LIVING CERIGNOLA: THE MILITARY ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE BATTLE OF CERIGNOLA ARRIVES ON "POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY USA" CERIGNOLA (FG) - The Battle of Cerignola on April 28, 1503, returns to the center of international debate. The prestigious American magazine Popular Archaeology has dedicated an extensive in-depth article to the battle that changed European military history: the first in which over 1,000 Spanish arquebusiers under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, sheltered behind a trench reinforced with vineyard posts, stopped the charge of the elite heavy cavalry of the Duke of Nemours. A trench that, in fact, rendered cavalry obsolete and inaugurated the era of infantry armed with fire, determining control of the Mediterranean for the next 160 years. The article highlights the decades-long microhistorical research work of the Torre Alemanna Study and Research Center in Cerignola led by Dr. Matteo Stuppiello: from the letter of Consalvo de Cordoba to the Kings of Spain (April 29, 1503), to the graffiti of 1503 in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to the land registries of the State Archive of Naples that explain the agrarian origin of that trench. A battlefield still lacking a map and protection, but scientifically rediscoverable thanks to technologies such as LiDAR ISPRA, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar. An important recognition for Cerignola, for the Tavoliere, and for all historical research in Puglia, which today deserves a systematic project for the archaeology of battlefields. (translated)




