Habitation on Plateau I of the Hill Timpone Della Motta (Francavilla Marittima, Italy): A Preliminary Report Based on Surveys, Test Pits and Test Trenches

The authors report on the archaeological investigations of one of the pre- and protohistoric settlement areas of the site ‘Timpone delia Motta’ near present-day Francavilla Marittima in Calabria (southern Italy) carried out by the Groningen Archaeological Institute (GI A) between 1991 and 1995. Surveys, test pits and test trenches on a large plateau overlooking the valley of the river Raganello revealed ample traces of occupation from the middle Bronze Age to the Archaic period, a time span of almost a millennium. In this period the subsequent indigenous Bronze Age and early Iron Age hut settlements at Francavilla Marittima gave way to colonial inspired stone houses and terrace building. The survey and test excavations led to the identification, and current excavation, of several Bronze Age, Iron Age and Archaic settlement features. Here a general outline is offered of the various occupation episodes on plateau I as could be deduced from the surface record and the various layers and related pottery in the trenches. Fieldwork at Francavilla Marittima combines settlement excavations, such as reported on in this paper, with research of the site’s sacred area on the top of the hill. The investigations are part of the project ‘Dominant versus non-dominant, Enotrians and Greeks on the Timpone delia Motta and in the Sibaritide’ directed by prof. Marianne Kleibrink of Groningen University and financed by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO).