Salpia vetus e la laguna della Daunia tra gestione del territorio e crisi ambientale

This paper offers a new interpretation of the settlement history of Salpia vetus, located in the lagoon system of northern Daunia, starting from Vitruvius’ well-known account of the site’s insalubrity and its subsequent relocation under Marcus Hostilius. Drawing on archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, and geomorphological data collected within the Life on the Lagoon project, the study reconstructs the long-term interactions between human communities and the lagoonal environment from prehistory to the modern age. Sediment and pollen analyses reveal that Salpia vetus did not arise in a stagnant lagoon, as previously assumed, but rather in a dynamic alluvial environment, fed by freshwater and exploited since the Bronze Age for agricultural, pastoral, and production activities. The settlement, emerging in the 10th-9th centuries BCE, became a territorial hub by the 6th-4th centuries BCE, equipped with hydraulic, road, and production infrastructure. The Salapian society appears increasingly structured around local elites who controlled land, labor, textile and ceramic production, and the exploitation of lagoon and marine resources (salt, fishing, hunting). Landscape transformations ‒ through drainage, reclamation, extensive farming, and grazing ‒ reflect a complex and adaptive land-use system. The decline of the oppidum, beginning in the Late Republic, was not due to environmental deterioration, but rather to a combination of warfare (Hannibalic and Social Wars), climatic shifts, and a breakdown in community cohesion, which led to the collapse of the local socio-ecological system. The foundation of a new Salapia at the end of the 1st century BCE represents an attempt to reconfigure human-environment coevolution within a renewed institutional and territorial framework. Thus, the article argues that the long Salapian experience should not be read as a narrative of failure, but as a case of resilience and adaptive strategy within a complex, transitional, and heavily anthropized landscape.