Montarice (Porto Recanati, MC, Italy): reconstructing long-term occupation history using legacy records and recent non-invasive data

This paper discusses the challenges of integrating legacy and new research data in the study of the multi-period settlement site of Montarice at Porto Recanati (Marche, Italy). The site was discovered in the early 1970s and has since seen a series of invasive and non-invasive fieldwork to document its occupation history. Until now the various data collected during these endeavours have not been integrated, and large parts of the legacy data remain unpublished. A new research collaboration between the Universities of Ghent (Belgium), Bamberg (Germany) and Sapienza – Roma (Italy), supported by the SABAP-Marche Sud, the Museo Nazionale delle Marche, and the municipality of Porto Recanati aims at collecting all available archaeological and archival records of Montarice. Our final goal is to reconstruct the long-term settlement history of this coastal hilltop, from the earliest Palaeolithic evidence to the site’s final abandonment in the Middle Ages. The most intensive period of occupation was in the Middle and Recent Bronze Age, as is attested by surface material and the records of an unpublished excavation in the 1970s. Here we present a first outlook on this new project, highlighting the various datasets we work with and how they mutually inform each other. We also discuss the first results of our studies of the proto-historic settlement phases.