Importation, Production, Consumption. Pottery and Products in Bronze Age Apulia, between the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean

The aim of this project is to build a new model of interaction between south-eastern Italy and the Aegean, which integrates perishable goods in the exchange system known from artefact distribution, as well as in the reconstruction of consumption practices. Ceramics from Roca (Lecce, south-eastern Italy; 17th- 11th c. BC), one of the most important ‘hubs’ along the maritime routes that connected the Aegean to the Italian peninsula, where remarkable assemblages of local, Aegean and Aegeanising ceramics have been found, will be analysed through a joint application of different analytical methods, namely the typological approach (on 500 vessels/sherds), alongside with Organic Residue Analysis, petrographic, geochemical, and technological analyses (on a subset of 150 samples). The integration between the afore-mentioned approaches/methods will allow us to connect ceramic containers to their contents, as well as to their technology of production and provenance, and represents a new procedure in the analysis of trade and exchange networks of coastal Mediterranean hubs.