The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome’s Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period, 2022
This paper is the introduction to the Open Access edited volume "The Rural Foundations of The Rom... more This paper is the introduction to the Open Access edited volume "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome’s Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" published in Open Access as part of the proceedings of the Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on the Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The book, contains the following papers:
José Ernesto Moura Knust
Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman,
Mediterranean and Global Frameworks
Stephen A. Collins-Elliott
Measuring Rural Economic Development through Categorical Data Analysis in Southern Etruria and Latium (400 BC – 50 AD)
Peter Attema – Tymon de Haas – Gijs Tol – Jorn Seubers
Towards an Integrated Database for the Study of Long-term Settlement
Dynamics, Economic Performance and Demography in the Pontine Region
and the Hinterland of Rome
Alessandro Launaro
A View from the Margins: Interamna Lirenas and its Territory in the Long Term
Günther Schörner – Veronika Schreck
Production and Trade in Late Republican and Imperial Inland Etruria:
Integrating Archaeological and Archaeometric Results of the Val di Pesa
and Val Orme-Project
Anna Maria Mercuri – Eleonora Rattighieri – Rossella Rinaldi –
Assunta Florenzano
The Archaeobotanical Study of Agriculture of Roman Peasants:
Skilled Farmers of the 1st BC – 5th AD in Tuscany, Central Italy
Willem M. Jongman
The Voice of the Silent Majority: Archaeological Surveys and the History
of the Roman Countryside
abstract:
Since the 1960s, excavations, survey and environmental studies have generated a wealth of data on the countryside around Rome north and south of the Tiber. Data pertain to rural settlement types ranging from the small farmstead to the large villa, and regard nonurban burial grounds, production facilities, such as pottery kilns, smithies and quarries, as well as infrastructure and field systems. Also, a growing interest can be noted in such important issues as crop choice, manuring, land reclamation and land degradation. In combination, this wealth of information, often still unconnected, can inform us on the functioning and performance of the Roman economy in a crucial period of Rome's rise to power during the Archaic and mid-Republican periods. It can also be used to investigate its subsequent development during the Late Republican and Early Imperial period within the expanding Mediterranean economic network of that period. The aim of the session "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome's Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" was to bring together methodologically informed, data-driven studies that shed light on the drivers and performance of the Central Italian rural economy during the Archaic to Imperial period.1 The session was accepted as part of the theme "Methodology: Survey archaeology, natural sciences, quantification", one of the overarching themes defined by the organizers of the 19 th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The original session was split up chronologically with a set of papers reflecting on the Archaic and Mid-Republican period first and then followed by a set of papers focusing on the Late Republican and Imperial periods. However, for the publication we have chosen to start with papers offering a broad synthetic perspective and to zoom in afterwards on case studies of regional and local relevance. The first paper by José Ernesto Moura Knust (Instituto Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro) entitled "Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman, Mediterranean and Global Frameworks" advocates to view Roman rural settlement not as a unique phenomenon but rather as part of a Mediterranean-wide historical process that requires a Mediterranean or even global historical framework for explanation. According to Knust, factors that should be taken into account are climate, connectivity leading to exchange of agricultural technology (including tools and crops), commercialization, and demographic pressure. In such an explanatory framework he sees agricultural intensification as the main driver leading to dispersed rural settlement in the ancient world, although in world history nucleated scenarios (as in the medieval period) occur as well.
This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological fiel... more This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological field survey and database integration. The Roman Hinterland Project combines data from the Tiber Valley Project, Roman Suburbium Project, and the Pontine Region Project into a single database, which the authors believe to be one of the most complete repositories of data for the hinterland of a major ancient metropolis, covering nearly 2000 years of history. The logic of combining these databases in the context of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.
The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC) from the perspective of ancient Crustumerium (Rome, Italy), 2020
This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and
deals with the results of the p... more This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the project The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, is about the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium resulting from Rome’s rise to power. The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the p... more This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the project The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, deals with the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium resulting from Rome's rise to power.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX… ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA, 2019
The file contains:
1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI
DINAMICHE INSEDIATI... more The file contains: 1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI DINAMICHE INSEDIATIVE E CULTURA MATERIALE AI CONFINI CON ROMA (ON THE SLOPES OF THE ALBAN HILLS , SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS AND MATERIAL CULTURE ON THE CONFINES OF ROME, edited by Agnese Fischetti and Peter Attema, University of Groningen / Groningen Institute of Archaeology & Barkhuis Publishing, 2019. 2) the introduction by the editors to the volume 3) the article Attema "MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX… ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA.
Please find below the Italian and English abstracts
Sommario Prendendo le mosse dal lavoro dello studioso Marie-René de La Blanchère che operò nella Pianura Pontina (Italia Centrale) alla fine del XIX secolo, si tratteranno aspetti relativi alla storia, agli sviluppi e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. Si evidenzierà l’importanza che la scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo. Secondo l’autore, tali progetti si configurano come punto di incontro fra il singolo ritrovamento e la grande storia del Mediterraneo.
Parole chiave: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, archeologia dei paesaggi, teoria, metodo.
Abstract Departing from the landscape archeological investigations carried out by Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy) in the late 19th c. AD, this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology in a broad disciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology to structure data collected in regional landscape archaeological projects. The latter are, according to the author, well-positioned at the interface of the individual find and the grand Mediterranean narrative.
Keywords: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, landscape archaeology, theory, methodology.
Conceived as a companion to the 2016 ex- hibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the Gates... more Conceived as a companion to the 2016 ex- hibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the Gates of Rome” in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket of Copenhagen, this book tells the multi-faceted story of an ancient Latin settlement located at only a few kilometers from Rome on the basis of years of painstaking interdisciplinary archaeological research. Following a historical and landscape archaeological introduction, the spotlight is on Crustumerium’s exceptional funerary record that is being meticulously excavated and safeguarded for the future by an international team of field archaeologists and restorers, allowing the reader an exceptional insight in the long journey from discovery in the field to showcase in the museum.
