The survey, co-directed by David Yoon and Lin Foxhall, we therefore sought in 1999 to improve the quality of our evidence as it relates to these questions, by: 

Survey of hilltops and high-elevation areas was intended to improve the representation of these in our sample, and particularly to see whether the missing time periods would be located in these places. 

Larger contiguous blocks of surveyed territory enable better understanding of the relative placement of contemporary sites, which is important for interpreting the organization of local communities of any period. 

Because Greek and Roman village sites are relatively large and complex, they are difficult to interpret through ordinary fieldwalking methods are essentially the same as in previous years.

The  survey was conducted from 29 August to 17 September. 

This included 2 days of fieldwalking with two crews, 5 days of fieldwalking with one crew, 0.5 days of fieldwalking with a double-size crew, and 3.5 days of intensive surface collection with a large crew at Mazza. 

In all this represents 73 person-days of work, of which 45.5 were used for fieldwalking and 27.5 for intensive collection at Mazza. 

The fieldwalking survey in 1999 covered a total of 102.0 ha, of which 5.8 ha had been surveyed in previous years and 96.2 ha were new. 

In all, excluding repeat visits to the same area, we have surveyed a total of 274.5 ha in the three years of the project so far. 

All new areas were surveyed using systematic transect walking except some Areas, which were areas at Mazza surveyed using a systematic grid of collection areas instead . 

The survey work of the past three years has been concentrated in several locations. 

The two largest clusters are around Umbro and in the lower part of the San Pasquale valley. 

In each of these places numerous survey areas make up almost a square kilometer of contiguous coverage. 

Most of this was done in 1997 and 1998, but a few areas were added at Umbro in 1999, especially to the northeast. 

A third cluster of survey areas is located in the middle part of the San Pasquale valley, but in this case it consists of several disconnected fragments, due to difficulties of access. 

San Pasquale is a Neolithic site located on a natural clay terrace at the eastern margin of the San Pasquale valley. It was found by S. Stranges and L. Saccà and first surveyed by the Bova Marina Archaeological Project in 1997. 

Both Stranges and Saccà and our survey have found pottery to include mostly small, highly eroded fragments with a few diagnostic impressed or Stentinello pieces; there are also some fragments which may be later prehistoric and some apparently Roman fragments . 

The natural setting of the site would have been quite attractive for Neolithic settlement. 

It is located about 100 m from the present day coastline and about 30 m above sea level, overlooking the broad, level valley of the Torrente di S. Pasquale. 

The terrace itself consists of pure clayey and sandy deposits, as its eroding margins show. 

A deep ravine divides it into an eastern and a western part. 

Like most such terraces, it has now been built up with a cascade of small agricultural terraces, but it seems likely that this reflects the underlying shape of the hill substantially. 

In prehistoric times, the torrente may have had marshy areas at its mouth, and the valley would have probably been wooded. 

Plenty of level ground would have been available for building and farming, as well as marine resources and a variety of montane resources from the Agrillei ridge just behind the site. 

The ridge would have also sheltered the site from northern and eastern winds. 

In addition, there may well have been springs available at points around the base of the Agrillei ridge; a large clump of reeds near the eastern end of the terrace suggests some ground moisture, and a spring is still extant at a similar stratigraphic level below the ridge on the western side of the valley. 

A few of these areas were done in 1997 and 1998, but most were done in 1999. 

Several smaller clusters have been selected to represent particular types of location: Mazza and Capo Crisafi for coastal hills (1997, plus the controlled collections in 1999), M. Rotonda and M. Vunemo for high inland hills (both newly done in 1999), and M. Silipone to compare the valley of the Torrente Sideroni with the San Pasquale valley (mostly done in 1998, plus two small areas in 1999). 

Several small isolated patches occur as well, mostly to investigate known sites or to survey small patches of accessible land near the modern town of Bova Marina; a few of these have been done each year.  

Given sporadic Paleolithic finds elsewhere in the area (at Torre Mozza and Gunì in Palizzi Marina, for instance; S. Stranges and L. Saccà, pers. comm.) it is unlikely that Bova Marina was simply uninhabited before the Neolithic. 

Paleolithic settlements are likely to be archaeologically unobtrusive, and coastal sites are probably now under water due to rising sea levels at the beginning of the Holocene. 

However, the lack of Paleolithic sites may also be the result of geomorphological processes having eliminated older ground surfaces in the study area. 

Neolithic sites seem to occur in a wide variety of settings, including coastal valley terrace, low hill overlooking a river valley, and inland plateau.

Later prehistoric periods are more difficult to distinguish, but a similar diversity is likely. 

In the Classical periods, Greek settlement includes a large village  as well as small farmsteads.

As with the prehistoric sites, however, most are located on high ground, although some exceptions occur. 

In the Roman period for the first time numerous sites are known from valley locations, suggesting a shift toward more intensive agricultural use of valley bottoms. 

The ceramic evidence for the Greek and Roman periods shows two peaks: one in late Archaic to Classical times (6th to 5th centuries BC) and one in late imperial times (3rd to 5th centuries AD). 

Late ancient settlement seems to continue in diminishing abundance but in the same locations as Roman settlement, to the 8th century or so.

After that, medieval settlement remains obscure, but by the 19th century abundant rural settlement again existed throughout Bova Marina, like in Greek and Roman times.  

The detailed evidence from Mazza is not only likely to be important for understanding Greek settlement patterns in the region, it also revealed significant prehistoric and Roman occupations, adding to our knowledge of those periods. 

