INTRODUCTION

Recent archaeological research has demonstrated that 7th and 6th-century BC urbanization in central and southern Italy was a process that involved non-Greek and non-Roman regions to a much greater extent than was previously believed. Whilst urban characteristics had been recognized in these regions before, they barely received archaeological attention, and when they did, it was mainly as cursory asides in studies focusing on Greek or Roman colonization and urbanism. In southern Italy, for instance, the ‘Greek’ aspect of indigenous Archaic fortifications was seen as an indication of the diffusive strength of the urban culture of the coastal poleis, along the lines of the Hellenization paradigm discussed in chapter 6. Nowadays the same Archaic fortifications are seen as symbols of the central role of the settlements they defended, each of which came to dominate an extensive territory in what can be defined as a basically autonomous process. Similarly, in central Italy the study of indigenous territories has traditionally been guided by a focus on Roman colonization and domination. This is especially true for the Pontine region and for Latium in general, which in ancient accounts of the history of Rome figures as a laboratory of early Roman colonization. Here again, more recent approaches have abandoned such perspectives in favour of a focus on endogenous developments. In this chapter the new insights this has brought will be illustrated by a discussion of two of the RPC regions, both of which provide evidence of essentially indigenous urbanization in Archaic Italy.

ARCHAIC URBANIZATION IN THE SALENTO PENINSULA

URBANIZATION AND SETTLEMENT SPACE

The site of Castello in the foothills of the Murge plateau near San Vito dei Normanni, in the north of the Salento peninsula, is an example of the recent rapid progress of archaeological research and the corresponding need to revise traditional views (fig. 7.1). Until 1985 it was not even formally registered, and it has only attracted substantial scientific attention since 1994. Subsequent excavations by the Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici della Puglia and by Lecce University have demonstrated that the site was first inhabited in the 8th century BC.