Excavations were undertaken on communal land in the locality of Cunella, over an area of about 2000 m2 situated on the edge of the modern town and overlying the north-eastern part of the Messapian settlement. Modern roads border the triangular area and therefore further enlargement of the excavation area was not possible. The excavations documented a continuous stratigraphic sequence that runs from the Iron Age to the 2nd-1st century B.C. The earliest occupation evidence was a hut with a floor of small cobblestones, in use between the end of the 8th century and mid 6th century B.C. The pottery finds were mainly impasto and matt painted ware while a limited number of imported pottery fragments were recovered. These included a fragment of Thapsos type cup which to date is one of the earliest pieces of evidence. Traces of an urban type organisation were identified dating to the second half of the 6th century B.C., similarly to that documented at Cavallino. A straight road, whose surface rested directly on the bedrock, separated three areas with diverse functions. To the south was a large terrace occupied by a block-built construction, which only just fell within the excavation area and therefore remains of uncertain function and date. A residential building was also situated south of the road, part of which lay within the excavation area covered over 900 m2. The plan was similar to that of the archaic palace structure at S. Vito dei Normanni, while the presence of a large terracotta shrine associated with imported late archaic pottery attests cult and ceremonial practices. Despite its limited extension, the space north of the road produced occupation evidence characterised by the presence of high quality Attic pottery (such as Red-figure column kraters, black glaze _kantheroi_, _skyphoi_) and bronze fibulae dating to the 5th century B.C. In the final part of the 4th century, building took place across the entire area that only partially modified the earlier layout, but marked significant changes in function such as the suppression of the shrine. Traces of fires, collapses, and signs of rapid and sudden abandonment represent the end of occupation, probably linked with the _bellum_ _sallentinum_ in 260 B.C. Only the road continued in use in the 2nd-1st centuries as this stretch of urban road linked the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese with the port of Otranto.

This was the 13th season of excavations on the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese. As in previous campaigns, work took place in the archaeological area owned by the municipal administration in the locality of Cunella, situated in the central-eastern part of the ancient site. This year’s investigations concentrated on the sector north of the road, occupied by an enclosure used for cult purposes, paved in thick surface of pressed crushed tufa and in use between the second half of the 6th and the 4th century B.C., when a new room was created (fig. 1, rm. 12). Excavations in 2006, 2008 and 2010 in the adjacent room 11 exposed a sealed stratigraphic sequence of exceptional interest for its depth (c. 1.40 m) and chronological span (end of the 8th century B.C. – central decades of the 3rd century B.C.). This sequence was used to define the main occupation phases in this sector of the Messapian settlement: Iapygian village (end of the 8th-mid 6th century B.C.); layout and occupation of the archaic structures (mid 6th century-second half of the 4th century B.C.); restructuring in several sectors (end of the 4th century B.C.); violent destruction followed by a rapid and definitive abandonment (mid 3rd century B.C.). The 2013 intervention had two objectives. The first was to check for the possible continuation and consistence of the sequence in room 11 (fig. 1), given the constant rise in the height of the bedrock towards the east; the second was to check the nature and consistence of several anomalies registered during the geo-radar survey undertaken by IBAM-CNR of Lecce. As regards the first objective, it was seen that in the sector immediately east of the crushed tufa floor the bedrock lay at a much higher level (+ 81.45) than was recorded in room 11 and did not present any postholes or cuts indicating the presence of a second hut. The thin layer of soil covering the rock contained a substantial amount of Iron Age pottery (impasto and Iapygian ware) and a few fragments of Messapian cups in late archaic banded ware. This would seem to indicate that the layer was formed by an intervention to level the pre-existing occupation layers of the Iapygian village prior to the creation of the sacred enclosure. A sub-circular cooking surface lay in direct contact with the bedrock and alongside it were a pocket of ashy soil and a grindstone (fig.2). The investigation of the results from the geo-radar survey was undertaken by making a rectangular cut (1.20 x 2.50 m) on an east-west alignment in the crushed tufa floor (fig.3). The bedrock appeared at level +81.34/81.30, and the compact overlying soil was seen to be formed by two layers, different in composition and chronology. The lower layer, made up of homogeneous brown soil only produced pottery relating to the Iron Age occupation of the site (8th-mid 6th century B.C.) and a large quantity of plaster fragments from the walls of a hut. The upper layer, immediately below the crushed tufa floor, was characterised by the presence of numerous pockets of clay and materials very similar to those found in the sector to the east: Iron Age pottery and a few fragments of Messapian cups in late archaic banded ware. In this sector there were no cuts or cavities in the bedrock and the whole area produced only very few fragments of Greek imported pottery: filleted cups, stamnoide kraters and Mesocorinthian _kotylai_.