The size of this site compared to others, however, and the anomalously high artifact density at the highest part of the hill, raises many questions about the internal structure of the site. 

Geophysical prospection, for example by resistivity/conductivity or magnetometer survey, may help explain the differences in Greek and Roman settlement patterns, by allowing us to compare sites in terms of number and arrangement of recognizable structures. 

The recognition of a number of small, rural Greek sites in the study area, a considerable distance from any Greek town, is a valuable addition to the understanding of Greek colonization derived from the study of urban sites such as Locri and their immediate surroundings as at Metaponto. 

The additional evidence from higher, interior locations (M. Rotonda, M. Vunemo) is a valuable complement to our evidence from Umbro. 

In particular, it shows two things. 

First, Umbro is unusual among the higher locations in Bova Marina, in the amount of prehistoric settlement to be found there. 

Although both M. Rotonda and M. Vunemo produced some archaeological evidence, nothing like the cluster of prehistoric sites at Umbro was found. 

Second, even in highland areas that appear fairly barren at present, Greek and Roman settlement and activity were present to some degree. 

This suggests a problem with the present definition of our survey. 

In early modern times, Bova Superiore and Bova Marina formed a single unit, and it is likely that agricultural practices of the time made use of land at all elevations within this extended territory. 

There is no reason to suppose that the prehistoric, Greek, and Roman periods were different; interior areas in Bova Superiore were probably used by the same people using parts of Bova Marina, for cultivation of grain or other crops in the lower parts, for haying or pasture at higher altitudes, and even higher places could have been used for other purposes such as hunting, wood-cutting, charcoal-burning, or mineral extraction. Moreover, since we know that the principal focus of medieval settlement in the region was the interior town of Bova, the apparent absence of medieval settlement from our survey may be a result of working too near the coast. 

The field survey  was conducted from 1 September to 11 September with the support of 56 person-days of survey work and the assistence by Luigi Saccà for 5 days and Sebastiano Stranges. 

The total area examined in 1998 was 78.8 hectares (0.78 square kilometers): this includes 71.5 ha surveyed systematically and 7.3 ha surveyed nonsystematically. 

The terms used in 1998 to describe chronology reflect these uncertainties. Some of the terms are very general (e.g., "prehistoric" or "Greek/Roman"), while others are more specific (e.g., "Neolithic" or "Roman"). 

In most cases these periods are defined by a mixture of specific traits on the rare diagnostic sherds and vague intuition developed through observation of assemblages from  sites. 

The general region of Umbro consists of an unevenly sloping plateau about half a kilometer in diameter, which rises above gullies draining to the west and east. 

The altitude is about 400 meters above sea level. 

To the south the plateau rises above lower clay terraces, and to the north the terrain rises steeply into hills with metamorphic bedrock. 

At the base of these hills, 200 meters north of the Neolithic area of Umbro, are springs still in use today. 

Umbro was occupied in many periods, but the occupations rarely used exactly the same locations . 

As far as can be determined from surface evidence, the earliest occupation took place in the Neolithic, with cliff-bottom and cliff-top occupation on the eastern margin of the plateau (this occupation is the main focus of the excavations described below). 

Some post-Neolithic prehistoric occupation may also have occurred at the same spot (see below). 

An Early Bronze Age occupation is said to have been found along the north edge of the site, as was a Middle Bronze Age site in a slightly different area. 

Several scatters of poorly dated prehistoric material have also been found by Stranges and collaborators, including possible Neolithic lithic scatters along the south and southwest margins of the area and a probable Bronze Age site on a small saddle of land looking northward at the north edge of the plateau. 

Classical occupations include a small, sharply bounded scatter of Greek remains, including pottery and tile, on a rocky outcrop to the southeast now occupied by an electric line pylon, small scatters on the hillside immediately below and to the east of here, and a thin scatter of Roman material near the center of the area.

The ceramic assemblage includes mostly Stentinello wares, but also includes some Diana wares and a couple possible Copper Age sherds. Two interpretations are possible:

1. Stratum III deposits are mixed and possibly redeposited, containing wares from several periods; 
    

2. Diana wares and Stentinello wares were in use together in a single transitional moment.

The radiocarbon date of 3045-2880 BC (calibrated) from near the top of Stratum III does little to clarify matters. 

This is far too late for Stentinello wares, if not Diana wares, and in itself would suggest at least a Copper Age date. 

Hence the date represents either an intrusion into an intact Neolithic level or a sample taken from mixed deposits dating to both the Copper Age and Neolithic.

The results of the 1998 work suggest a number of conclusions that can be used to guide future research. Aside from the previously known Bronze Age (?) site, our survey of about 37 ha near Umbro produced no definite prehistoric sites and only two minor findspots. 

This is probably one of the less geomorphologically altered parts of Bova Marina, so this finding is likely to represent an actual absence of substantial prehistoric settlement except some Sites . 

Most Greek sites appear to be located in the same sort of settings (plateaus and steep-sided hills) as the later prehistoric sites, of which we now have a greater sample. 

The tendency for Roman sites to be located on coastal terraces and valley bottoms has been confirmed in general. 

This location close to good agricultural land rather than in defensive positions differs from the predominant trend in all other periods, so far as can be determined on present evidence. 

If a large amount of alluvium was deposited in the valley bottoms during the Late Roman period, however, that could account for the apparent absence of earlier sites in those settings. 

The earlier Roman period remains fairly obscure, up until the second century or so, but the abundance of Late Roman settlement has been confirmed. 

As the knowledge of local ceramics improves, a greater proportion of the artifacts should have more specific identifications, but many will probably remain difficult to identify: