"Natural resources and coastal productive settlements in southern Puglia".

The systematic topographic research conducted for many years by the CNR and by the Ancient Topography Laboratory of the University of Salento in Puglia, in particular in the Salento peninsula and in the Tavoliere, have led to an exponential increase in the knowledge of archaeological evidence and consequently to the analysis and reconstruction of the evolution of human settlement in the territory in the different phases, from prehistoric times to the medieval phase. The data collected with a detailed survey and the use of various traditional and advanced technologies are collected in the "Territorial Information System of Cultural Heritage of the Italian territory" of the CNR. The systematic analysis also involved the coastal strip, both Adriatic and Ionian; both have an uninterrupted sequence of settlements, often with a continuity of life from the Ancient Bronze Age to the Modern Age. During the second millennium BC there is a continuous chain of large settlements often provided with fortifications, often located on promontories or reliefs in relation to deep inlets or forms of landing of different types. The few cases of regular excavations have revealed large quantities of imported materials, which attest, already in the ancient phases of the Bronze Age, continuous contacts with the Aegean world. The topographical positions of these dominant sites after nearly three millennia will be replicated by the coastal watchtower and defense system. A particular type of settlements of limited size and in the past not identified, deserves particular attention: in different points of the coast there are very consistent heaps of whole and fragmented shells belonging to different species, but mainly of murex (Phyllonotus trunculus); heaps, even extensive, of shells are associated with large quantities of ancient ceramic fragments: table and fire pottery, especially amphorae and various materials related to fishing (net weights, nails, bronze sheets, etc.).Evidently they are very simple preparations for the collection of molluscs and the subsequent processing for the production of purple, essentially allocations of purpurarii, documented by ancient sources in this sector of the territory. The obtained product, extracting the dye base from a mollusk gland, was then sent to the dry cleaners (bafii); that in classical and Roman times they were mainly found in Taranto; still at the end of the third century AD. C. Taranto was the production center of the imperial property purple (NOTITIA DIGNITATUM, Occ. XI, 1: Procurator bafii Tarentini, Calabriae). The war events of the following centuries caused the transfer of the bafii to Otranto but the production somehow continued until the Middle Ages; Taranto was certainly the site of settlements of purpurarii along the coast, then obliterated by modern urbanization; in the historical cartography an heaps of shells located on the coast of the Mar Piccolo is documented, however, still clearly visible at the end of the last century, known by the local toponym of "Monte dei Coccioli", attestation of a collection site, probably connected to the purple that various ancient sources place in this sector of the city. from the mollusk. The chronological span of the settlements recorded so far is very broad, but varies Referee List (DOI 10.36253/fup_referee_list) FUP Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (DOI 10.36253/fup_best_practice) Patrizia Tartara, Natural resources and coastal productive settlements in southern Puglia, pp. 875-886 © 2022 Author(s), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, 10.36253/979-12-215-0030-1.83 876 greatly as a result of the situation of the various sites; at last , it is possible to rely only on what is visible on the surface; mainly the materials show continuity of