Il villaggio trincerato di Trasanello (MT): l’evoluzione della ceramica graffita nel territorio di Matera tra Neolitico antico e medio

The archaeological investigations, which have been carried out from 2007 to 2016, allowed the definition of the main sequences of land use. Moreover, important structures have been examined, such as: the ditch of Neolithic age (Trasanello I – Early Neolithic e Trasanello II – Middle Neolithic), two huts of the Bronze Age (Trasanello III) and a mound generically dated between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age (Trasanello IV). This paper presents the information that the stratigraphic sequence of the ditch has revealed: two distinct occupation phases were identified, respectively dating to Early (Trasanello I) and Middle (Trasanello II) Neolithic. The lower fill corresponds to the first phase of the ditch, dated to the first half of sixth millennium BC in calibrate chronology. It includes a homogenous pottery set, characterized by the absence of figulina pottery and by rather coarse ware pottery either decorated with impressions, scratching, plastic applications and paint (stile Lagnano da Piede), or without decoration. In the ceramic complex there is a clear connotation of the scratched decoration on pottery, which consisted almost exclusively in the thin line variant (stile Matera-Ostuni). The radiometric dating assigns the complex to a final phase of the local development of the Impressed Pottery Culture. The second phase (Trasanello II), dated to the second half of sixth millennium BC in calibrate chronology, corresponds to the time during which the ditch lost its function and started to be filled with sediments and archaeological remains left in the area of the village during the Early Neolithic and subsequent occupations of the Middle Neolithic. Despite this mixture, there is a significant presence of figulina pottery painted with red bands in association with scratched pottery (stile miniaturistico), which were missing in the first phase. The discovery and research of Trasanello will enrich and complete the sequence of the Neolithic in the territory of Matera. The ceramic corpus of Trasanello allows us to reconsider the widest and debated issues about the evolution of local scratched pottery, at the time dealt by M. Bernabò Brea, who identified a line of development that is still valid today (Bernabò Brea M. 1977). Considering the significant data of Trasanello and resuming observations of key sites in the area of Matera and Salento, like Trasano (Radi et alii 2000), Tirlecchia (Bernabò Brea M. 1984) and Sant’Anna d’Oria (Tiberi 2007), we can improving the stages of development in scratching technique from Impressed Pottery Culture to the subsequent evolution during Bichrome pottery.