The Leukania of Magna Graecia: archaeological data from Basilicata (southern Italy)

Among the main objectives of the investigations in Basilicata, the study of settlement dynamics of Greek and indigenous communities and the relations between them, have played an important role. In this paper we briefly describe the Greek colonies and the events that took place in this region, which, according to written sources, in the Archaic period was included geographically in Oenotria and later in Leukania. Moreover we focuse on newer archaeological researches in the Greek village of Pandosia (S.M. d'Aglona) belonging to the ancient chora of Herakleia. With its strategic position, it marks the exploitable limits of the Greek chora in the classic period. Finally, we specifically refer to the latest researches of indigenous rural hamlets, which was located in the hinterland, beyond the chora of Metapontion. There, thanks to the landscape archaeology and the interdisciplinary approach, we have new information on how the indigenous, in the classical period, shaped their own living space, differentiated in terms of specialized agrarian and livestock exploitation.