Over the last three decades archaeologists have progressively embarked onfieldwalking projects all around the Mediterranean basin. The aim of most ofthese proje... » 

Over the last three decades archaeologists have progressively embarked onfieldwalking projects all around the Mediterranean basin. The aim of most ofthese projects is to investigate the ancient settlement and landscape dynamicsof specific Mediterranean regions. They greatly contribute to the newliveliness which characterizes presentday classical archaeology not only byintroducing new research methods but also and in particular by widening itssubject matter to include the history of societies in the margins of theGraecoRoman urban world. It is within this recent tradition that the presentbook has been written the author aims to examine the ancient settlement andsocietal dynamics of the Brindisi region in the northeast of the Salentopeninsula. The field surveys indicate that during the preRoman period theregional society was characterized by processes of centralization andurbanization. Subsequently from the 3rd century BC onwards it graduallyintegrated into the Roman orbit. Burgers emphasizes an active indigenous rolein the succesive colonial situations in southern Italy. He focuses on theinternal dynamics of the local communities and investigates how socialstrategies manifested themselves especially in external contacts and in theorganization of settlement and landscape. «