The Last Battle of Muro Leccese, the Town That Faced Rome
Archaeology of a Battlefield of the Second Punic War

A cura di: Francesco Meo, Serena Viva
Anno edizione:  2026
Isbn: 978-88-5491-742-2
Materie: Archeologia
Formato: 21x29,7
Pagine: 177
Open Access: DOI
🇮🇹 Versione in italiano 

The last battle of Muro Leccese, the town that faced Rome represents one of the most innovative and significant contributions of recent years in the fields of conflict archaeology and pre-Roman Messapian studies. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of archaeological research conducted at the Messapian site of Muro Leccese, the volume reconstructs the events that led to the destruction of the town during the Second Punic War with scientific rigour and an extraordinary wealth of data.
The work integrates, in an original manner, archaeological data, military history, physical anthropology, taphonomic analysis, experimental archaeology, and digital technologies, offering a multidisciplinary reading of the military events that affected the Salento region in the third century BCE. The evidence recovered from the excavations – lead sling bullets, stone catapult balls, scorpio bolt-heads, defensive structures, and material traces of the siege – allows for the reconstruction, with rare precision, of the dynamics of an armed confrontation between Rome and one of the principal Messapian cities of southern Italy.
Particular prominence is given to the anthropological analyses of the anomalous burials uncovered at the site, which restore the human dimension of warfare through the observation of emergency funerary practices, the study of trauma, and the living conditions of the individuals involved in the conflict.
The volume is further distinguished by its attention to public archaeology, with contributions by Ruben Cataldo and Francesco Cellamare devoted to the reconstruction of Roman siege engines. Of considerable relevance for the purpose of wider dissemination is also the facial reconstruction of one of the individuals involved in the fighting, carried out by Chantal Milani using advanced three-dimensional modelling technologies.
The result is a work that successfully combines scientific rigour, methodological innovation, and communicative impact.
Owing to the quality of the evidence gathered and the interdisciplinary approach adopted, the book constitutes a substantial contribution to the field of battlefield archaeology. In a scholarly landscape in which the Hannibalic War has long been studied predominantly through literary sources, this volume demonstrates how much archaeology can restore what texts leave unspoken: the bodies, the weapons, and the desperate choices of a town that attempted to resist Roman conquest.

Sommario:

Presentation

Antonio Lorenzo Donno (Mayor of Muro Leccese)

Sara Spano (Councillor for Culture, Tourism, and Strategic Planning of Muro Leccese)

Girolamo Fiorentino (Head of Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Salento)

Antonio Zunno (Soprintendente ABAP per le province di Brindisi, Lecce e Taranto)

Preface, Juan P. Bellón Ruiz (Institute of Iberian Archaeology, University of Jaén)

Introduction, Gianluca Tagliamonte (Director of the Postgraduate Specialisation School in Archaeology “Dinu Adamesteanu”, University of Salento)

1. Muro Leccese in the framework of messapian settlements (FM)

1.1 Introduction: Muro Leccese between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE
     1.1.1 8th - first half of the 6th century BCE (800-550 BCE)
     1.1.2 Second half of the 6th - first half of the 5th century BCE (550-450 BCE)
     1.1.3 Second half of the 5th - third quarter of the 4th century BCE (450-325 BCE)
     1.1.4 Last quarter of the 4th century BCE - bellum sallentinum (325-266 BCE)

1.2 The 3rd century BCE: contextualising the archaeological evidence

1.3 Muro Leccese and the first clash against Rome: the bellum sallentinum

2. Messapian funerary customs and research methodologies (SV)

2.1 Introduction: burials in Messapia

2.2 Anthropological analysis methods

3. Muro Leccese: the siege and the battlefield (FM)

3.1 Muro Leccese and Hannibal

3.2 The siege and the attack on the nameless Messapian town
     3.2.1 The siege engines
     3.2.2 The lead sling bullets
     3.2.3 The stone sling bullets

3.3 The reconstruction of the battle

4. The atypical burials: contexts and anthropological analyses

4.1 Recovery contexts and taphonomic analyses
     4.1.1 The burials in the Cunella district (T6 and T7): the context (FM)
     4.1.2 The burials in the Cunella district (T6 and T7): taphonomic analyses (SV)
     4.1.3 The skeletons near the walls and the deposition of Individual 1 in the Palombara district: the contexts (FM)
     4.1.4 The skeletons near the walls in the Palombara district: taphonomic analyses (SV)
     4.1.5 The deposition of Individual 1 in the Palombara district: taphonomic analyses (SV)
     4.1.6 The skeleton in the Sitrie district: the context (FM)
     4.1.7 The skeleton from Sitrie: taphonomic analyses (SV)
     4.1.8 Comparison of atypical burials (SV)

4.2 Degree of preservation (SV)

4.3 Anthropological analyses (SV)
     4.3.1 Estimating sex
     4.3.2 Estimating age at death
     4.3.3 Height and body mass
     4.3.4 Functional stress and HRS
     4.3.5 Traumas
     4.3.6 Stress markers
     4.3.7 Teeth

4.4 The anthropological study: discussion and conclusions (SV)

Appendices: From research to proposals for the dissemination of results

1. Experimental archaeology and public archaeology: the reconstruction of a scorpio bolt-head

2. The reconstruction of a Roman scorpio through experimental archaeology

3. The facial reconstruction of Individual 1 from the Palombara district at Muro Leccese

References