A GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE METAPONTO COASTAL BELT, SOUTHERN ITALY, BASED ON GEOMORPHOLOGICAL MAPPING AND GIS-SUPPORTED CLASSIFICATION OF LANDFORMS
Dario Gioia (*)
(*) Istituto per i Beni Archeologici e Monumentali, Consiglio Nazio- nale delle Ricerche (CNR-IBAM), Contrada Santa Loja, I-85050 Tito Scalo (Potenza), Italy.
MassiMo Bavusi (**), PaoLa Di Leo (**),
tonia GiaMMatteo (**)
(**) Istituto di Metodologie per l’Analisi Ambientale, Consiglio Nazio- nale delle Ricerche (CNR-IMAA), Contrada Santa Loja, I-85050 Tito Scalo (Potenza), Italy.
MarceLLo schiattareLLa (***)
(***) Dipartimento delle Culture Europee e del Mediterraneo (Di- CEM), Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Via S. Rocco, 3, I-75100 Ma- tera, Italy. Corresponding author. E-mail: Dario Gioia, d.gioia@ibam.cnr.it This work was supported by EC (PO-FESR 2007-2013, Dr. Paola Di Leo grant)
Geogr. Fis. Dinam. Quat. (2016). 137-148, 7 figg.
ABSTRACT: Gioia D., Bavusi M., Di Leo P., GiaMMatteo t., schi- attareLLa M., A geoarchaeological study of the Metaponto coastal belt, Southern Italy, based on geomorphological mapping and GIS-supported classification of landforms. (IT ISSN 0391-9839, 2016)
In this work we tried to infer the settlement rules and archaeologi- cal site patterns in pilot coastal area with high “archaeological potential” through the analysis of the spatial relationships between landform unit maps deriving from a GIS-supported procedure of landform extraction integrated with geomorphological analyses and archaeological evidence. This approach has been tested in the coastal Ionian sector of the Basilicata region, where a detailed geoarchaeological research has been carried out in the frame of the multidisciplinary MeTIBas project (the Italian acronyms for Innovative Methods and Technologies for the Cultural Heritages in the Basilicata region), funded by the European Community. The study area extends on the southernmost part of the Bradano Foredeep, southern Italy, and roughly coincides with the Greek settlement territory of Metaponto and its Chora (the area of influence of Greek colonists). Archaeological investigations, regarding about 1400 sites, consisted of a re-examination of literature data and new field surveys. The relationships between landscape elements deriving from the procedure here proposed and archaeological sites have been statistically investigated to derive settlement patterns and rules. Results highlight a preferential distribution of the identified catego- ries of archaeological sites on gently-dipping marine terrace surfaces and near their edges, thus implying that settlement dynamics of the Metaponto territory partially driven by the topographic position.
Key Words:
Geoarchaeology, GIS, Topographic Position Index (TPI), Landform unit, Metaponto (southern Italy), Archaeological site distribu- tion, Settlement rules.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The study area is a relatively «simple» landscape, since it is featured by a regular staircase of gently-dipping marine terraces deeply cut by three main meandering-type rivers and their minor tributaries. The automatic classification of landforms based on TPI index suffers some limitations such as the influence of the search radius, the difficulty to capture small and large landforms together and the impossibility to differentiate the several generations of similar landforms. The approach here adopted is based on a GIS-supported procedure consisting of data overlay coming from DEM analysis and traditional geomorphological mapping and it overcame the above-mentioned limitations. The landform unit map deriving from such an approach has been used i) to investigate the complex interactions between man and en- vironment through time and ii) to infer settlement rules and factors driving the site selection, iii) to understand the influ- ence of Holocene geomorphological evolution on archaeo- logical site modifications in the Metaponto area. Our analyses highlight that archaeological sites are preferentially distributed on gently-dipping marine terrace surfaces and near their edges, and it can be assumed that the site selection was at least partially driven by this topo- graphic position.
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