New Investigations at Torre Mordillo (Cosenza, Italy): Preliminary Results of the 2023 Survey and Research Perspectives (20 min)

Presenters

Mattia D?Acri, University of Missouri; and Ilaria Battiloro, Mount Allison University

Abstract

The Torre Mordillo Archaeological Project is a long-term, multidisciplinary investigation of the rich archaeological heritage of Torre Mordillo (Spezzano Albanese), an indigenous settlement in southern Italy situated near the coastal city of Sybaris and occupied from the second millennium until the third century B.C.E. The site’s strategic location, close to natural routes that connected inland areas with the coast, and its long sequence of occupation make Torre Mordillo an advantageous site to illuminate dynamics of interaction between the Greeks and the local communities of southern Italy and the way new cultural entities and identities resulted from these encounters.

The expansion of Sybaris certainly had a significant impact on the indigenous communities living in the area, but we do not know to what extent. Scholarly literature suggests that Torre Mordillo, as well as other nearby sites, were subject to violent conquest by Greek colonists, which led to the widespread destruction or abandonment of the indigenous centers in favor of Sybaris’s needs. However, recent archaeological findings in the area (especially at Francavilla Marittima) contest these descriptions and document a period of continuity rather than interruption, thus urging us to reconsider the whole colonizing phenomenon.

Nevertheless, the nature of the relationship between Greeks and the indigenous inhabitants of what is now northern Calabria is yet to be clearly understood. Torre Mordillo, as a long-lived habitation unclouded by postantique occupation and not yet systematically explored, offers the best case study to pursue the problem.

This paper offers an overview of the survey and geophysics campaign undertaken by Mount Allison University in the spring of 2023 and discusses the project’s future goals and research plans.