Archaeologists in southern Italy have documented one of the region’s longest stretches of continuous settlement, according to a new study published in the journal Antiquity. The research, led by Giulia Recchia of Sapienza University of Rome, traces thousands of years of human activity in Southern Italy, from early farming villages in the sixth millennium BC to fortified hilltop settlements of the Iron Age.
The study focuses on Alta Murgia National Park, a UNESCO Global Geopark on a limestone plateau overlooking the Fossa Bradanica plain in southern Italy. Between 2023 and 2024, researchers surveyed two valleys linking the plateau to the lowlands, covering about 1.5 square kilometers (0.58 square miles).
Known as the Alta Murgia Archaeological Project, the effort brings together Sapienza University of Rome, the University of Bari, the national park and Italy’s regional heritage authority. It marks the first systematic survey of early settlement in the area.
Evidence of human activity emerges across Southern Italy’s valleys
In the first valley, researchers found Early Bronze Age pottery and stone tools across the valley floor and lower slopes, including a decorated fragment resembling pottery from the nearby settlement of Masseria Caterina.
Farther up the slope, near the ruins of a medieval castle, researchers found Middle Bronze Age stone tools and pottery. That suggests people later moved to higher, more defensible ground, a shift also seen at another hilltop site nearby.
The second valley shows a similar pattern over a longer span of time. Along its floor, researchers found coarse and fine pottery from the Iron Age, along with grindstones and fragments of large storage jars. On a nearby hilltop enclosed by a low stone wall, erosion has exposed stone structures and flattened bedrock.
Pottery there mostly dates to the Iron Age, though a few pieces are older and match finds from the Middle Bronze Age. The oldest discovery, a fragment marked with fingernail impressions, dates to the Early Neolithic period in the sixth millennium BC, the earliest sign of human presence found in the survey.
Ancient hilltop shift points to broader Mediterranean trends
Recchia said the findings point to a gradual move toward higher, more defensible settlements beginning in the mid-second millennium BC. That trend continued until hilltop settlements became common across the region by the first millennium BC, reflecting broader changes seen across the central Mediterranean as communities organized around fixed territories.
Researchers next plan underground scanning, targeted digging and soil analysis to learn more about how people used the land and how the local climate shifted over time.
Recchia said the project adds a cultural layer to a region best known for its geology, highlighting centuries of human activity across the Southern Italy landscape that had gone largely undocumented.
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