This volume is the second of the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of confe... more This volume is the second of the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of conference proceedings, doctoral theses and specialist studies concerning the Latin settlement of Crustumerium (Rome) and Italian protohistory. It contains multidisciplinary papers of an international group of archaeologists discussing new fieldwork data and theories of broad relevance to Italian archaeology and with specific relevance to the study of Crustumerium's settlement, cemeteries and material culture in light of the site's cultural identity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE VII
State Formation 1 EARLY STATES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN IRON AGE (CA. 1000-400 BC) by John Bintliff 2 RELIGION, ART, LAW, ETHNICITY AND STATE FORMATION IN PROTOHISTORIC ITALY by Alessandro Guidi
Studies of Crustumerium 3 THE SOUTHERN AGER OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CRUSTUMERIUM by Fabiola Fraioli
4 EXPLORATORY TRENCHES IN THE SOUTHERN TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM (TENUTA INVIOLATELLA SALARIA) by Andrea Di Napoli 5 MANY RIVERS TO CROSS - REVISITING THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM WITH A COST SURFACE BASED SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS by Jorn Seubers
Territorial Modelling 6 HIERARCHICAL AND FEDERATIVE POLITIES IN PROTOHISTORIC LATIUM VETUS. AN ANALYSIS OF BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE SETTLEMENT ORGANIZATION by Luca Alessandri 7 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN SOUTH ETRURIA AND LATIUM VETUS by Angelo Amoroso 8 SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND EARLY LATIN CITIES (CENTRAL ITALY) by Francesca Fulminante, Sergi Lozano & Luce Prignano
Demography, Infrastructure and Architecture THE TOWN AND TERRITORY OF NEPI: THE POPULATION OF THE EARLIEST NEPI by Ulla Rajala
EMERGING INFRASTRUCTURES AT PROTO-URBAN CENTRES IN CENTRAL TYRRHENIAN ITALY by Eero Jarva & Juha Tuppi
TAKING COURAGE: FROM HUTS TO HOUSES. REFLECTIONS ON CHANGES IN EARLY ARCHAIC ARCHITECTURE IN LATIUM VETUS (CENTRAL ITALY) by Elisabeth van ‘t Lindenhout
Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the Un... more Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the University of Groningen in 2011 highlighting new results in the field of funerary archaeology. It contains papers on funerary sites in Italy ranging from Verrucchio in Emilia Romagna to Francavilla Marittima in Calabria between the 9th and 4th centuries BC. Four papers deal with the hundreds of Iron Age and Archaic tombs excavated at Crustumerium (Rome) where the editors carry our research in a collaborative project with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (papers by B. Belelli Marchesini & W. Pantano, Sarah Willemsen, Eero Jarva, Ulla Rajala). Other papers deal with the necropoleis of Francavilla Marittima (M. Guggisberg), Satricum (M. Gnade), Verrucchio (P. von Eles), Vetulonia (C. Colombi) and Veii (S. Neri). The volume concludes with an article on St. Peter's Church in the centre of Berlin by C. Melisch and J. Sewell offering an example of recent developments in recording and assessing large funerary datasets. Archaeologists working on pre-Roman Italy are indeed frequently confronted with large burial grounds holding hundreds to thousands of graves and having complex excavation and publication histories. These and other challenges of funerary archaeology are conscientiously and creatively addresses by the authors in this volume.
This book treats theoretical and methodological implications of the classification of archaeologi... more This book treats theoretical and methodological implications of the classification of archaeological sites of the Roman period in regional survey archaeology, and the potential of classifications for making intra- and interregional comparisons and interpretations.
This book is a publication of the Danish-Dutch-Ukrainian survey project carried out in 2007 and 2... more This book is a publication of the Danish-Dutch-Ukrainian survey project carried out in 2007 and 2008 on both sides of Lake Dzarylgac - that is, in the hinterland of the ancient Greek settlement of Panskoe I on the Tarchankut Peninsula (Northwestern Crimea). The project was the first systematic, intensive survey in the region, and its aim was to investigate the landscape from prehistory until early modern times. The publication concludes that the region was most intensively settled in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The results were spectacular: a large number of undisturbed Greek and indigenous sites were identified, which have completely changed our understanding of ancient settlement patterns in the region.
'Between Satricum and Antium' presents a study carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeol... more 'Between Satricum and Antium' presents a study carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology of the territories of two ancient settlements, both situated in the coastal landscape of ancient Latium on the Thyrrhenian seaboard, ca. 60 km south of Rome. Starting with the earliest traces of human presence in the Palaeolithic, the book deals in depth with the settlement dynamics in the area from the Middle Bronze age to the medieval period.
Systematic archaeological surveys, studies of existing site inventories and relevant artefact studies are all combined in this well-illustrated volume that provides a detailed account of the appearance of the first permanent dwellings during the Bronze and Iron Ages, of the rise of Archaic and Roman rural and maritime settlement and of the gradual process towards incastellamento during the Middle Ages.
Deze bundel is een mijlpaal in het onderzoek naar de Oude Middellandse Zee. Met behulp van een ve... more Deze bundel is een mijlpaal in het onderzoek naar de Oude Middellandse Zee. Met behulp van een vergelijkende aanpak, zijn drie verschillende regionale landschappen van Italië uitvoerig onderzocht door archeologen.
Om een zeer gedetailleerd beeld te krijgen van de ontwikkeling van menselijke activiteiten van de late Bronstijd tot de opkomst van het Romeinse Rijk, is er minutieus onderzoek gedaan naar nederzettingen, heiligdommen en begraafplaatsen. De milieugeschiedenis van deze gebieden en de geschiedenis van het door mensen gebruikte land zijn parallel geanalyseerd door gespecialiseerde projecten. Wat ontstaat, is een ongeëvenaarde reeks van inzichten in hoe regionale samenlevingen zich intern ontwikkelen en reageren op externe interventies zoals het kolonialisme, imperialisme en internationale handel.
The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome’s Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period, 2022
This paper is the introduction to the Open Access edited volume "The Rural Foundations of The Rom... more This paper is the introduction to the Open Access edited volume "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome’s Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" published in Open Access as part of the proceedings of the Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on the Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The book, contains the following papers:
José Ernesto Moura Knust
Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman,
Mediterranean and Global Frameworks
Stephen A. Collins-Elliott
Measuring Rural Economic Development through Categorical Data Analysis in Southern Etruria and Latium (400 BC – 50 AD)
Peter Attema – Tymon de Haas – Gijs Tol – Jorn Seubers
Towards an Integrated Database for the Study of Long-term Settlement
Dynamics, Economic Performance and Demography in the Pontine Region
and the Hinterland of Rome
Alessandro Launaro
A View from the Margins: Interamna Lirenas and its Territory in the Long Term
Günther Schörner – Veronika Schreck
Production and Trade in Late Republican and Imperial Inland Etruria:
Integrating Archaeological and Archaeometric Results of the Val di Pesa
and Val Orme-Project
Anna Maria Mercuri – Eleonora Rattighieri – Rossella Rinaldi –
Assunta Florenzano
The Archaeobotanical Study of Agriculture of Roman Peasants:
Skilled Farmers of the 1st BC – 5th AD in Tuscany, Central Italy
Willem M. Jongman
The Voice of the Silent Majority: Archaeological Surveys and the History
of the Roman Countryside
abstract:
Since the 1960s, excavations, survey and environmental studies have generated a wealth of data on the countryside around Rome north and south of the Tiber. Data pertain to rural settlement types ranging from the small farmstead to the large villa, and regard nonurban burial grounds, production facilities, such as pottery kilns, smithies and quarries, as well as infrastructure and field systems. Also, a growing interest can be noted in such important issues as crop choice, manuring, land reclamation and land degradation. In combination, this wealth of information, often still unconnected, can inform us on the functioning and performance of the Roman economy in a crucial period of Rome's rise to power during the Archaic and mid-Republican periods. It can also be used to investigate its subsequent development during the Late Republican and Early Imperial period within the expanding Mediterranean economic network of that period. The aim of the session "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome's Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" was to bring together methodologically informed, data-driven studies that shed light on the drivers and performance of the Central Italian rural economy during the Archaic to Imperial period.1 The session was accepted as part of the theme "Methodology: Survey archaeology, natural sciences, quantification", one of the overarching themes defined by the organizers of the 19 th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The original session was split up chronologically with a set of papers reflecting on the Archaic and Mid-Republican period first and then followed by a set of papers focusing on the Late Republican and Imperial periods. However, for the publication we have chosen to start with papers offering a broad synthetic perspective and to zoom in afterwards on case studies of regional and local relevance. The first paper by José Ernesto Moura Knust (Instituto Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro) entitled "Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman, Mediterranean and Global Frameworks" advocates to view Roman rural settlement not as a unique phenomenon but rather as part of a Mediterranean-wide historical process that requires a Mediterranean or even global historical framework for explanation. According to Knust, factors that should be taken into account are climate, connectivity leading to exchange of agricultural technology (including tools and crops), commercialization, and demographic pressure. In such an explanatory framework he sees agricultural intensification as the main driver leading to dispersed rural settlement in the ancient world, although in world history nucleated scenarios (as in the medieval period) occur as well.
