Archeologia nella Valle del Mercure: nuovi dati sulla viabilità romana tra Basilicata meridionale e Calabria settentrionale

The reconstruction of the so-called Annia Popilia road is particularly difficult, especially regarding the stretch between the modern Basilicata and Calabria regions. One of the issues consists in the identification of the statio of Nerulum, which does not appear in the Lapis Pollae, but is mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini, in the Tabula Peutingeriana and in the later Ravennatis Anonymi Cosmographia and Guidonis Geographia. The statio has been variously identified at Rotonda, in Piano delle Vigne di Castelluccio or – a hypothesis that has had less luck so far – at Laino Borgo. In 2018, the DICAM of the University of Messina carried out a series of archaeological surveys in the territory of Laino Borgo (mainly in the areas of S. Gada and S. Primo). The archaeological evidence relating to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, partly already known and partly acquired as a result of our research, sheds new light on the settlement dynamics in the territory. In particular, the area of S. Primo presents a housing settlement, the use of which is still not clear, which had been in existence since the 2nd-1st century BC up to the Roman Imperial period and which could relate to the statio of Nerulum.