The Ionian-Adriatic interface as a landscape of mobility

The last few decades have marked a considerable increase in our level of knowledge of the southern Adriatic/ Ionian area during the Bronze Age. However, observing these developments from the vantage point of the main- land masses lying at the north-western boundary of the Ionian, namely Salento in southeastern Italy, the picture we have remains primarily based on the record of a very limited number of well explored sites, with very few data on landscape occupation. Yet, as we know from these limited snapshots, during the 2nd millennium BC Salento is a privileged hub of long-range mobility and interaction, involving actors with origins as different as the Aegean world (broadly understood, but with intense connections with the Ionian area and western Greece), as well as northern Italy and selected areas of the Balkans. How is this landscape of mobility manifested in the archaeological record? What are the traces left on the ground? This paper tries to answer such questions using data from a survey project recently undertaken in the territory around the site of Roca, one of the main loci of Bronze Age connectivity in the area.