This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological fiel... more This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological field survey and database integration. The Roman Hinterland Project combines data from the Tiber Valley Project, Roman Suburbium Project, and the Pontine Region Project into a single database, which the authors believe to be one of the most complete repositories of data for the hinterland of a major ancient metropolis, covering nearly 2000 years of history. The logic of combining these databases in the context of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.
The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC) from the perspective of ancient Crustumerium (Rome, Italy), 2020
This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and
deals with the results of the p... more This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the project The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, is about the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium resulting from Rome’s rise to power. The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the p... more This volume is the fourth in the series Corollaria Crustumina and deals with the results of the project The People and the State, Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, deals with the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium resulting from Rome's rise to power.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX… ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA, 2019
The file contains:
1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI
DINAMICHE INSEDIATI... more The file contains: 1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI DINAMICHE INSEDIATIVE E CULTURA MATERIALE AI CONFINI CON ROMA (ON THE SLOPES OF THE ALBAN HILLS , SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS AND MATERIAL CULTURE ON THE CONFINES OF ROME, edited by Agnese Fischetti and Peter Attema, University of Groningen / Groningen Institute of Archaeology & Barkhuis Publishing, 2019. 2) the introduction by the editors to the volume 3) the article Attema "MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX… ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA.
Please find below the Italian and English abstracts
Sommario Prendendo le mosse dal lavoro dello studioso Marie-René de La Blanchère che operò nella Pianura Pontina (Italia Centrale) alla fine del XIX secolo, si tratteranno aspetti relativi alla storia, agli sviluppi e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. Si evidenzierà l’importanza che la scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo. Secondo l’autore, tali progetti si configurano come punto di incontro fra il singolo ritrovamento e la grande storia del Mediterraneo.
Parole chiave: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, archeologia dei paesaggi, teoria, metodo.
Abstract Departing from the landscape archeological investigations carried out by Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy) in the late 19th c. AD, this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology in a broad disciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology to structure data collected in regional landscape archaeological projects. The latter are, according to the author, well-positioned at the interface of the individual find and the grand Mediterranean narrative.
Keywords: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, landscape archaeology, theory, methodology.
Conceived as a companion to the 2016 ex- hibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the Gates... more Conceived as a companion to the 2016 ex- hibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the Gates of Rome” in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket of Copenhagen, this book tells the multi-faceted story of an ancient Latin settlement located at only a few kilometers from Rome on the basis of years of painstaking interdisciplinary archaeological research. Following a historical and landscape archaeological introduction, the spotlight is on Crustumerium’s exceptional funerary record that is being meticulously excavated and safeguarded for the future by an international team of field archaeologists and restorers, allowing the reader an exceptional insight in the long journey from discovery in the field to showcase in the museum.
This volume is the second of the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of confe... more This volume is the second of the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of conference proceedings, doctoral theses and specialist studies concerning the Latin settlement of Crustumerium (Rome) and Italian protohistory. It contains multidisciplinary papers of an international group of archaeologists discussing new fieldwork data and theories of broad relevance to Italian archaeology and with specific relevance to the study of Crustumerium's settlement, cemeteries and material culture in light of the site's cultural identity.
TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE VII
State Formation 1 EARLY STATES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN IRON AGE (CA. 1000-400 BC) by John Bintliff 2 RELIGION, ART, LAW, ETHNICITY AND STATE FORMATION IN PROTOHISTORIC ITALY by Alessandro Guidi
Studies of Crustumerium 3 THE SOUTHERN AGER OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CRUSTUMERIUM by Fabiola Fraioli
4 EXPLORATORY TRENCHES IN THE SOUTHERN TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM (TENUTA INVIOLATELLA SALARIA) by Andrea Di Napoli 5 MANY RIVERS TO CROSS - REVISITING THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM WITH A COST SURFACE BASED SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS by Jorn Seubers
Territorial Modelling 6 HIERARCHICAL AND FEDERATIVE POLITIES IN PROTOHISTORIC LATIUM VETUS. AN ANALYSIS OF BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE SETTLEMENT ORGANIZATION by Luca Alessandri 7 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN SOUTH ETRURIA AND LATIUM VETUS by Angelo Amoroso 8 SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND EARLY LATIN CITIES (CENTRAL ITALY) by Francesca Fulminante, Sergi Lozano & Luce Prignano
Demography, Infrastructure and Architecture THE TOWN AND TERRITORY OF NEPI: THE POPULATION OF THE EARLIEST NEPI by Ulla Rajala
EMERGING INFRASTRUCTURES AT PROTO-URBAN CENTRES IN CENTRAL TYRRHENIAN ITALY by Eero Jarva & Juha Tuppi
TAKING COURAGE: FROM HUTS TO HOUSES. REFLECTIONS ON CHANGES IN EARLY ARCHAIC ARCHITECTURE IN LATIUM VETUS (CENTRAL ITALY) by Elisabeth van ‘t Lindenhout
Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the Un... more Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the University of Groningen in 2011 highlighting new results in the field of funerary archaeology. It contains papers on funerary sites in Italy ranging from Verrucchio in Emilia Romagna to Francavilla Marittima in Calabria between the 9th and 4th centuries BC. Four papers deal with the hundreds of Iron Age and Archaic tombs excavated at Crustumerium (Rome) where the editors carry our research in a collaborative project with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (papers by B. Belelli Marchesini & W. Pantano, Sarah Willemsen, Eero Jarva, Ulla Rajala). Other papers deal with the necropoleis of Francavilla Marittima (M. Guggisberg), Satricum (M. Gnade), Verrucchio (P. von Eles), Vetulonia (C. Colombi) and Veii (S. Neri). The volume concludes with an article on St. Peter's Church in the centre of Berlin by C. Melisch and J. Sewell offering an example of recent developments in recording and assessing large funerary datasets. Archaeologists working on pre-Roman Italy are indeed frequently confronted with large burial grounds holding hundreds to thousands of graves and having complex excavation and publication histories. These and other challenges of funerary archaeology are conscientiously and creatively addresses by the authors in this volume.
This book treats theoretical and methodological implications of the classification of archaeologi... more This book treats theoretical and methodological implications of the classification of archaeological sites of the Roman period in regional survey archaeology, and the potential of classifications for making intra- and interregional comparisons and interpretations.
This book is a publication of the Danish-Dutch-Ukrainian survey project carried out in 2007 and 2... more This book is a publication of the Danish-Dutch-Ukrainian survey project carried out in 2007 and 2008 on both sides of Lake Dzarylgac - that is, in the hinterland of the ancient Greek settlement of Panskoe I on the Tarchankut Peninsula (Northwestern Crimea). The project was the first systematic, intensive survey in the region, and its aim was to investigate the landscape from prehistory until early modern times. The publication concludes that the region was most intensively settled in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The results were spectacular: a large number of undisturbed Greek and indigenous sites were identified, which have completely changed our understanding of ancient settlement patterns in the region.
'Between Satricum and Antium' presents a study carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeol... more 'Between Satricum and Antium' presents a study carried out by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology of the territories of two ancient settlements, both situated in the coastal landscape of ancient Latium on the Thyrrhenian seaboard, ca. 60 km south of Rome. Starting with the earliest traces of human presence in the Palaeolithic, the book deals in depth with the settlement dynamics in the area from the Middle Bronze age to the medieval period.
