I siti di altura nel territorio di Phoinike. Un contributo sul popolamento della Caonia in età ellenistica

This article addresses some of the major aspects of population dynamics in Chaonia, the northernmost area of Epirus, during the Hellenistic period, and is particularly concerned with Phoinike, Epirus’s capital city. This environment has remained sparsely documented, and a lack of excavations and of stratigraphic data has given rise to frequently weak hypotheses regarding the age of these areas. The work of the SITARC Project (Archeological and Geographical Database of the Chaonia Area) has made it possible to broaden the study of many aspects of this region’s hilltop sites, which are often characterized by the presence of impressive collections of monuments. On the basis of archeological, historical, and especially topographical studies, new reconstructive hypotheses have emerged that highlight the precise choices that were made regarding management of this territory. Such analysis permits us to advance a new hypothesis for the classification of these sites as well as for the definition of the area’s boundaries. Recent excavations at a number of important sites (often referred to as “secondary,” at least up to now), such as those carried out in the rural Matomara locality site, have significantly contributed to this hypothesis. Archeological data make it possible not only to more precisely define the chronological and developmental stages of these sites, but also to better understand the context within which major centers – with Phoinike the most important among them – came to be developed