This paper examines the nature and chronology of Hellenistic rural settlement in the foothills of the Sibaritide in northern Calabria (southern Italy) on the basis of selected archaeological sites of this period recorded in field surveys by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) between 1995 and 2008. The collected material of this subset is suitable for answering questions about the chronology and nature of Hellenistic rural settlement in the foothills, and about how the identified

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... n relates to the founding and development of the Hellenistic city of Thurii in the plain of Sybaris in the mid 5th c. BC. After an overview of previous field research, the authors discuss the archaeological evidence in detail and evaluate it in the context of current knowledge regarding Hellenistic settlement patterns in the Sibaritide, and in southern Italian landscapes more generally. The paper concludes by placing the data in the socio-economic and geopolitical context in which the Greek city state of Thurii functioned.