home # store # services # articles # game # app #contact >

Coppa Nevigata is a long-lived coastal lagoon site in Apulia. That was occupied from the early neolithic and cardial-impressed ware phase

Coppa Nevigata sits on a small mound beside (what was) a coastal lagoon near Manfredonia, in northern Apulia. The site has an occupation sequence from the early/middle neolithic (cardial/impressed-ware) through the bronze age.

In the earliest cardial phases, people exploited cockles & shellfish. They fished, farmed and kept domesticated animals including sheep/goat
It has very early radiocarbon dates for the neolithic occupation in that region

They practised crafts and communal food processing

The cardial style impressed decoration were made with all the shellfish impressions

Zooarchaeological and isotopic studies show domesticates cattle, pig, and caprines (sheep/goat)

Faunal analyses and isotopic work indicate herding and use of domestic animals in the economy.

For fun they may have gathered the shellfish and communally processed
Large shell assemblages have been found.

They had craft production like pottery, stone beads/ornaments, and worked bone and antlers too
The display aspects would have been social.

And, communal feasts with food sharing likely
Large quantities of shells and animal bone indicate, specialised processing areas.

The personal ornamentation, and decorated pottery of cardial motifs. Suggests symbolic behaviour and social display too

No intact wooden boats have been recovered at Coppa Nevigata itself. Nearby neolithic communities in Italy certainly used watercraft though. Like at La Marmotta
People in the peninsula did construct and use boats. Wooden watercraft rarely survive in open coastal sites unless they were waterlogged and rapidly buried. It’s very likely inhabitants used some form of boat for fishing, shellfishing and coastal travel. Even if none survived. (1)

The domestic buildings and architecture did not survive well
It was made of perishable materials (wattle, timber, and thatch). The buildings were ephemeral (timber/earth) in the earliest phases, and stone features, and defenses were added later.

In the bronze age, the settlement develops into greater stone-built features with substantial fortifications
The site becomes a clearly structured, large settlement. Excavation reports and spatial analyses show domestic and specialised functional zones within. There are cobbled pavements, built-up domestic areas, and massive dry-stone fortification walls. Appearing from the 2nd millennium BC on.

Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today.

Cite: 1) Fugazzola Delpino, M. A., Mineo, M., & Pessina, A. (eds.) (2006).
La Marmotta: an Early Neolithic site under Lake Bracciano, Italy.
Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato

Bibliography: Cazzella, A. & Recchia, G. (eds.) (2015).
Coppa Nevigata e l’Italia meridionale tra Neolitico e Bronzo finale.
Bari: Edipuglia.

Cazzella, A., Recchia, G., & Moscoloni, M. (1991).
“Coppa Nevigata (Manfredonia, Foggia): Recenti ricerche e problemi della protostoria dell’Italia meridionale.” Origini 15: 7–86.

Minniti, C. (2005).
“The Exploitation of Animal Resources at Coppa Nevigata (Foggia, Italy).”
In Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the International Council of Archaeozoology, pp. 51–59.

Skeates, R. (1994).
“Mediterranean Impressed Ware and the Neolithisation of Italy.”
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60: 17–41.

Recchia, G. (2004).
“L’abitato di Coppa Nevigata e la sua organizzazione.”
In Preistoria e protostoria della Puglia, Edipuglia, pp. 87–102.

Robb, J. (2007).
The Early Mediterranean Village: Agency, Material Culture, and Social Change in Neolithic Italy. Cambridge University Press.