Animal remains and ritual practices in the southern area of the Egnazia forum (Fasano, province of Brindisi)

Recent surveys conducted by the University of Bari in the southern area of the Egnazia forum (Fasano, Brindisi) allowed the identification of a complex stratigraphic palimpsest with archaeological evidence attributable to ritual practices; such evidence spanned across a long period of time, from the Messapian period to the Late Antiquity, during which the area underwent important urban and landscape transformations. During the Messapian period (6th–3rd c. BC), a public and religious complex, composed of three monumental enclosures, was built. In addition to the study of ceramics, a better understanding of ritual dynamics was achieved through the analysis of zooarchaeological remains, which allowed comparisons with several other sites in the Messapian area. The eastern enclosure was built during the 4th c. BC, as attested by ceramics in association with the deposition of caprine bones (Ovis vel Capra) – one headless individual and disarticulated body parts, associated with artefacts of ritual significance. Between the end of the 3rd and the 2nd c. BC, this area became part of a wide insula, enclosed by a new road network; the area underwent radical changes, with the edification of the atrium domus, a structure associated with other rites: structured depositions of pottery and animal remains were identified in the layers obliterating the previous context in preparation to lay the new floors. These depositions are interpreted as piacula, offerings made, on one hand, to compensate for the abandonment and transformation of a sacred area and, on the other hand, to gain favour with the gods for the construction of a new building.