The territory of Crotone tells a very ancient story, whose roots lie in prehistory and protohistory, long before the foundation of the Greek colony of Kroton. Along the Ionian coasts and on the inland heights, archaeology reveals a surprisingly rich and complex picture of human presence over the millennia. The earliest evidence comes from groups of hunters and gatherers, later followed by communities also devoted to fishing and agriculture. Key sites such as Capo Alfiere, Capo Piccolo, and Corazzo document active settlements that reveal a dense network of cultural contacts with Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, the Aegean Sea, and the Tyrrhenian region.
Over time, increasingly complex settlements gradually emerged, developing on marine terraces, promontories, and elevated areas from which it was
... read more >The territory of Crotone tells a very ancient story, whose roots lie in prehistory and protohistory, long before the foundation of the Greek colony of Kroton. Along the Ionian coasts and on the inland heights, archaeology reveals a surprisingly rich and complex picture of human presence over the millennia. The earliest evidence comes from groups of hunters and gatherers, later followed by communities also devoted to fishing and agriculture. Key sites such as Capo Alfiere, Capo Piccolo, and Corazzo document active settlements that reveal a dense network of cultural contacts with Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, the Aegean Sea, and the Tyrrhenian region.
Over time, increasingly complex settlements gradually emerged, developing on marine terraces, promontories, and elevated areas from which it was possible to control routes of passage and access to the sea. Stone anchors recovered from the seabed between Crotone and the Gulf of Squillace indicate the existence of landing places and coastal navigation. Equally significant are the ceramic materials found at Capo Colonna, where the earliest evidence documents the use of the promontory even before the Greeks built the sanctuary of Hera Lacinia that is known today. Further evidence also comes from the hinterland, particularly from the settlement of Makalla, which had its own sanctuary and maintained contacts with the Greek world.
Continuously inhabited for millennia, the territory of Crotone thus reveals the deep continuity of life in an area rich in resources and long a crossroads of cultures. The foundation of the Greek colony of Kroton at the end of the 8th century BC was grafted onto a pre-existing fabric of memories, cults, and relationships: a past that was not erased, but transformed, leaving living traces in patterns of settlement, in rituals, and in the relationship between humans and the environment.
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