The chronology of the Neolithic ditched settlements of the Tavoliere and the Ofanto valley

The chronology of the southeast Italian Neolithic may appear a rather over-worked subject, since there are several relatively recent treatments of various aspects (Alexander 2005; Skeates 2000; 2003), as well as a range of earlier articles (Pluciennik 1994; 1997; Sargent 1985; Skeates 1994; Whitehouse 1994: 86–90). It therefore may seem not to need additional attention now. Nonetheless, ‘rethinking’ – which is the avowed aim of the present volume – involves updating and adjusting of existing knowledge as well as iconoclasm and the opening up of new areas of research. In the case of chronology, new excavations are taking place, new radiocarbon dates are being published, Bayesian analysis is being introduced and there are several other issues that are worth further consideration. In the present volume, the paper by Keri Brown and Craig Alexander considers the chronology of the beginnings of the Neolithic in southeast Italy using Bayesian modelling, while Robin Skeates includes a discussion of the chronology of the later part of the period in his paper on Neolithic Italy at 4004 BC. My own contribution in this paper relates specifically to the dating of the so-called villaggi trincerati: the Neolithic ditched settlements characteristic of the Tavoliere plain of northern Puglia and the Ofanto valley that forms its southern border (Fig. 1).