Systematic archaeological surveys, studies of existing site inventories and relevant artefact studies are all combined in this well-illustrated volume that provides a detailed account of the appearance of the first permanent dwellings during the Bronze and Iron Ages, of the rise of Archaic and Roman rural and maritime settlement and of the gradual process towards incastellamento during the Middle Ages.
Deze bundel is een mijlpaal in het onderzoek naar de Oude Middellandse Zee. Met behulp van een ve... more Deze bundel is een mijlpaal in het onderzoek naar de Oude Middellandse Zee. Met behulp van een vergelijkende aanpak, zijn drie verschillende regionale landschappen van Italië uitvoerig onderzocht door archeologen.
Om een zeer gedetailleerd beeld te krijgen van de ontwikkeling van menselijke activiteiten van de late Bronstijd tot de opkomst van het Romeinse Rijk, is er minutieus onderzoek gedaan naar nederzettingen, heiligdommen en begraafplaatsen. De milieugeschiedenis van deze gebieden en de geschiedenis van het door mensen gebruikte land zijn parallel geanalyseerd door gespecialiseerde projecten. Wat ontstaat, is een ongeëvenaarde reeks van inzichten in hoe regionale samenlevingen zich intern ontwikkelen en reageren op externe interventies zoals het kolonialisme, imperialisme en internationale handel.
Between 2015 and 2019, a team of archaeologists, palaeobotanists and geologists from the Universi... more Between 2015 and 2019, a team of archaeologists, palaeobotanists and geologists from the Universities of Groningen, Amsterdam and Leiden looked into the distal effects of a powerful eruption of the Somma–Vesuvius volcano in Campania on the former wetlands of the Agro Pontino and Fondi coastal plains in Central Tyrrhenian Italy. These wetlands are located c. 60 km south of Rome and between 90 and 140 km north-west of Mount Vesuvius. The ‘Avellino’ eruption took place during an advanced stage of the Early Bronze Age and was radiocarbon dated around 1900 BCE. This article reports on the results of the research programme “The Avellino Event: Cultural and Demographic Effects of the Great Bronze Age Eruption of Mount Vesuvius”, funded by the Dutch Research Council. The team’s main hypothesis, that people living in the surroundings of Mount Vesuvius in the Early Bronze Age who had time to escape the proximal effects of the eruption – pyroclastic flows and heavy ash falls – fled to the relative safety of nearby coastal areas to build a temporary or permanent new existence, was disproved by field evidence early on. No major environmental and archaeological impacts were evident in the archaeological and environmental record of the study area around the date of the eruption. Nonetheless, the research resulted in a significant increase in geological and palaeobotanical data, which has proved extremely useful for the reconstruction of the longue durée of human–landscape interactions. The Avellino tephra was a most reliable chronological horizon in this reconstruction contributing to the overall objectives of the long-running Pontine Region Project of the University of Groningen. This contribution contains an overview of the main results of the Avellino Event Project, including an overview of scientific publications, valorisation output, and a brief discussion of some remarkable spin-off projects.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained herein may be repro... more All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained herein may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen. Although all care is taken to ensure the integrity and quality of this publication and the information herein, no reponsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the authors for any damage to property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the information contained herein.
MARIE-RENÉ DE LA BLANCHÈRE: DALLE TERRE PONTINE ALL’AFRICA ROMANA | Stéphane Bourdin, Alessandro Pagliara, 2019
Abstract in Italian (and in English below)
for direct access, see: https://books.openedition.org... more Abstract in Italian (and in English below)
for direct access, see: https://books.openedition.org/efr/5980
Sulla scorta delle riflessioni scaturite dall’analisi del lavoro svolto da Marie-René de La Blanchère nelle terre pontine, questo contributo affronterà aspetti relativi alla storia, allo sviluppo e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio del Mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. A tal fine, si evidenzierà l’importanza che la Scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio del Mediterraneo. Riguardo al contributo di La Blanchère, sottolineerò in special modo la tesi centrale della sua analisi, vale a dire la tesi secondo la quale le terre pontine sono caratterizzate nell’antichità da un paesaggio intensivamente abitato e produttivo, un dato che, da una prospettiva storica, è stato sottolineato da Filippo Coarelli e confermato dalle attuali ricerche archeologiche del paesaggio nelle terre pontine.
Departing from the work of Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy), this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology as a means to structure the data procured by individual regional landscape archaeological projects. More specifically with respect to the work of La Blanchère, the paper highlights his central thesis that the Pontine Region in Roman times was an intensively exploited landscape, a fact that has been stressed by Filippo Coarelli from a historical perspective, a view that is corroborated by modern archaeological research of the Pontine landscape.
The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome’s Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period, Edited by Peter Attema – Günther Schörner, 2022
For over 30 years, the Pontine Region Project (PRP) has carried out intensive archaeological arte... more For over 30 years, the Pontine Region Project (PRP) has carried out intensive archaeological artefact surveys in the Pontine region, a coastal landscape south of Rome.These surveys have resulted in a database holding site and ceramic data that derive from all the different landscape zones of this region, which include a coastal ridge, inland plain, volcanic hills, river valleys, foothills and surrounding mountain range. The PRP database structure is aimed at the aggregate and comparative analysis of rural settlement patterns across these different landscape zones in space and time, and to reconstruct economic and demographic trends on the local and regional scales from protohistory into the medieval period. In the first part of this article we will give an overview of the challenges involvedin creating this overarching project database, and present recent work done on the Pontine Region Project and its database as well as longitudinal socio-economic and demographic studies of the Pontine landscape and past populations to illustrate the analytical potential of data integration. So far, we have carried out a restricted number of quantified socio-economic case studies of specific landscapes within the Pontine Region and are working towards truly comparative analyses on the regional scale of the Pontine landscape based on the Pontine data. Moreover, we will outline an objective for the future: to incorporate ‘legacy’ datasets in our database. In our case these especially comprise topographic studies, among which are several Forma Italiae archaeological inventories to complement our own site data, and to allow us to link rural settlement patterns to urban development and infrastructure. In the second part of the paper, we discuss the possibility and potential to integrate the Pontine Region database with those of two other major survey projects, the Suburbium Project (Sapienza Rome) and the Tiber Valley Project (British School at Rome), to design an aggregate database that covers representative sections of Rome’s Suburbium.4 To this end, we have formed an international consortium of researchers from the Universities of Groningen (NL), Durham (UK), St. Andrews (UK), Cologne (G) and Melbourne (AUS). This new project, called the Rome Hinterland Project (RHP), is supported by an internationalization grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) to which all partners contributed financially.5 This initiative will facilitate longitudinal and quantitative studies on socio-economic and demographic aspects of Rome’s hinterland from its formation to well into the medieval period.
PALAEOHISTORIA ACTA ET COMMUNICATIONES INSTITUTI ARCHAEOLOGICI UNIVERSITATIS GRONINGANAE 61/62 (2019/2020) University, 2021
This contribution is the first of a series of publications by the authors to systematically discl... more This contribution is the first of a series of publications by the authors to systematically disclose the wealth of material evidence collected during some 30 years of fieldwork in the Pontine region by the Pontine Region Project. This project has, since its inception in the mid-1980s, investigated more than 36 km2 of terrain across all major geomorphological units of the region, largely by means of systematic surface investigations. During these investigations, close to 200 000 artefacts were collected for further study, including c. 1 660 fragments of (Italian) terra sigillata, the emblematic, shiny red fine table ware of the Early Imperial period. In this article, we present a detailed spatial and contextual analysis of the terra sigillata fragments that have been gathered within the Pontine Region Project and discuss the results in light of economic issues (market integration, economic growth). We then supplement this evidence by published evidence of name stamps from surrounding areas to further expose to what extent, and in what ways, the different parts of southern Latium were embedded in the long-distance economic networks of the period.
