Dal 18 al 29 luglio e dal 05 al 30 settembre 2016 è stata condotta la prima campagna di scavo in località Palombara, un’area ubicata nel settore orientale dell’abitato messapico di Muro Leccese. Più in particolare, l’indagine archeologica è stata concentrata in due contesti: un ambiente (denominato ambiente 1) messo in luce da scavi della Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Puglia nella prima metà degli anni ’90; una porzione di quella che Pasquale Maggiulli ha considerato, agli inizi del ‘900, come cinta muraria interna (Giardino 2002). Lungo il muro perimetrale Nord dell’ambiente 1 è stato realizzato un saggio nel battuto pavimentale in tufina pressata. La rimozione del battuto (fig. 1) ha consentito di datare l’impianto della struttura: il rinvenimento di materiale cronologicamente inquadrabile tra gli inizi dell’VIII ed il pieno IV secolo a.C. consente infatti di proporre un inquadramento cronologico tra la fine del IV e gli inizi del III secolo a.C., contestuale al probabile impianto della cinta muraria (Giardino, Meo 2016; c.s.). Nel corso delle indagini è stato anche rinvenuto quello che è, al momento, il più antico frammento di ceramica di importazione, uno skyphos corinzio (prima metà VIII secolo a.C.). Lo scavo della c.d. ‘cinta muraria interna’ (fig. 2) ha consentito di mettere in luce più fasi nel corso delle quali la struttura si è formata. La fase più recente corrisponde a un muretto a secco che copre i resti di una struttura più antica, larga 3 metri. Una parte dell’elevato di quest’ultima, prima di essere coperta da un nuovo muro, è crollata verso Sud. La rimozione del crollo e dei resti della struttura muraria ha consentito di mettere in luce il suo paramento Sud, costituito da blocchi sicuramente pertinenti a strutture messapiche ma di riutilizzo; tra essi vi è anche un rocchio di colonna. Al di sotto del muro è stata poi rinvenuta una sepoltura infantile con copertura a coppo (fig. 3), tipica del periodo medievale. Tale rinvenimento risulta significativo per la sua datazione, certamente non anteriore, dunque, ad età medievale. Poco chiare, tuttavia, le motivazioni della costruzione di una struttura che pare comunque avere, date le dimensioni, un carattere difensivo. Non si può escludere che essa sia connessa con la nascita del vicino Borgo Terra. Oltre alla sepoltura, la rimozione del muro sta consentendo la messa in luce di ambienti precedenti, verosimilmente messapici per tecnica costruttiva ed orientamento in relazione alle strutture già emerse.

This was the second season of excavations in the locality of Palombara, an area situated in the eastern sector of the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese. The area excavated last year was cleaned and then extended to the north-east by opening a 15 x 10 m strip (fig. 1). The removal of a wall of irregular stones, interpreted until the early 1900s as the inner curtain wall, and inside which several fragments of medieval and post-medieval pottery were found, revealed a series of rooms, 4 to date, with walls that, at one point, are preserved to just under one metre (fig. 2). Room 100 was the largest, divided by a wall built of reused blocks, including a column drum c. 60 cm in diameter and numerous orthostats of notable size (fig. 3). The abandonment layer in this room covering the floor contained numerous cooking pot, _pithoi_, and amphora fragments. Last year, an infant burial underneath an imbrex was found in the north-east corner of the room, and this season a small stone altar resting on two small pillars was found in the north-west corner. Two smaller rooms were found west of room 100, 101 to the north and 102 to the south. To the north of room 100 lay room 103 whose northern perimeter wall remains to be identified. In all rooms, the crushed tufa floors showed substantial traces of exposure to fire and blackening. The discovery, together with these traces, of the carbonised remains of a wooden hinge from the door to room 100 suggests the structure was destroyed in a violent episode. East of room 100, the situation was far more complex. The removal of the surface layers exposed a substantial collapse of small to medium stones in which large stone blocks were also present (fig. 4). The materials found during the excavations and _sondages_ opened in rooms 100 and 101, suggest that the structure was built in the late archaic period: a hoard of silver incuse coins now on display in the Borgo Terra Museum, a terracotta slab with plaited motifs, a fragment of a _cup-skyphos_ probably of colonial production, fragments of an Attic _cup-skyphos_ from the workshop of the _Haimon_ painter and an Attic lamp confirm the proposed chronology. The building probably remained in use until the early 3rd century B.C.

This was the third excavation campaign in the locality of Palombara, an area situated in the eastern sector of the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese. The area excavated over the last two years was cleaned and the excavation area was extended to the SW, NE and, in particular, to the NW of the late archaic house. Last season’s excavations uncovered a large banqueting hall (room 100), and two storerooms (rooms 101 and 102) belonging to this house, and reached the floor levels in which a number of _sondages_ were opened that dated the structure to the late archaic period (Fig. 1). The extension of the area revealed more rooms and further clarified the spatial organisation of the house. The excavation to the north of the rooms involved the opening of a vast area that was originally thought to be an internal courtyard. The removal of the agricultural soil and other layers revealed two rooms (103 and 104). Room 103 was a kitchen with two sub-circular cooking surfaces made up of small irregular stones (fig. 2). North of these two rooms, there was a large open-air courtyard (room 106); instead of the crushed tufa floor surface present in the other rooms it had a beaten earth floor (fig. 3). In the courtyard to the west of room 102, there was a well for collecting rainwater and a rectangular pit. The well was approximately circular, and the well-head was a dry-stone construction formed by a course of irregular stones. The rectangular pit, in phase with the late archaic house was obliterated by the make up for the 4th century B.C. floor. The pit contained a _cippus_, broken into two fragments and placed on the bottom. To the north of the courtyard there were three more rooms (107, 108 and 109), not investigated this year as it was only possible to expose the perimeter (fig. 8). A c. 30m long stretch of Messapian road was exposed south of the rooms uncovered last year, which had at least two phases. About 5 m wide, it was bordered by two courses of various sized blocks (fig. XX).