13 - The Iron Age in South Italy: Settlement, Mobility and Culture Contact

Summary

In a study concerned with understanding the types of population and modes of contact in the multiple ecosystems of Iron Age southern Italy, ranging from the Greek poleis of the coastal flood plains to the Apennine mountain regions of Calabria and Lucania, it is necessary to examine the contexts carefully, as each culture and every region may react differently to contacts with other cultures. This chapter discusses three different contexts along the Ionian coast, namely L'Amastuola, Incoronata and Francavilla Marittima, where traditional reconstruction of the settlement dynamics, as proposed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, saw the presence of Greeks as a disruptive element which shattered a static indigenous situation and that led first to the conquest and subjugation of the indigenous inhabitants. Finally, the chapter focuses on the site of Torre di Satriano, where exceptional remains have been found in recent years.