The discovery of the monastic settlement of Jure Vetere (S. Giovanni in Fiore, Calabria, Italy): a multidisciplinary project of landscape archaeology

The archaeological research carried out by IBAM-CNR and the Post Graduate School of Archaeology (UNIBAS, Matera) on the site of Jure Vetere discovered a remarkably sized ecclesiastical building, part of the monastic settlement of Jure Vetere, founded by the monk Gioacchino da Fiore at the end of the 12th century and lasted until the first decades of the 13th century. During the investigations, an intense methodological survey of the surrounding territory of Jure Vetere and five excavations campaigns of the monastic complex went carried out. Thanks to the multi-disciplinary approach applied to the research of Landscape Archaeology, an amount of important information was collected, thanks to the study of written sources, artifacts, ethnoarchaeological data, photo-interpretations, geological and geopedological research, pollen analysis, botanic and archaeometric macro-remains. The GIS processed data helped us to recognize the exploitation system of the territory, so necessary for the monastic life. The results of the researches has been published (2007) in a monograph “Jure Vetere: ricerche archeologiche nella prima fondazione monastica di Gioacchino da Fiore (indagini 2001-2005)”, dedicated to: historical research, diagnostic investigations, archaeological excavations, material culture (pottery, glasses and metals), archaeometric analysis, ecofacts, building techniques analysis, landscape archaeology and highlighting of the archaeological heritage.