Imperium Romanum: Romanization between Colonization and Globalization, edited by Oscar Belvedere and Johannes Bergemann, Palermo University Press, 2021
In this paper, I look at the common theme of the conference, Roman Empire: Romanization between C... more In this paper, I look at the common theme of the conference, Roman Empire: Romanization between Colonization and Globalization (held at the Villa Vigoni in 2019) from a landscape archaeological perspective. I My contribution to the conference consisted of an empirical study based on settlement and pottery data collected over many years in the Pontine region, south of Rome. The study illustrates how various concepts, commonly used in archaeology to describe and at times explain cultural change may or may not apply to the specific case of the Pontine region, a landscape that historically counts as one of the earliest zones of Roman expansion. First of all I ask what Romanization might entail in a Latin context of which Rome itself was part. Secondly I look critically at the use of the term Roman colonization in the context of the late 6th and 5th c. BC in this landscape that I have in earlier research described as a ‘laboratory of Roman colonization’ The full edited volume is downloadable (fully Open Access) via the link: https://www.unipapress.it/it/book/imperium-romanum_325/
RIASSUNTO A seguito della sintesi pubblicata sulle indagini archeologiche nel territorio di Sezze... more RIASSUNTO A seguito della sintesi pubblicata sulle indagini archeologiche nel territorio di Sezze, condotte dall'Università di Groningen sotto l'egida del Progetto della Regione Pontina (PRP), questo documento discute la metodologia e i primi risultati di due progetti di ricerca sul campo più recenti nel quadro del PRP, entrambi finanziati dall'Organizzazione olandese per la ricerca scientifica (NWO): 1) l'Avellino Event Project (AVP) delle Università di Groningen e Leiden che studia gli effetti distali della grande eruzione del Vesuvio risalente all'età del bronzo sull'ambiente umano della pianura di Fondi e della pianura Pontina. 2) il progetto dei Centri Minori che studia lo sviluppo degli insediamenti di Forum Appi e Ad Medias lungo la Via Appia in relazione allo sviluppo della campagna romana. Entrambi i progetti contribuiscono in modo significativo alla ricostruzione a lungo termine del paesaggio umano nella pianura di Sezze e aprono prospettive su ulteriori lavori interdisciplinari. ABSTRACT Following a synthesis of published archaeological investigations in the territory of Sezze by the team of the University of Groningen within the Pontine Region Project (PRP), this paper discusses the methodology and first results of two more recent fieldwork projects within the framework of the PRP, both funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): 1) the Avellino Event Project (AVP) of the universities of Groningen and Leiden that studies the distal effects of the great Bronze Age eruption of mount Vesuvius on the human environment of the Fondi and Pontine plains. 2) the Minor Centres project that studies the development of the settlements of Forum Appi and Ad Medias along the Via Appia in relation with the development of the Roman countryside. Both projects add significantly to the long term reconstruction of the human landscape in the plain south of Sezze as well as open up perspectives on further interdisciplinary work. INTRODUZIONE A partire dagli anni ottanta, il Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) ha condotto una serie di ricerche multidisciplinari nella regione pontina volte alla ricostruzione, nel lungo periodo, dell'occupazione umana e dell'uso del suolo. Questi studi hanno riguardato anche il territorio di Sezze e le zone limitrofe, verso l'interno e verso il mare. I vari progetti, tutti compresi nel cosiddetto Pontine Region Project (PRP), hanno anche coinvolto vari partner nazionali ed internazionali (Fig.1). Le ricerche si sono focalizzate in un arco di tempo che va dalla preistoria al tardo periodo imperiale e si sono avvalse di dati archeologici, sedimentologici, pedologici e paleobotanici. Il presente contributo si pone due scopi: da una parte di presentare un quadro sintetico di quelle ricerche, dall'altra di fornire ulteriori dati, ottenuti recentemente nell'ambito dell'Avellino Event Project (sull'età del Bronzo) e del Minor Centres Project (principalmente sull'epoca
PAROLE CHIAVE: età del Bronzo, età Romana, Avellino evento, Sezze, Forum Appii, Ad Medias, Pontine plain, archeologia dei paesaggi, paleogeografia.
This article discusses the results of archaeological investigations carried out by the Pontine Re... more This article discusses the results of archaeological investigations carried out by the Pontine Region Project (PRP) near the site of Astura in the coastal part of the Pontine Region. In the period 2005-2008 a long section, exposed by marine erosion, was drawn and sampled. Subsequently, in the years 2012 and 2013, small-scale geophysical prospections were carried out to assess the preservation of structural remains at the site. The investigation yielded evidence belonging to two main occupational phases. A large quantity – and wide variety – of Late Antique materials indicate the presence of a substantial settlement, that is alluded to in historical and textual evidence as well. For the High Medieval period (12th century AD) evidence was obtained for the production of pottery (ceramica a bande rosse) and lime, possibly forming part of the economic basis of a larger (private or ecclesiastical) estate.
Urban and Rural Landscapes of the Pontine region (Central Italy) in the late Republican period, economic growth between colonial heritage and elite impetus, 2018
This paper gives a concise overview of the Republican to Early Imperial urban and rural landscape... more This paper gives a concise overview of the Republican to Early Imperial urban and rural landscapes of the Pontine region as a prelude to a discussion of the historical conditions that had enabled economic prosperity.
Abstract
Livy and other ancient authors describe how the Pontine region played a key role in Rome... more Abstract Livy and other ancient authors describe how the Pontine region played a key role in Rome’s earliest expansion. Between the late 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Romans would have brought the region under control through the foundation of colonies. However, recent scholarship has problematized the rendering of this colonial past in the literary sources, casting doubt on the nature and existence of these early colonies. So far, the archaeological evidence (e.g. polygonal masonry fortifications of the colonies) has hardly been studied critically. In an attempt to bring such evidence to the debate, this paper discusses these fortifications in their regional setting. In particular, we focus on the case of Norba, a colony founded in 492 BC on the edge of the Lepine Mountains. We build on the landscape archaeological data collected within the Pontine Region Project, which allows for a detailed reconstruction of the system of fortifications in relation to changes in settlement patterns. In addition, GIS-based techniques (cost path and viewshed analysis) are employed to analyse the coherence and context of these fortifications. The analysis shows how already before Roman colonization, a complex system of fortifications dominated the settled landscape and controlled the routes through the Lepine Mountains. After the Archaic period, however, Norba gradually became the focal point of this system. The analysis thus sheds new light on the context in which the foundation of this colony took place. It furthermore suggests that a hypercritical attitude towards the historical narrative is perhaps not warranted by the archaeological evidence – even though Norba’s polygonal masonry fortifications themselves do not belong to the early colonial phase.
The Pontine region, located at a distance of only ca. 60 km south of Rome, already boasted a rich... more The Pontine region, located at a distance of only ca. 60 km south of Rome, already boasted a rich colonial heritage in the
Mid-Republican period, at a time that regions further from Rome were confronted with Roman expansion and its impact
on indigenous Italic urban and rural landscapes for the first time. This heritage not only figured in the literary sources, but
was also prominently present in the landscape. This paper discusses two dynamics that helped shape the Late-Republican and Early Imperial landscape of the Pontine region. One was the development of Roman urban settlements in the Mid-Republican
period, a partly organic and partly steered process in which the role of Rome became ever more evident. The other was the
planned expansion of agricultural land into marginal areas through land reclamation during that same period.
