Bronze Age Funerary Practices at Coppa Nevigata

Coppa Nevigata: Death, Ancestry, and Community in Southern Italy

Introduction: A Fortified Village Where the Dead and Living Shared Space

The coastal site of Coppa Nevigata in Apulia, southern Italy, presents one of the most fascinating examples of Bronze Age funerary diversity in the Mediterranean world. Far from conforming to neat burial traditions, this fortified settlement reveals a complex tapestry of death rituals that challenge our understanding of how ancient communities treated their dead. Between approximately 2200 and 1000 BCE, the inhabitants of this bustling harbor town developed extraordinary practices that literally built the dead into the fabric of their community.

Coppa Nevigata occupied a strategic position on a former lagoon by the Adriatic Sea, growing into a substantial fortified settlement of about 2.5 hectares during the second millennium BCE. Surrounded by defensive walls and intimately connected to long-distance trade networks, this was no isolated village but a vibrant hub linking the Adriatic with central and eastern Europe, and extending south to the Ionian and Aegean seas. The settlement was renowned for producing high-value goods including purple dye extracted from murex shells and olive oil, commodities that flowed through extensive maritime trading networks.

The Puzzle of Missing Cemeteries and Present Bones

Despite the presence of massive nearby funerary monuments like the great hypogea of Trinitapoli—enormous underground chambers containing hundreds of burials—no obvious large cemetery has been definitively linked to Coppa Nevigata itself. Instead, archaeologists have uncovered something far more intriguing and intimate: human remains scattered throughout the settlement and embedded within its defensive walls. From the 18th to the 10th century BCE, the site has yielded remains of approximately forty individuals, most represented not by complete skeletons but by single bones or isolated teeth.

For a community that probably housed only 100-300 people at any given time, these scattered remains clearly represent something more complex than a conventional cemetery. The evidence suggests deliberate, selective depositions involving careful choices about which individuals would be incorporated into the living spaces of the community. Three distinct modes of mortuary treatment emerge from the archaeological record: formal burials in repurposed architectural spaces, exposure of bodies on elevated platforms, and the circulation of individual bones throughout the settlement.

Violence, Reconstruction, and the Integration of the Dead

A pivotal moment in Coppa Nevigata's history occurred around the mid-16th century BCE, when the settlement suffered a violent attack. The earlier fortifications were partially demolished and subsequently rebuilt as a discontinuous series of wall segments filled with crushed limestone and soil. This period of destruction and reconstruction marks the beginning of the most intensive phase of mortuary activity within the settlement's defensive architecture.

During and immediately after this dramatic rebuilding, human remains begin appearing with remarkable frequency within the fortification system itself. Bodies were placed in architectural spaces, bones were incorporated into wall fills, and specific areas became focal points for mortuary activities. The fortifications, serving as the crucial boundary between the safety of the village and the dangers beyond, transformed into powerful spaces where the dead could serve as protectors, identity markers, and remembered ancestors.

Beyond the formal burial contexts, Coppa Nevigata reveals a remarkable pattern of isolated bones and teeth scattered throughout the settlement, particularly within the defensive works. These remains were not random debris but carefully selected pieces that show clear evidence of deliberate handling and placement. Skulls, long limb bones, and vertebrae predominate among the scattered remains, often showing evidence of fresh breaks, surface polishing, and repeated handling.

Isolated teeth scattered across the site provide particularly compelling evidence for the curation of crania and mandibles. The presence of loose teeth without associated jaw bones suggests that complete skulls were kept, carried, and possibly displayed until individual teeth gradually loosened and fell out. Some long bones show multiple fractures made while the bone was still fresh, while others display glossy, smoothed surfaces consistent with repeated manual contact over extended periods.

This evidence paints a picture of human bones as active social objects with complex biographies extending far beyond death. Skeletal elements were extracted from the dead, circulated through the community, handled by the living, and eventually deposited in meaningful locations, particularly within the fortification system. The walls themselves became repositories for ancestral presence, charged with symbolic power through the incorporation of human remains.

Ancient DNA analysis reveals perhaps the most intriguing patterns, showing a genetically heterogeneous population that includes individuals with ancestry linking them not only to other Italian Bronze Age groups but also to populations in northern Italy, central Europe, and the Balkans. Three individuals from the wall platform show particular genetic affinities with populations from across the Adriatic, suggesting that some of those subjected to exposure and bone curation may have had family histories connecting them to regions beyond the immediate Italian peninsula.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2025.2594201