Metaponto Project

The Metaponto project is the study of the agricultural territory (chora) of a Greek colony in Southern Italy,  that has been the object of annual campaigns by ICA - Institute of Classical Archaeology (University of Texas at Austin) since 1974. The multidisciplinary project now investigates all phases of human occupation in the ancient territory from the Neolithic to the modern period. 

In the framework of the Metaponto ICA’s project, in 2010 started the project ‘Archaeoenvironmental research in Metaponto’, and a fruitful collaboration between ICA and LPP began.

In the Metaponto area, the palynological research is carried out on samples collected from archaeological contexts, mainly farmhouses and rural settlements. This allows to improve the knowledge of plant species present and / or used in the sites, and environmental and land-use changes during the Hellenistic period and in following phases of occupation.

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/ica/projects/metaponto/introduction.php