This was the 13th season of excavations on the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese. As in previous campaigns, work took place in the archaeological area in the locality of Cunella, corresponding with the central-eastern part of the ancient settlement. More precisely, the excavations concentrated on the southern part of the courtyard (fig. 1, room 9) forming part of the residential complex on the south side of the road. The 2006 excavations had exposed a line of small irregular stones, possibly part of a structure pre-dating the building of the complex, which occurred sometime around the beginning of the 5th century B.C. The 2014 intervention had two objectives. The first was to check for possible occupation of the area prior to the building of the archaic residential complex; the second to check the nature and consistency of the anomalies registered during the preliminary geophysical survey. As regards the first aim, the excavations uncovered a posthole in phase with the line of stones seen in 2006 and a patch of cobblestone floor similar to that identified for the hut north of the road (fig. 1, room 11). This evidence suggests the presence of another hut belonging to the Iapygian village, although the plan could not be defined due to the limited nature of the excavations. Most of the materials found in the upper layers dated to between the end of the 8th century B.C. and the first half of the 6th century B.C. Together with the numerous fragments of matt-painted ware with decorations datable to the 7th century B.C., a very few fragments of imported pottery were also recovered (Corinthian _protokotylai_ and meso-Corinthian _kotylai_). The presence of abundant traces of burning, pockets of ash, and fragments of baked clay is in line with what emerged in the Iapygian context north of the road. A substantial spread of small stones can be attributed to the abandonment phase and probably represents a later levelling of the area (fig. 1). The few ceramics ascribable to a very early phase of the archaic settlement (cups, Messapian plain and banded wares dating to the second half of the 6th-early 5th century B.C.) were present in all surface layers, at a lower level than the make up for the blocks in the eastern perimeter wall of the residential complex. In order to check the geophysical results, a trench was opened in the area where a deep depression in the bedrock was registered. The exposure of the rock, which had a moderately regular surface, at a level of 81.15-81.07 m a.s.l. showed that the cobblestone surface levelled the rock surface, which did not present cuts or hollows.

This was the fifteenth campaign at the Messapian settlement of Muro Leccese. As in previous years, excavation took place on the public land in the locality of Cunella, situated in the central-eastern part of the ancient site. The investigations looked at two areas: the first (Fig. 1, Area A) in the courtyard of the residential Messapian building; the second (Fig. 2, Area B) in the south corner of the archaeological area where, over the course of preceding campaigns, a building cut both to the east and west by a modern road, was uncovered. In Area A, last season’s excavation area was extended. The removal of a series of earth layers confirmed the absence of structures but also revealed a substantial amount of pottery from the Archaic phase (mid 6th-5th centuries B.C.), in particular the Iron Age. Among the Archaic finds were a fragment of a red-figure column crater, probably Attic, and numerous fragments of stone architectural elements. Most of the Iron Age material was constituted by impasto pottery and plain and matt-painted wares. As in other contexts excavated on the site, imported pottery datable to between the mid 8th century and the first half of the 6th century B.C. was rare; the best represented class being _a filetti_ cups The archaeological levels were removed down to the bedrock (Fig. 2), which was probably exposed during the Iron Age as archaeological materials were found resting directly on it. Area B is situated in the south corner of the locality of Cunella, in correspondence with a structure (room 10) partially cut by modern enclosure walls, and partly investigated in 2008. The structure had also been damaged by the robbing of its foundation blocks. The excavation aimed to expose the foundation trenches and the floor in order to clarify the date of its construction. The excavations revealed a cobbled surface that partially continued below the foundation blocks and therefore predated the structure, which the pottery evidence attributes to between the 4th century B.C. and the _bellum_ _sallentium_. Several test trenches placed parallel to the walls (Fig. 3) showed the cobbled surface to be extensive. It can be interpreted as an intervention to level the surface of the bedrock. The total absence of diagnostic pottery makes it difficult to determine the date this cobble surface was laid. However, it may be suggested that the surface was part of work to prepare the area before the construction of the building, which in the light of the techniques and materials used, and the few pottery fragments recovered, can be dated to the late Hellenistic period.