tower was probably built at its centre, thus the entire structure could reach a height of at least 10 m.

  • Giovanni Mastronuzzi -Università del Salento 

Director

Team

  • Giacomo Vizzino
  • Laura Masiello- Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto
  • Fabrizio Ghio
  • Valeria Melissano - Università del Salento
  • Amedeo Galati
  • Andrea Sasso
  • Renato Caldarola - Università del Salento

Research Body

  • Università del Salento

Funding Body

  • CUIS Consorzio Universitario Interprovinciale Salentino

Images

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