Archeologia subacquea nella Puglia meridionale: un ventennio di ricerche dell'Università del Salento

The maritime façades of the Salento, both Adriatic and Ionian, have witnessed an intense and systematic research activity by the University of Salento in recent decades, thanks to 'amphibious' projects conducted with the holistic, contextual, diachronic and transdisciplinary approach of landscape archaeology. The study of the forms and modes of ancient coastal peopling is closely linked, of course, to the evolution of these landscapes, and highlights the value of the submerged assets (remains of settlements, harbours, landings, wrecks, particularly stranded ones, and isolated finds) as geomorphological markers. In addition, the coastal stretches and the underwater contexts also offer new insights and new interpretative models for reconstructing the 'sea routes' and the short-medium and long-range commercial circuits involving the Salento.