Stone Procurement Strategies in Ugento (Lecce) During the Messapic Age

This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary research project carried out over the past two years by the Archaeological Mapping Laboratory at the CNR-ISPC, Lecce, and the Heritage Materials Science group at the CNR-ISPC, Florence, in collaboration with the PASAP Med Ph.D. Programme at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”. The investigation focuses on stone procurement strategies employed by the Messapian settlement at Ugento, near the Ionian coast of Salento. Archaeological surveys within its territory and surrounding areas enabled the identification and petrographic characterization of ancient extraction sites, allowing for the classification of several calcarenite types. Systematic sampling and petrographic analyses of archaeological specimens shed light on the sourcing strategies adopted for both the construction of the city’s defensive walls—erected in the mid-4th century BCE—and selected architectural and sculptural elements preserved in the Ugento Archaeological Museum and the Colosso Collection, dating from the Archaic to the Hellenistic periods. The analyses show that the availability of lithotypes in the region significantly influenced construction techniques, particularly in the city walls, while in certain cases—such as specific architectural elements made of pietra leccese—it required the import of lithologies absent from the immediate vicinity.