Coltivare il paesaggio. Pratiche colturali e opere di sistemazione del suolo come rafforzamento dei caratteri identitari dei Monti Dauni

The Mediterranean Sea comprises a network of interconnected sub-basins whose morphology has favored the emergence and growth of civilizations. Within it, the southern Adriatic sub-basin, framed by mountain ranges and wide plains, has long favored intense settlement processes. Here, the evolution of the landscape has been profoundly shaped by human activity since prehistory: urbanization and agriculture have continuously transformed the territory, whose layers today constitute a living archive of human history. In Neolithic Daunia, modest rural communities depended crucially on water management and land reclamation. The hut settlement model was then revived in the Daunian era with the construction of fortified huts, establishing a territorial organization that directly influenced subsequent Roman urban planning. During Romanization, the territory was further reorganized according to the rigorous principles of centuriation. Around Stari Bar, stratigraphic evidence documents successive layers of settlement: from the prehistoric and Illyrian phases, through Greek influence and Romanization, to the Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The Katuns also embody a long-standing agricultural and pastoral culture, passed down from generation to generation, demonstrating the vital importance of water management for mountain communities. Finally, in Deliceto, the particular geology of the soil has made excavation essential since the Neolithic, making the land fertile for the cultivation of cereals, a practice later complemented by medieval pastoralism. A comparative, multiscalar and holistic examination of these cases reveals a dual landscape: on the one hand a design space, looking to the future, and on the other hand a historical sediment, in which traces of the past are stratified, in a perennial dialogue between tradition, heritage and nature, which creates a profound reciprocity between space and time.