This paper introduces a project that investigates developments in settlement and infrastructure i... more This paper introduces a project that investigates developments in settlement and infrastructure in the Pontine Plain (Lazio, Central Italy) through geographic models and new fieldwork. The preliminary results of this fieldwork on two sites along the Via Appia, Forum Appii and Ad Medias, show that these sites developed from the late 4 th century BC on, with the construction of this road and related drainage works. However, the sites developed differently: Ad Medias remained small, but Forum Appii was an important centre until Late Roman times, probably due to its favourable position within infrastructural networks.
In: T.D. Stek & J. Pelgrom (eds) Roman Republican Colonization, New Perspectives from Archeaology and Ancient History, Papers of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome - Volume 62 - 2014, 211-232., 2014
This paper presents a study of changes in the urban and rural settlement of the Pontine region in... more This paper presents a study of changes in the urban and rural settlement of the Pontine region in southern Lazio from the Archaic (6th c. B.C.) to the Mid-Republican period (circa 200 B.C.). Its aim is to increase understanding of the colonization of this key area in the context of the political, economic and territorial expansion of Rome during the 5th and 4th c. B.C. Eight colonies were reportedly founded in the Pontine region in this period: Circeii, Cora, Pometia, Norba, Antium, Satricum, Setia and Tarracina, and instances of viritane land distributions are recorded as well. We follow leading ancient historians in presuming that these recorded foundations and distributions should be taken as a reflection of expansionist undertakings of some sort. In this paper, we discuss these two forms of colonization, highlighting the various historical, geographical and organizational conditions under which the colonization
of the Pontine region occurred.
Papers of the British School at Rome 82 (2014), pp. 109–34, 2014
The project ‘Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries: the role of minor centres in the economy of Roman ... more The project ‘Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries: the role of minor centres in the economy of Roman Central Italy’ (in short Minor Centres Project) focuses on the understudied settlement class of Roman rural centres. This contribution presents the first results of a research programme comprising geophysical surveys and field walking on two of such sites (the road stations of Forum Appii and Ad Medias), situated in the Pontine plain (Lazio, Central Italy) along the Via Appia. The results obtained suggest that although far from being a uniform settlement class, minor centres performed crucial functions within local and regional economies. Whereas, based on the present data, Ad Medias primarily functioned as a small centre provisioning and servicing travellers and the local rural population, Forum Appii developed into a centre of craft production and, with its river port, also became a trade hub of regional importance. To conclude, the article will also consider the implications of these results in terms of future research strategies.
PALAEOHISTORIA ACTA ET COMMUNICATIONES INSTITUTI ARCHAEOLOGICI UNIVERSITATIS GRONINGANAE 55/56 (2013/2014), 177-244, 2014
This article presents and discusses the ceramic data of an archaeological surface survey carried ... more This article presents and discusses the ceramic data of an archaeological surface survey carried out in 1994 by the Pontine Region Project (PRP) in the agricultural territory of the Roman Republican colony of Setia in the Pontine plain c. 80 km SE of Rome. While chronological distribution maps were published earlier by the PRP in a paper of 2004, here the ceramic finds are analysed and discussed for each individual site including the off-site ceramic distributions. From the site data it appears that rural infill in the territory of Setia began during the post-Archaic period (5th/4th c. BC) with small farmsteads, a process probably linked to the founding of the colony. Rural infill intensified during the Roman Republican period, and by the late Republican period the terrirory was dotted with farms and villas and a successful agricultural economy was in place, partly based on intensive viticulture. As such the archaeological data from the survey corroborate information gleaned from the historical sources which describe the area as one in which the Roman elite invested in rural estates and which was known for its excellent wines.
This paper provides a new assessment of the potential of more nuanced cultural and historical eco... more This paper provides a new assessment of the potential of more nuanced cultural and historical ecological frameworks that explicitly develop notions of environmental knowledge in the investigation of human engagements with the environment. More specifically, this contribution considers the development of the forms of environmental knowledge associated with the Pontine Region in Central Italy during the Roman period.
in: LCRW 4, Late Roman coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean (eds. N. Poulou-Papadimitriou, E. Nodarou and V. Kilikoglou, BAR International Series 2616 (I), 2014, pp. 39-50
In 2004, between the large villa complex of Torre Astura and the mouth of the Astura river, a sec... more In 2004, between the large villa complex of Torre Astura and the mouth of the Astura river, a section exposed by marine erosion was observed by students of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology bringing to light a stratigraphy containing archaeological materials. Its location corresponded to the
southernmost edge of a large site that was tentatively
identified by Fabio Piccarreta (1977) as the settlement
Astura, depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana. In the summers of 2007 and 2008 a team of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) mapped and sampled the section with archaeological materials exposed by marine erosion. The principal aim of the study was to obtain insight in the pottery wares and shapes that circulated in the wider study area between the late Roman and the early Medieval period, a phase for which sites are few in the database of GIA’s long-running Pontine Region Project.
This article provides an overview of the types of amphorae, coarse and cooking wares attested. These indicate that the site participated in long-distance trade networks, probably using the
harbour at Torre Astura as a landing-stage and taking advantage of the Via Severiana to connect wit the hinterland. The paper presents a catalogue of the excavated materials.
This article discusses research carried out within the Pontine Region Project on thirteen sites w... more This article discusses research carried out within the Pontine Region Project on thirteen sites with polygonal masonry platforms in the footslopes of the Lepine Mountains. Its aim is to assess the data available on the function, chronology and socio-economic status of this group of sites in light of debates on the broader development of rural estates and agricultural specialization in Republican central Italy. The data regarding the architecture of these sites and pottery samples, recorded during various field surveys, is presented in the accompanying site and artefact catalogue. We first present the data gathered during a number of field surveys carried out between 1988 and 2008, which show that these sites are to be interpreted as farmsteads, with in some cases additional functions such as pottery production. While the scant direct dating evidence suggests that the platforms were constructed in the 3rd or perhaps the 2nd century BC, the pottery
shows that the sites themselves had been occupied earlier, in some cases from the Archaic period on. We subsequently discuss these thirteen platform sites in their wider geographical context, showing that they were part of a complex settlement system. The platforms were the sites of farms involved in specialised production of olive oil, intensively exploiting the footslopes around the towns of Cora, Norba and Setia. While platform sites in close proximity to Norba and Setia may represent extra-urban sanctuaries, a third group of platform sites represent estates that exploited the cultivable areas in the interior Lepine Mountains. The evidence thus suggests that the platform site is an important phase in the development of villas: they most probably represent elite estates involved in specialised, market-oriented production. Although the development of these sites, which scholars have attributed to different historical contexts, definitely needs further (stratigraphic) study, in the Lepine Mountains they may well have evolved in the 3rd century BC.
Burial Taphonomy and Post-Funeral Practices in Pre-Roman Italy. Problems and Perspectives, edited by Martin Guggisberg and , 2023
This paper takes into account all factors that affected the preservation of tombs and their inven... more This paper takes into account all factors that affected the preservation of tombs and their inventories in the burial grounds of ancient Crustumerium, a Latin settlement 13 km north of Rome, inhabited between the 9th and 5th c. BC. Its aim is to highlight the combined effect of two main processes;
a) the severe erosion of the topsoil and theunderlying soft volcanic bedrock caused by centuries of ploughing that has profoundly affected the preservation of tomb architecture, i.e. landscape processes; b) post-depositional processes affecting organic materials (wood, textiles, human bone) and inorganic materials (pottery, metal) in the tombs as a result of flooding, collapse and the acidity of the soil, i.e. taphonomy.
