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  • Fondo Gesù – Via Achille Grandi
  • Crotone
  •  
  • Italy
  • Calabria
  • Province of Crotone
  • Crotone

Credits

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Monuments

Periods

  • No period data has been added yet

Chronology

  • 720 BC - 200 BC

Season

    • Between June and September 2014, excavations continued in the Fondo Gesù district (3rd road off the Via Achille Grandi), in the town of Crotone. The excavations began in 2013 following the discovery of archaeological structures and stratigraphy, identified during construction work. The area in question is situated to the right of the river Esaro (the ancient _Aisaros_), not far from the river mouth. Given the topographical position and the materials found (hooks, fishing-net weights), it can be suggested that the area was linked to port infrastructures, even though the ancient port of _Kroton_ has been identified to the south-west of the acropolis. The excavations identified a series of dry-stone walls built of sandstone chippings, forming well-defined rooms and, on the eastern edge, bordered by a beaten road surface on a more or less north-west/south-east alignment. This evidence, only partially exposed and not investigated, fit within the urban layout of the Greek city: in fact, the alignment of the structures and the road was exactly parallel to the _stenopoi_ already seen in other trenches in the district (Istituto G.V. Gravina, Autostazione Romano, zona Acquabona), and in general throughout the central sector of the _polis_. The finds indicate the area was already occupied at the same time as the foundation of the Achaean _apoichia_ (720-710 B.C.), or at least in the years immediately afterwards. A preliminary study of the earliest pottery from the lower layers overlying sterile sand – seem attributable to Thapsos or sub-Thapsos type cups. The 7th century B.C. materials were more easily datable and the formation and probable abandonment of the lower levels can be attributed to this period. The pottery was imported Greek wares, primarily Corinthian and numerous fragments of filleted cups attributable to various local and external workshops. The structures and materials indicated continuous occupation throughout the archaic and Classical periods. The last ancient occupation phases were attested by fragments of black glaze pottery, datable to the full Hellenistic period, and by a small bronze coin from the _Kroton_ mint datable to within the end of the Second Punic War (218-202 B.C.). This date is in accordance with what is known from the district and the nearby Acquabona zone (excavations D. Marino 2011). The presence of materials datable to the transition phase between the medieval and modern eras (polychrome sgraffito pottery) attests a new occupation of the area in this period, when the partial disturbance of the surface stratigraphy in the area probably occurred.

Bibliography

  • No records have been specified