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The Medieval Village
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Medieval Muro
Borgo Terra
Project 2006-2007
The medieval village
The foundation
of a new Terra
The Borgo GIS
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Chronology of Muro
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The excavations carried out within Borgo Terra are providing us with the first material data on the life of the Casalis muri before Borgo Terra was created towards the end of the 15th century. Up until now and differently from the villages excavated at Apigliano (Martano) and Quattro Macine (Giuggianello), founded between the late 7th and 8th centuries, there have been few finds from the Byzantine period at Muro Leccese. Some fragments of pottery and two coins of the Emperors Basil I and Constantine (868-879) and Roman IV (1068-1071), were found during excavations, the latter found during archaeological excavations carried out in Palazzo del Principe.
The finding in past years of a small hoard of over 200 silver coins dating back to between the end of the 13th and the mid 14th century in a dwelling located on via Brongo, was the first data regarding the existence of the village in Medieval times, when it was presumably more spread out than the existing Borgo Terra. The hoard ends with a coin of Alfonso I the Magnanimous dated 1435-1436, suggesting that it was buried shortly before the fortified Terra was built.
The excavations in the Borgo are adding new information regarding the life of the village. Medieval rubbish pits, which cut through layers of Classic and Protohistoric Ages, found in vico Pignatelli (area IV), have brought to light glazed polychromic pottery which can be dated to the mid 14th century. But the most evidence has been found in the excavations in via Terra (area IIIB). In this area there is a pile of bricks and tiles evidently from a collapse, perhaps of the roof of a house but one which occurred prior to the founding of the Borgo. The collapse, which occurred at two separate, but not too distant, phases, “sealed” some cooking and eating vessels as well as some bowls in polychrome glazed pottery which can be dated to the second half of the 14th century. A large cylindrical pit which seems to be the same age as the house is filled with large cooking vessels and bowls covered in a bright monochrome glaze, these can be dated as belonging to the late 14th, early 15th century. In just a few decades the medieval structures were to be destroyed by the creation of two silos, at the time when the “new town” was founded by the Protonobilissimo family, Lords of Muro.
The finding in past years of a small hoard of over 200 silver coins dating back to between the end of the 13th and the mid 14th century in a dwelling located on via Brongo, was the first data regarding the existence of the village in Medieval times, when it was presumably more spread out than the existing Borgo Terra. The hoard ends with a coin of Alfonso I the Magnanimous dated 1435-1436, suggesting that it was buried shortly before the fortified Terra was built.
The excavations in the Borgo are adding new information regarding the life of the village. Medieval rubbish pits, which cut through layers of Classic and Protohistoric Ages, found in vico Pignatelli (area IV), have brought to light glazed polychromic pottery which can be dated to the mid 14th century. But the most evidence has been found in the excavations in via Terra (area IIIB). In this area there is a pile of bricks and tiles evidently from a collapse, perhaps of the roof of a house but one which occurred prior to the founding of the Borgo. The collapse, which occurred at two separate, but not too distant, phases, “sealed” some cooking and eating vessels as well as some bowls in polychrome glazed pottery which can be dated to the second half of the 14th century. A large cylindrical pit which seems to be the same age as the house is filled with large cooking vessels and bowls covered in a bright monochrome glaze, these can be dated as belonging to the late 14th, early 15th century. In just a few decades the medieval structures were to be destroyed by the creation of two silos, at the time when the “new town” was founded by the Protonobilissimo family, Lords of Muro.