This chapter and the book in which it is published (M. A. Guggisberg, M. Billo-Imbach (eds.), Burial Taphonomy and Post-Funeral Practices in Pre-Roman Italy. Problems and Perspectives (Heidelberg 2023) are are free downloadable from https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1211
Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy Paradigms for Cultural Change, 2023
The long term investigations of the burial grounds of ancient Crustumerium in northern Latium Vet... more The long term investigations of the burial grounds of ancient Crustumerium in northern Latium Vetus, located on the Tiber just north of Rome, have resulted in a wealth of information on the use of material culture by its community. To date, over 400 tombs have been excavated, spanning four centuries between the mid-ninth century and the turn of the sixth century BCE. The data recovered from the burial grounds reflect profound changes in the social structure of the community that lived at Crustumerium, and highlight specific material cultural connections within the wider region. Material culture expressions shared with other regions were, however, embedded in the, distinctly local, social and cultural context associated with the communities of northern Latium Vetus, and of Crustumerium itself. To study this dynamic, the present chapter offers a pilot network analysis of the material culture of a subset of Crustumerium’s tombs dating to Latial periods IVA and IVB (720-580 BCE) revealing regional cultural connections and affiliations. The results of this study indicate how funerary architectural models and material culture objects of the long seventh c. BC, also known as the orientalizing period, were adapted to local usage and interpretations, creating the distinct material funerary cultural context of Crustumerium.
For the volune in which this paper has appeared see: https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503602325-1 = Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy, Paradigms for Cultural Change, edited by Jeremy Armstrong, Aaron Rhodes-Schroder (eds), p.117-146.
Scratching through the surface. Revisiting the archaeology of city and country in Crustumerium and north Latium Vetus between 850 and 300 BC, 2020
The file contains the index and preface to the third volume in the series Corollaria Crustumina a... more The file contains the index and preface to the third volume in the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of conference proceedings, doctoral theses and specialist studies concerning the Latin settlement of Crustumerium (Rome) and its place in central Italian protohistory. It contains the dissertation that Jorn Seubers wrote and defended at the University of Groningen as part of the project "The People and the State. Material culture, social structure and political centralisation in central Italy (800-450 BC)". Seubers'detailed study of Crustumerium's urban and rural settlement dynamics, for which the author assembled all data from previous work while adding new landscape archaeological studies and sophisticated territorial and data analyses, elaborates a new scenario on the relation between the urban core and its countryside that is reviewed within the theoretical framework of the debate on early state formation and landscape archeological methodology
Cropmarks in the Tiber valley: research into the use and occupation
of the Tiber valley near Crus... more Cropmarks in the Tiber valley: research into the use and occupation of the Tiber valley near Crustumerium in Roman times
This paper reports on a short field campaign aimed at investigating an extensive cropmark identified in aerial photography by the first author. The cropmark is situated in the Tiber floodplain near the ancient settlement of Crustumerium, north of the centre of Rome and close to old riverbanks of the river Tiber. Surface finds, coring and geophysical mapping suggest that the cropmark indicates the buried remains of a substantial building complex of probably Roman Imperial date. This is an important discovery, which contributes to our understanding of the palaeogeography, sedimentation regime and settlement history of the Tiber floodplain. In this paper we limit ourselves to an initial (and speculative) interpretation of the cropmark in terms of its extent and individual components. The fieldwork was carried out in the framework of the Crustumerium project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome.
A multifunctional 3D model: interdisciplinary research on an artificial
mound at Crustumerium (It... more A multifunctional 3D model: interdisciplinary research on an artificial mound at Crustumerium (Italy)
In 2014, researchers of the GIA and the archaeological service of Rome discovered that a giant mound at the Latin settlement of Crustumerium near Rome (9th c. to 5thc. BCE) contained a mortuary record of 300 years. Archaeological excavations and geophysical research revealed the mound as having a complex stratigraphy and intricate spatial relationships with the surrounding settlement and burial grounds. This made the excavation team realize that the mound can only be analysed and rendered comprehensible through advanced digital techniques. To achieve a proper archaeological interpretation of the monument, the team has started to explore the potential of the data in an accurate 3D environment. This paper discusses the present status and future perspectives of the project, highlighting 1) the scientific potential and challenges ofstudying complex archaeological features in a 3D environment and 2) the translation of such work into an appealing while scientifically valid model for public outreach.
Being conceived as a companion to the 2016 exhibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the G... more Being conceived as a companion to the 2016 exhibition “Crustumerium, Death and Afterlife at the Gates of Rome” in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket of Copenhagen, this book tells the multi-faceted story of an ancient Latin settlement located at only a few kilometers from Rome on the basis of years of painstaking interdisciplinary archaeological research. Following a historical and landscape archaeological introduction, the spotlight is on Crustumerium’s exceptional funerary record that is being meticulously excavated and safeguarded for the future by an international team of field archaeologists and restorers, allowing the reader an exceptional insight in the long journey from discovery in the field to showcase in the museum. Crustumerium was founded ca. 850 BC and subjugated to Rome shortly after 500 BC after which it was abandoned.
Crustumerium. Death and Afterlife at the Gates of Rome
Exhibition, Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, Cope... more Crustumerium. Death and Afterlife at the Gates of Rome Exhibition, Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, Copenhagen from May 19 till October 23, 2016 The ancient city Crustumerium was a centre for cultural exchange and played a significant role in the story of the foundation of Rome. For some 1,500 year Crustumerium was merely a recurrent reference in historical sources. When in 1975 archaeologists located the city, some 15 km north of the Italian capital, it was an archaeological breakthrough of the first order, and Crustumerium has since been the object of numerous successful excavations.
The main contributors to this exhibition are the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, SSBAR (the archaeological superintendence of Rome) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (University of Groningen, the Netherlands). We especially would like to thank Dr.ssa P. Filippini of the SSBAR for her support.
Crustumerium ’s Monte Del Bufalo cemetery features Early Iron Age and Orientalising fossa and Arc... more Crustumerium ’s Monte Del Bufalo cemetery features Early Iron Age and Orientalising fossa and Archaic chamber tombs. While the first usually had a relatively elaborate set of grave gifts, the latter contain only few grave gifts. The funerary architecture and associated ritual customs provide insight in the social transformation of the communities around Rome between the late Orientalising and Archaic period.
Forma Urbis, Anno XIX, n.9, september 2014 "l'archeologia Olandese in Italia", Sep 2014
This paper presents a general introduction to the archaeology of the protohistoric site of Crustu... more This paper presents a general introduction to the archaeology of the protohistoric site of Crustumerium and specifically the contribution of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at this important site for our knowledge of early urbanization in the near surroundings of Rome.
Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series Number 97, 2014, 175-196, May 2014
This paper provides an introduction to the protohistoric Latial hillsite of Crustumerium (ca. 15 ... more This paper provides an introduction to the protohistoric Latial hillsite of Crustumerium (ca. 15 km north/northeast of Rome along the via Salaria in the Tiber valley) and an overview of different types of research on Crustumerium’s urban phases, illustrating the potential of combining old and new data in a GIS environment. The application of large-scale geophysical surveys has marked an important methodological advance in the study of Crustumerium, such work being instrumental for assessing both the quantity and the quality of surviving archaeological sub-surfaces. The geophysical program has already employed magnetometry to bring to light new information on surviving structural features while at the same time confirming the strong effects of erosion at the site.
