Menù di mare e... di terra: paleoambiente e paesaggi agricoli del territorio di Taranto tra Preistoria ed età storica,

Within the FISH.&C.H.I.P.S. project, particular attention was paid to investigating the forms of agricultural landscape exploitation from the Neolithic to the 4th c. BC. Interesting data were collected thanks to archaeobotanical and paleoenvironmental analyses carried out in sample areas. Ever since the 4th millennia BC, communities preferred to settle along the coasts of the Mar Grande and the Mar Piccolo. During the Neolithic, the progressive rising of water levels, the formation of coastal dunes due to wind-blown sand accumulation, and water basins favored the settling of communities that exploited the fertile alluvial plains for sustenance. While Copper Age (4th-3rd millennia BC) sites are not yet known in the area, Early Bronze Age human communities occupied the coastal regions and the promontories along the Mar Grande. In this period, the settlement choices were strictly related to the local communities’ role in maritime trade on a Mediterranean scale. Later, communities also expanded toward the innermost lands for agriculture and oil and wine production.