Investigations at Carlappiano. New archaeological findings in anthropic and natural landscapes

The nEU-Med project is focussed upon two Tuscan riverine corridors leading from the Gulf of Follonica in the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Colline Metallifere. It aims to document and analyze the form and timeframe of economic growth in this part of the Mediterranean, which took place between the 7th and the 12thc. Central to this is an understanding of the processes of change in human settlements, in the natural and farming landscapes in relation to the exploitation of resources, and in the implementation of differing political strategies. This volume brings together the research presented at the first nEUMed workshop, held in Siena on April 2017. The aim of the workshop was to draw up an initial survey of research and related work on the project, one and a half years after its inception. The project is composed of several research units. Each unit covers an aspect of the interdisciplinary research underpinning the nEU-Med project, each with their own methodology. For this first volume of results, it was decided to select those lines of investigation which, at the end of the first year and a half, have made it possible to articulate and develop an interdisciplinary research strategy. This article presents an initial summary of the scientific data acquired during excavation in September-October 2016 at the site of Carlappiano, (Comune of Piombino), on the coast of the Gulf of Follonica. In the part of the Cornia river plain which we will be concerned with, thanks to the nEU-Med project archaeological research has seen new development opportunities. Carlappiano in particular constitutes one of the key sites identified by the project to investigate in detail the characteristics of resources exploitation through time along the mid-Tyrrhenian coastal area. For a better understanding of the scientific data, we will firstly provide an overview of the environmental context in which the site found itself, reconstructed on the basis of various sources (maps and photographs, and geological, archaeological and historical sources). The settlement patterns of the plain in the Classical time and up until Late Antiquity, highlighted by numerous archaeological surveys, offer a diachronic perspective, within which occupation of the Carlappiano dune is also located. The study of surface pottery finds reveals that this occupation continued into the Early Medieval period. However, the stratigraphies revealed by the 2016 excavation campaign do not make it possible to specify the nature of the occupation for time periods previous to the 12thc. The excavation contexts are presented in an analytical form for each of the three sectors, and are preceded by a description of the preliminary investigations carried out on the site. Finds retrieved during the archaeological investigation are presented and discussed, in particular, from the analysis of charcoal a reconstruction is proposed for the forest vegetation relating to the hills surrounding the site. The 1,678 potsherds are quantified by class; from an analysis of them their provenance is reconstructed, and thereby the site is placed within the economic and trading systems already attested in the local area. Geochemical analyses provide useful support for the interpretation of the archaeological contexts with a view to production, and lead into the initial conclusions. These, being based on all the findings presented in the previous paragraphs, propose the identification of an evaporation salt-works at the site of Carlappiano in the 12th-13thc. To facilitate the immediate understanding of this interpretation, a 3D reconstruction is offered, drawn up on the basis of excavation findings and map information. Finally, in an appendix, the findings collected at the site, in the course of three separate topographical campaigns (in 2002-2003; 2009; and 2016), are published. This represents a useful contribution to the reconstruction of medieval settlement and trade dynamics, also in view of the scant documentation of post-classical pottery contexts from the lower Cornia valley.