Available online http://amq.aiqua.it ISSN (print): 2279-7327, ISSN (online): 2279-7335 Alpine and Mediterranean Quaternary, 31 (2), 2018, 133 - 145 https://doi.org/10.26382/AMQ.2018.09 "SASSI", THE OLD TOWN OF MATERA (SOUTHERN ITALY): FIRST AID FOR GEOTOURISTS IN THE "EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019" Marcello Tropeano1, Luisa Sabato1-2, Vincenzo Festa1, Domenico Capolongo1, Claudio Ivan Casciano3, Domenico Chiarella4, Salvatore Gallicchio1, Sergio Giuseppe Longhitano5, Massimo Moretti1, Marco Petruzzelli1, Giusy Schiuma6, Luigi Spalluto1, Federico Boenzi1, Piero Pieri1 1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy 3 Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali - Sez. Scienze della Terra, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy 4 Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK 5 Dipartimento di Scienze, Università della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy 6 Professional photographer and tour guide, Matera, Italy Corresponding author: M. Tropeano <
[email protected]> ABSTRACT: The old town of Matera (southern Italy) is an urban area included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993 and Matera has recently been designated as European Capital of Culture 2019. Since prehistoric times, the old town, called "Sassi di Matera" ("sassi" is the Italian word for stones), has been spectacularly dug in a "soft rock" (a quaternary calcarenite). This rupes- trian settlement is perched in the upper part of the right side of the "Gravina di Matera", a canyon cutting the so called "Murgia Materana", the barren rocky high in front of the town.