Molfetta

Middle Neolithic settlement on the Italian Adriatic coast near Puglie, Italy - in the 'Pulo di Molfetta' - by an enormous collapsed cave. A Neolithic village and cemetery beside this provide a type site for the south Italian impressed ware, for which radiocarbon dates around 5200 BC have been obtained. In about 1600 BC a Bronze Age people, bringing an early version of the Apennine culture, occupied the floor of the depression and caves in its walls. It was originally a circular cave over 100 m across. An Early Neolithic village had small round huts with stone footings and wattle-and-daub walls.

The Pulo di Molfetta is a large collapsed limestone cave near the Adriatic coast in southeast Italy. Adjacent to the Pulo was an Early Neolithic village of small round huts and for this reason the south Italian version of Impressed ware is sometimes named Molfetta ware. After the settlement had gone out of use, the area was used for a Late Neolithic cemetery of single graves, two of which have yielded fine painted cups of Serra d’Alto type. At a later date, in the Bronze Age, the small caves in the sides of the Pulo and the floor of the depression itself were occupied, perhaps sporadically, by people using pottery of Proto-Apennine and Apen-nine type.