Coppa Nevigata

Coppa Nevigata is an archaeological site in the province of Foggia, southern Italy, southwest of Manfredonia, on the Apulian coast of the Gargano peninsula.

The earliest recorded human presence on the site, which was situated on the edge of a coastal lagoon, with easy access to the sea and numerous natural resources, dates back to the Neolithic, between the 7th and 5th millennia BC. At a later date, a settlement of the final Neolithic period continued into the Bronze Age; occupation at the site is attested for the Protoapennine, Apennine, and Subapennine phases of the Italian Bronze Age.

During the Bronze Age, a significant settlement arose that had contacts with the civilizations of the Aegean; these contacts are most visible during the Subapennine phase, when fragments of Mycenaean ceramics are found at the site. From the beginning of the Protoapennine phase, there is evidence for the extraction of purple dye from murex shells and for pressing of olives to extract olive oil. The purple dye production, starting around 1800 BC, is the earliest yet attested in Italy.