Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
In 1974 I began a survey and excavation project in the province (or Regione) of Molise, southern Italy. Until 1974, comparatively little research had been carried out on the prehistoric archaeology of this province compared with the rest of Italy, but the 1974 survey produced abundant evidence (over four hundred sites) for early settlement, from the Middle Palaeolithic until the Italic or Samnite Iron Age (Barker, 1976a). The survey concentrated on three areas: at the head, midway down, and in the lower part of the Biferno valley, the principal valley of Molise. The Bronze Age site discussed in this paper was discovered in the second area midway down the valley (Fig. 1).
The goal of the Molise project is the study of the changing relationship between man and his environment in the Biferno valley from palaeolithic times until the classical period. It is hoped to achieve this goal by (i) excavating settlements of each major phase of occupation, (ii) combining the economic and environmental data from the excavations with the survey evidence showing the distribution of sites in each period, and (iii) integrating the archaeological evidence with geomorphological and related studies of environmental change in the valley. The Petrella excavation discussed in this paper is therefore just one part of the total project, but the importance of the site—the first Bronze Age site to be excavated in Molise—justifies the publication of the preliminary results achieved to date.