Before the lighthouse, there was the sixteenth-century tower. And before the tower? These coasts were certainly contested in ancient times. But what was the military interest in this area before modern times?

In 1975, an international team of archaeologists from the University of Salènto, the Scuòla Normàle Superiòre di Pìsa, the École Française de Rome, and the University of Brussels initiated an excavation campaign near Tórre Sàn Giovànni.

The investigations led to the identification of a massive masonry structure dating back to around 350 BC on a dune parallel to the coastline. A double line of squared limestone blocks protected the entire area. This was the inlet of the detached port of Ozàn, an important Messapian center.

Therefore, Tórre Sàn Giovànni, located seven kilometers from Ugènto, was a fortified port, extending for about 58 hectares. Some stretches of walls are visible to the naked eye. You can see the plan of a kind of square castle, equipped with a moat. In a small indentation to the northwest, aerial photographs also show submerged structures.

Inside, there was also a place of worship dedicated to the goddess Artemis, as evidenced by votive terracottas and numerous fragments of pottery with Greek graffiti found here. Commercial transactions took place in the port. When the Romans conquered Messàpia, and Ozàn became Ugèntum, the role of Tórre Sàn Giovànni as a commercial port was significantly enhanced.

Additional excavation campaigns were conducted in 2014. This time, rectangular rooms were exposed within the Messapian fortification wall. They date from the third to the second century BC. Warehouses and fish processing areas were discovered, as suggested by the many transport amphorae and net weights found.

On the sand, literally a few meters from the present-day coastline, a vast necropolis used between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC was also discovered. The tomb offerings consisted of a wide variety of ceramics, including red-figure ware with reticulated decoration, in a style known as "Gnàthian," and black-figure pottery. There were also silver coins from mints in the second half of the fourth century BC. These grave goods are very similar to those found in Tarantine burials from the same period. Tàranto was a Greek city, indeed the capital of Magna Graecia. Here is evidence to formulate a fascinating hypothesis! Between Greeks and Messapians in those centuries, there were economic, cultural, and social exchanges.

What were the exact power dynamics between Greeks and Messapians before the arrival of conquerors? And when the Romans trampled this world in the early third century BC, what kind of society did they find?

Archaeologists and historians are working to find answers.