Archeologia dei paesaggi d’acqua: l’area umida delle Cesine, Lecce

The paper deals with the evolution of the landscape in the coastal area of the Cesine, a wetland - State Nature Reserve and WWF Oasis (Vernole, Lecce), where research has confirmed the existence of archaeological evidence ranging from the protohistoric age to the Roman, Medieval and modern ages and the succession of profound changes attested by archival, cartographic and historical sources. The area under study is part of the system of para-coastal lagoons frequented since prehistoric times which ran parallel to the shoreline from the Alimini lakes in the south to the Acquatina/Idume area on the Lecce Adriatic coast in the north, passing through the Tamari marsh, which defended and nourished the subsistence economy of the settlement of Roca from the Bronze Age onwards, and through the Cesine itself, within which the protohistoric site of Specchiuddhri fell, behind the coastal dune belt. In the site, coinciding with a rocky relief that extends northwards between the wetland and the sea, the remains of a walled structure can be identified, intercepted and cut by the drainage collector canal that connects the system of marsh basins present. The oc cupation covers a long period from the Middle and Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, when the structure was built. Further north, on the coast, underwater investigations have revealed the existence of an imposing port complex, with some references to the shore (service areas and production facilities) and reflecting typical Adriatic building types and techniques, similar to those of the northernmost Adriatic wharf. The existence and/or memory of a landing place in the area, still in the Middle Ages, but in a now marshy landscape, is reflected in a series of archival and cartographic documents from the Aragonese period.