Field Survey

The procedures and the team employed in the Crotone survey remained essentially the same as those at Metaponto (see Metapontum). Only the overall strategy had to be modified, given the greater size of the peninsula to the south of colonial Croton, which formed the adjacent chora. (The coastal area and the interior along the Neto River were probably under the control of Croton in its heyday.) The area was divided into one-kilometer squares, a sample of which was randomly chosen for representative coverage. Only the peninsula known as "Capo Colonna," which terminates in the Sanctuary of Hera, was surveyed in its entirety because of its outstanding historical importance. After four survey campaigns (1983-1986), approximately 30 square kilometers had been covered, and nearly 460 sites identified. These sites ranged in date from prehistoric (predominantly Neolithic) to medieval, with proportionally many more from the earlier and late (especially the Roman and early Medieval) periods than at Metaponto. The density of sites of the Greek colonial period, however, was closely comparable to that at colonial Metapontum.

In early 2005 the data from the Crotone survey was digitized using GIS and remote sensing software as preparation for the resumption of fieldwork in the fall of the same year. The goal of the revived survey project is coverage of three long, thin transects crossing at right angles near the center of the territory. These transects will provide a sample of continuous coverage over the full range of topographic and geomorphological units in the landscape, from the high plateaus of the interior to the gentle slopes and low plains of the coast.