The "B6" dwelling of the Early Bronze Age settlement of Mursia (Pantelleria -TP) and domestic production structures

Abstract

The B6 hut of the Bronze Age settlement of Mursia (Pantelleria, TP) belongs to the first phase inside the area B, and it represents a particular interest for the productive structures located inside it. In order to provide the most critical and correct interpretation, a complete analysis of the archaeological sequence, the detection of the functional aspects and particularly the characterizing elements of the productive process that developed in the phase I, has been investigated. Subsequently, the archaeological and the ethnographic data has compared in order to set the basis of a a proposal of reconstruction of the operational chain and an interpretation related to destination of use. The hut has an oval perimeter, long 7 m length and wide 3,30 m width with a total surface of 22 mq), sunken partially in the ground with stone walls preserved as much of 1,50 m. From the analysis of the structures it emerges that the hut has been divided in two non communicating areas both with independent accesses from outside, denominated Area North and Area South; in both the areas it is located, in correspondence of the floor, a subcircular basin (1x1m), bounded by a stringcourse 10 cm ca thick and plastered with beaten clay. At the center of the basin, sunked in the floor, a stone vessel with the mouth at a lower elevation of the basin rim has been recovered. The catalogue of finds from the whole stratigraphic sequence adds new data for the knowledge of historical and archaeological dynamics of the Mediterranean area in the Bronze Age.