The stratigraphic succession of the Mar Piccolo basin (Gulf of Taranto, Southern Italy) is well known in the scientific literature dealing with the last interglacial since its morphological evolution is influenced by sea level changes during Late Pleistocene-Holocene. The local Holocene sea level history is well known thanks to data deriving from peat and ash layers identified in different sediment cores obtained underwater and in coastal areas. Peat sediments are frequently interlayed with muddy-sand beds rich in Cerastoderma glaucum (Poiret, 1789). In the literature of the Mediterranean basin, AMS 14C dating on C. glaucum is widely used also in paleo-environmental reconstruction because this bivalve is considered an useful marker of sea level, though in lagoonal systems, large age offsets have been reported in different areas. Due to the availability of precise chronological and geochronological markers, in order to validate the use of C. glaucum in paleo sea level reconstruction, AMS 14C dating campaign was carried out on this bivalve deriving from several cores drilled in the Mar Piccolo basin and its nearby areas. Nineteen AMS 14C dating analyses carried out on C. glaucum sampled from different sediment cores up to a maximum of 30 m from the seafloor are presented. These results show an inconsistency of the ages in relation to a sea-level rise reconstruction model. The interpretation of the data was performed after the estimation of the local age offset calculated by analyzing six live samples, collected in 2017 in Mar Piccolo and in Croatia, and two samples dated to 1968–1969. The results show that for both the classes of samples (2017 and 1960s) an age offset ranging from 600 to 800 yr can be estimated.

The occurrence of Marginaster capreensis in the Taranto seas (Ionian Sea, Italy) is reported. The specimens were mostly found in the Gulf of Taranto (N = 17) and only one specimen in the first inlet of the Mar Piccolo Lagoon. The sizes in the sampled population ranged from 6 to 16 mm.

This deconstruction of how Apulian red-figure pottery came to be termed Tarentine has implications for archaeological methodology far beyond the Mediterranean. The author shows how the assumptions of great authorities, themselves rooted in a colonial world, led to a highly resistant model of core and periphery for pottery production that may have no basis in fact. It is a fine example of the process that has left us with so many unsuitable and immovable names for material from Samian to Gothic.