During the last years there has been a steadily increasing collaboration between the University of Basilicata and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Basilicata. Siris-Herakleia is one of the key sites standing in the focus of our collaborative activities. 2013 we have started carrying out geomagnetic prospection in Siris-Herakleia. _Archaeological Field Survey in the chora of Siris-Herakleia_ In 2012 the Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici di Matera has started an archaeological survey in the area SE of Santa Maria d’Anglona, a hilltop which has yielded materials from the Early Iron Age onwards (see below), 11 kilometres from Policoro (ancient Herakleia). Through an intesive field survey, having archaeologists walk in 10 meters distance, we are trying to cover the landscape as completely as possible. As in other surveys of the Postgraduate School, modern landuse and visilibity are documented systematically. The data which have been collected so far are particularly rich for the time span between Iron Age (scattered indigenous settlement in the surroundings of Anglona) and the Late Hellenistic period. The Imperial period is only scarcely attested in the study area. The results show how deeply the political and social transformation going on in the central place (arrival of Greek groups, foundation of the polis Siris-Polieion, its destruction and the 'achaean' phase of the Siritis, foundation of Herakleia, rise of Lucanian settlements in the inland, 'Romanization') affect the structure of the rural settlement. The typology of sites, which particularly differentiated during the Hellenistic period, include besides farmsteads of various sizes tomb areas, storage structures and cult places. The dense rural settlement during the late 4th and 3rdcenturies B.C. has parallels not only in the Greek world (e.g. Metaponto, Argolis, Attica ), but also in the Italic inland (e.g. Torre di Satriano, Montescaglioso, Altojanni). We are trying to systematically analyse published and archive data (archaeological, geological, historical etc.) concerning a wider area, in order to understand the ancient settlement on a broader scale and to reconstruct the “social geography” of the communities living here. _Infra-site survey at S. Maria d'Anglona_ The hilltop of S. Maria d’Anglona is part of the area which has been surveyed in 2012. Within the scope of this new project the infra-site survey of the settlement at Santa Maria d’Anglona, started already in 2008, has been continued. In 2012 we have covered the Southern slopes of the hill in order to see if the settlement on the hilltop expanded to this area. The study of the materials, though still in a preliminary stadium, permits to hypothesize that the medieval settlement of hill.

In 2014, a new programme of Franco-Italian excavations began on the site of ancient Herakleia di Lucania, today Policoro. These were carried out by the Department of Archaeological Heritage at Matera (University of Basilicata), the École Pratique des Hautes Études e l’École Normale Supérieure, Paris, in collaboration with the University of Salento (Lecce) as part of a three year concession granted by MIBAC and the Archaeological Superintendency for Basilicata. The site’s interest derives from the fact that it presents a succession of settlements, each characterised by a specific urban organisation. It is ‘an open air laboratory’ for the study of the original dynamics of the formation and transformation of the cities of Magna Graecia from the 8th – 1st centuries B.C. It is also of great importance for gaining an insight into the complex forms of cultural and political identity in the picture of changeable relationships between Greek society and indigenous communities from the geometric and Orientalizing periods until Romanisation. Three trenches were opened. The first (A), examined the courtyard of a porticoed building in _insula_ I of the central quarter of Collina del Castello, excavated in the past by Dinu Adamesteanu. In this sector, evidence was found for the production of small bronze coins dating to the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. Two pits contained two types of discs (fused or cut in small bars), a coin minted from the same module, waste from smelting and numerous pieces of slag and terracotta fragments. The presence of a matt-painted ware waster attests the production of indigenous pottery at Policoro in the 7th century B.C. Trench (B) was opened on the south side of the plateau. The end of a Hellenistic _insula_ was identified, and on the surface there were numerous fragments of archaic pottery that differed from those belonging to an Eastern Greek figured _oinochoe_, from Miletus, datable to the third quarter of the 7th century B.C. The last trench (C), opened in the _cella_ of the “archaic temple”, discovered by Adamesteanu in the valley of Varatizzo, revealed a layer of cobblestones associated with a series of pottery fragments dating to the second half of the 7th century B.C.

