MODELLI DI OCCUPAZIONE DEL TERRITORIO DURANTE L’ETÀ DEL BRONZO NELL’ITALIA SUD-ORIENTALE: NUOVI DATI DALLE RICOGNIZIONI SISTEMATICHE NELLA LAMA DEL GARAGNONE (PARCO NAZIONALE DELL’ALTA MURGIA)

The interdisciplinary Alta Murgia Archaeological Project (AMAP), launched in 2023, aims at systematically investigating the changing settlement patterns in inland areas of south-eastern Italy and exploring both short- and long-range social interactions between communities during the Late Prehistory. The focus is the study of Late prehistoric communities settled in the inland-upland territories of the Alta Murgia system (Southeastern Italy). This paper presents the preliminary results of the 2023 systematic filed survey, which have encompassed a transect located at the southern edge of the Murge upland: the Garagnone Castle valley. Probing trenches related to rescue excavations were carried out there in the ’90s of the last century by the local Superintendence, bringing to light traces related to an Early Bronze Age settlement (Palma Campania/Protoapennine facies). Data resulting from the 2023 surveys have significantly enlarged the knowledge on the patterns of human occupation in this area during the 2nd millennium BC, revealing the possible existence of more than one dwelling area belonging to the Early Bronze Age. A shift in the settlement strategy within this environmental niche between the early and mid-2nd millennium BC has also been detected.