Punta di Zambrone - a Bronze Age Fortified Settlement on the Tyrrhen. Coast of Calabria

Although the Bronze Age development and the intense maritime contacts of southern Italy have attracted considerable scholarly interest in the past, there is a general lack of systematic research excavations of Bronze Age settlements in this wider region. For the coasts south of the Gulf of Naples no final publications of Bronze Age settlement sites are available, which could form the essential basis for any archaeological interpretations and historical reconstructions of past societies and human agency in the region. The proposed project has five main objectives: Describing the spatial organization and reconstructing the natural environment of a coastal settlement (Punta di Zambrone) as a case study based on the results of geophysical prospection and selective excavation Reconstructing the development of the local Bronze Age cultural groups (facies) in Tyrrhenian Calabria and their interrelations with neighboring facies (on the continent, on the Aeolian Islands and on Sicily) and constructing a precise relative and absolute chronology (historical and 14C) Reconstruction of the Bronze Age economy of the excavated site (primary sector by archaeobotany, archaeozoology and organic chemistry; secondary and tertiary sector by functional analysis of artifacts, material analyses of pottery and metal artifacts and further archaeometallurgical studies) Defining the function of the excavated site in the local settlement system Reconstructing the function of the coastal regions of southwestern Italy in the Bronze Age network of economic and political relationships across the Mediterranean. These research goals can only be achieved by an inter-disciplinary approach. For its realization a systematic research excavation on a key site in the relevant region is indispensable. The fortified settlement of Punta di Zambrone on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria presents itself as an ideal site in this respect. It is largely undisturbed by post-Bronze Age activities. Marco Pacciarelli, main cooperation partner for the project, already conducted intensive surveys in the Tropea region and a test excavation at Punta di Zambrone itself. He uncovered a Recent Bronze Age (13th -12th cent. BCE) destruction layer, which contained an exceptionally high quantity of Aegean-type ceramics and large amounts of animal bones and charred plant remains. Hence, the site is very well suited for reconstructing a Bronze Age subsistence economy, for obtaining historical-archaeological and radiocarbon dates and for studying the integration of the settlement into overseas communication networks. The site is multi-phased and yields also Middle Bronze Age (16th -14th cent. BCE) remains. In the wider region copper ore deposits exist, which were partly exploited in the Bronze Age. This allows investigations into the supply of the Bronze Age population with one of the most important raw materials of the time.

Punta di Zambrone (Province of Vibo Valentia) is a promontory projecting into the Tyrrhenian Sea between Tropea and Briatico, opposite the island of Stromboli. During the Bronze Age, from the end of the 3rd millennium B.C.E. to about 1200 B.C.E., it was occupied by a fortified harbor settlement, the inhabitants of which maintained far-reaching connections in certain periods. This is the result of archaeological excavations conducted in the summer months of 2011, 2012 and 2013 in the framework of an international and interdisciplinary scientific cooperation. R. Jung (initially University of Salzburg, since 2013 Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) and M. Pacciarelli (Univeristy of Naples Federico II) directed these excavations as well as two research projects financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (PRIN project).In all periods the settlement of Punta di Zambrone had a predominantly agrarian character. The inhabitants cultivated mainly emmer wheat and different pulses, during the 13th century they also knew the grapevine. They kept cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Apart from that, they also practiced hunting and fishing. The harbor settlement was integrated into a regional economic network. Cattle for instance, was seasonally sent to grass on a high plain in the hinterland. According to the results of geological investigations, a naturally protected harbor bay existed south of the promontory; today this bay is silted up. Whereas during the 3rd and early 2nd millennium the settlement had a predominantly regional character and interacted with the nearby Aeolian Islands and Sicily, by the RBA the inhabitants were integrated in far-reaching Mediterranean networks. At that time, most of the copper used in the production of implements, dress accessories and weapons came from northern Italy, while lead, some copper as well as a number of rather luxurious products such as fine painted pottery and faience beads were obtained from the Aegean or via the Aegean.A small ivory statuette of a man was in use during the last settlement phase, but originated from 17th/16th century Minoan Crete. Such a statuette, which had a religious function on Crete, does not belong to the products that the Aegeans exchanged with communities living outside Greece. Possibly the inhabitants of Punta di Zambrone apart from maintaining friendly exchange relations were also engaged in piracy. This appears plausible also in view of the fact, that those Aegean imports, otherwise rare or even unique in southern Italy, reached Punta di Zambrone precisely during those years around 1200 B.C.E., when the Mycenaean palaces were destroyed and the Egyptian coasts were attacked by pirates, the so-called Sea Peoples.