In _insula_ I of the central quarter (Trench A), the 2017 campaign was able to date several phases of reorganisation, construction and destruction during the Hellenistic period. A preliminary analysis suggests the first construction phase of the porticoed building in _Insula_ I dates to the late 3rd century B.C. The foundations of the walls and pillars rest on a horizontal surface that was created by a substantial intervention to level the area. In the central part of the plateau, the levelling reached bedrock, reason for which earlier layers were not found. On the contrary, around the edges of the hill an earlier layer dating to at least the 4th century B.C. survived the levelling; this season it was reached on the north side. The foundations of the first phase walls and the associated layers contained numerous fragments of the architectural decorations, in soft limestone, from one or more buildings in Tarantine style of the 3rd century B.C. The fill of two large pits situated in the south-eastern part of the building dated to the late 3rd century B.C. The first, probably a well, has so far produced a rich and uniform pottery assemblage associated with the remains of architectural decorations in the Tarantine style in addition to Hellenistic antefixes from earlier buildings. The second pit, whose fill pre-dates the walls of the porticoed building, contained ceramics identical to those in the first. Stone catapult balls were found in both pits, in one case associated with a trilobate bronze arrowhead, probably a Punic type. A Republican _pilum_ and a _scorpio_ point were also found. Given the chronology of the contexts and the traces of destruction of the earlier buildings, these elements may be interpreted as evidence of the passing of Hannibal’s army in 213 B.C. rather than that of the slave army led by Spartacus as originally thought. The porticoed building in _Insula_ I, whose first phase seems to date to the late 3rd century B.C., underwent many alterations until the first half of the 1st century B.C. In sector B, situated on the summit of the plateau’s southern edge, the excavations were extended to the north and west. The western extension uncovered an archaic stratigraphy that was better-defined than that excavated in 2015-2016, dating to between the second half of the 7th century B.C. and the early 5th century B.C. This sequence reinforces the idea that there was a hiatus in the occupation of the plateau between c. 570/560 B.C. and 501/500 B.C. A small late archaic pit contained fragments of stuccoed column drums and a Doric trabeation belonging to a cult building. The northern extension revealed the continuation of the Hellenistic _insula_, with the same stratigraphic and chronological sequence between the north-south perimeter wall, dating to the first half of the 3rd century B.C., and the later internal walls.

This season, in _insula_ 1 of the central quarter (Sector A), the excavation of the entire building was completed, concentrating the investigation on rooms 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12 (according to the nomenclature of the Adamesteanu excavations). The materials found were similar in category and chronology to those found during previous seasons. These included architectural fragments in Tarantine style reused in wall foundations or in the levels of fill for the preparation of beaten earth floors, choroplastic fragments, bronze elements such as slag or roundels relating to the mint phase, military materials such as catapult balls and arrowheads, probably relating to the Punic war. In room 10, there was a substantial concentration of unusual bronze, lead, and iron objects similar to seals or for closing scrolls. The dating of the walls visible on the site and belonging to _insula_ 1 was confirmed to be no earlier than the 2nd-1st century B.C., and therefore in this period the city of _Herakleia_ underwent massive rebuilding prior to which the area was razed, leaving no traces of the earlier structures. However, it may be presumed that the perimeter of the _insula_ did not undergo any substantial modifications. This early phase was only visible through the material finds: 3rd century B.C. architectural elements in Tarantine limestone, 4th – 3rd century B.C. black glaze pottery, and votive terracottas of the same date. Three small trenches, alpha, beta and gamma, were opened along _stenopos_ I, which confirmed the chronology documented during the previous campaign as layers datable by the pottery finds to the 5th - 4th century B.C., were present. No structures were present underneath the road surface. In sector B, situated on the summit of the southern edge of the plateau of Collina del Castello, the excavations continued in a north-westerly direction in order to uncover what was possibly part of the _insula_ that had been disturbed by the construction of a modern rainwater drainage channel. The aim here was also to clarify, based on the stratigraphy, the stratigraphic relationship between Siria and Herakleia. The following emerged in this order: a beaten road surface on a NW/SE alignment, datable to the 3rd century B.C., coeval with the Hellenistic-Roman quarter, of which layers of roof tile collapse were already found during the first campaign in 2014; a level of material dating exclusively to the archaic period resting directly on natural; an oval pit, its contents suggesting it was a dump of food remains and the dismantling of a hearth, datable to within the first half of the 6th century B.C. and therefore attesting the latest phase of the archaic city of Siria prior to its destruction; a well 1.40 m in diameter whose fill is dated to the 3rd century B.C. by the presence of numerous reconstructable pottery forms, almost intact tiles and imbrices, architectural fragments, and miniature vases etc.