Le faune dell’area umida di Salpi: biodiversità dell’habitat costiero adriatico della Puglia settentrionale tra Medioevo ed età moderna

An important sample of animal bones comes from the stratigraphy of the lagoon settlement of Salpi, (mid-15th c.). The zooarchaeological analysis contributes to the identification of the social status of the families and of the human groups that produced the butcherywaste and the food remains. The study supports the reconstruction of the environment and of the Salpi’s rural landscape at the beginning of the Modern Age, mainly through the study ofwild birds’ bones. It’s so evident that Salpi could have played a specific role within the dynamic and complex exploitation of natural resources, continually remodeled for the constant demand for grain, salt and sheep, while the new pastoral territorial structure invested the coastal region of the Apulia’s Basso Tavoliere