Ichnoi beyond the threshold of the sensible. Anthropic cavities and archaeology in Canosa of Apulia. Beyond the Threshold of the Sensible

How can that which lies beyond the threshold of consciousness – intangible to the perception of reality – interact with urban space and, consequently, reflect a phenomenon that calls upon every being to participate? The theme proposed for the session “Urban design for urban archaeology” aims to focus on the diverse and heterogeneous scenario of the underground world, together with that of the ancient substratum that often marks the ichnos of city. Research on anthropic space in the subsoil and in the archaeological substratum, of different historicity and structural-material concreteness, will show the indeterminacy that is often encountered in defining the relationship between these places, which do not always cooperate functionally. Among the study samples treated, a special focus will be placed on the anthropic cavities of Canosa of Apulia, which in some cases interact with the archaeological substratum that wrinkles the soil, generating relationships of conditioned interdependence. And even if they do not appear to directly affect the shape of the city, they sometimes mark its structure through the conditioned layout of the paths, showing traces of their volumetric and spatial consistency “in negative”, being places of excavation and subtraction. As these are calcarenite quarries dug underground mainly in the 19th century, the powerful and intricate layout emerges episodically on the surface through skylights and long descent ramps, alongside remains from the Daunia and Roman periods, in a web of relationships that simultaneously invokes the dystopian suspension of time – for the underground – and the empirical utopian awakening – for the archaeological substrate – which emerges with all its symbolic power.