Bulletino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma, CXIII, 2012, 263-278., 2012
This publication deals with the cultural characteristics of Orientalizing and Archaic tombs as ob... more This publication deals with the cultural characteristics of Orientalizing and Archaic tombs as observed in a sample of tombs excavated by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at the Latin site of Crustumerium near Rome in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma. This is a slightly modified version of a paper in English bearing the same title and published on-line in 2011 as "Cultural characteristics of the Ancient Community living at Crustumerium and the Excavations of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at the Monte Del Bufalo", als downloadable from this site.
XVII International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Meetings between Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean (Roma 22-26 September 2008), Bolletino di Archeologia on Line, Volume Speciale., 2011
Studi di Protostoria in memoria di Renato Peroni, 2023
Abstract
In the surveys carried out by the University of Groningen since 2000 in the hinterland o... more Abstract In the surveys carried out by the University of Groningen since 2000 in the hinterland of the Sibaritide, a protohistoric settlement in use between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age was discovered at Timpone delle Fave, in the territory of Frascineto. This site is characterized by the presence of fragments of corded pithoi, mainly dating to the Final Bronze Age. Pottery productions based on Aegean technology are in fact found in several sites in the foothills along the Sybaris plain and can be considered indicators of the profound changes in settlement organization during the Late Bronze Age. In order to evaluate the possible effects that relationships between local and Aegean cultures had on the socio-cultural structure of Late Bronze Age settlement organization, a reconstruction of these contacts is proposed on a landscape scale. The available data so far confirm that during the Late Bronze Age settlement disappeared from the upland and mountainous areas of the Sibaritide. This observation leads us to believe that the incorporation of new production modes contributed to a preference for settlement locations closer to the plain, along natural communication routes, where production was easier to manage and control. However, it seems that existing social structures by and large persisted as full-fledged urbanization processes did not take place in the area, contrary to what is observed in other Italian regions during the period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.
Fields, Sherds and Scholars, Recording and Interpreting Survey Ceramics, 2023
The bulk of ceramic assemblages found on sites of protohistoric date in Italy is of a type of han... more The bulk of ceramic assemblages found on sites of protohistoric date in Italy is of a type of handmade pottery called impasto. Its study is labour-intensive as only limited reference assemblages exist and few studies on its production are available. Moreover, impasto shapes were often produced over long periods. The study of the pottery derived from surveys carried out in northeastern Calabria (Italy) by GIA’s Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) since the 1990s is a case in point. In these surveys, 113 pottery scatters dating between the Bronze- and Iron Ages were recorded. Of these scatters, 30 could be assigned to specific periods, having yielded potsherds that could be related to chrono-typological studies. The potsherds of the remaining 83 scatters had no obvious reference to such typological frameworks, and painstaking analysis of the materials was needed to increase the number of datable sherds. In this paper, we discuss the approach taken in our study of the pottery from the RAP surveys, which we based on the morphological characteristics of the material and on an extensive search for parallels from a range of published archaeological contexts. This approach resulted in new and important knowledge on the diachronic settlement development in the Raganello valley and in an assessment of its cultural connectivity across time and space, raising questions about how underlying mechanisms of cultural transmission were constituted.
Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy Paradigms for Cultural Change , 2023
Since the postcolonial turn in Classical archaeology, the relationship between indigenous populat... more Since the postcolonial turn in Classical archaeology, the relationship between indigenous populations and Greek settlers in southern Italy has increasingly received attention. This is particularly true, notably and importantly, in fieldwork and related material culture studies focusing on the period of mobility, migration, and early settlement that preceded Archaic Greek colonization. Such studies have brought Aegean connections to light, anticipating the historical Greek colonial movements that resulted in the poleis of Magna Graecia. At the same time, an increased interest within field archaeology in the later phases of protohistory, notably the Final Bronze and Early Iron Ages, has highlighted the continuity of Bronze Age Aegean influences on the material record of southern Italy. While we cannot argue (yet) for actual continuity between protohistoric and early historical indigenous and Aegean interactions in terms of mobility and migration-as the time gap between protohistoric and early historical Aegean connections is still considerable-it is the longer-term processes of adoption, adaptation, and innovation of ideas and the symbiosis in material culture that is a striking element of the socioeconomic and cultural context of the indigenous communities. This not only holds for the more well-known wares such as Aegean-influenced pottery, but is just as relevant for developments in the handmade impasto tradition. In this chapter, we review the evidence for the deep past of pottery traditions in Magna Graecia, in the Sibaritide in northern Calabria, and reflect on the consequences for the current Hellenocentric paradigm surrounding indigenous and (early) colonial interactions prior to Archaic Greek settler colonization.
This paper can be found in: Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy, Paradigms for Cultural Change Jeremy Armstrong, Aaron Rhodes-Schroder (eds), pp.235-275, Brepols, 2023
This paper examines the nature and chronology of Hellenistic rural settlement in the foothills of... more 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 chronologyand nature of Hellenistic rural settlement in the foothills, and about how the identified pattern 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.
Die Studie vergleicht in drei Fallstudien das Hinterland von Sybaris aufgrund der Forschungen der... more Die Studie vergleicht in drei Fallstudien das Hinterland von Sybaris aufgrund der Forschungen der Ar-chäologen aus Groningen: An vielen spätbronzezeitlichen Fundstellen um den berühmten Timpone della Motta wurden ‚Dolii cordonati', Lagerbehälter in ägäischer Tradition gefunden. Seit dem 8. Jh. v. Chr. wird in der Siedlung auf dem Timpone della Motta bereits griechische Präsenz spürbar. Schließlich wird der klassischen Besiedlung und ihrer hellenistischen Fortsetzung im Umfeld von Thurioi nachgegangen. Die Beispiele sind Teile einer Studie über demographische, naturräumliche und kulturelle Entwicklungen in der Perspektive der longue durèe. Es wird deutlich, daß zwar die Vorstellung einer einseitigen griechi-schen Dominanz von der Forschung aufgegeben, jedoch das Raummodell weiterhin von separaten grie-chischen und indigenen Bereichen an der Küste bzw. im Hinterland ausgeht.
This paper is a contribution to a comparison of settlement dynamics in Greek colonial environment... more This paper is a contribution to a comparison of settlement dynamics in Greek colonial environments in two very different parts of the Greek oikumene. The comparison is based on field data collected in two projects that the Groningen Institute of Archaeology is involved in. One environment is that of the Sibaritide in South Italy; the other is the Tarchankut Peninsula in northwest Crimea. These environments, with widely differing landscapes and unique indigenous constitutions, are seen to be impacted in very different ways by Greek colonial endeavours with very different results. Nonetheless, the material record shows that in each environment a common cultural property was developed and shared by Greeks and non-Greeks.
In the October 2004 campaign of the Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) of the Groningen Insti... more In the October 2004 campaign of the Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), a survey team headed by the first author located the remains of a Hellenistic site in the foothills of the Sibaritide plain in northern Calabria (Italy). The size and nature of the artifact scatter that was mapped indicated a different type of site than the subsistence farms known so far from previous surveys. Study of the ceramics suggests that the storage of wine played a prominent role on the site. From this, it may be deduced that we are dealing with a site that specialized in viniculture and produced for the market of the Greek town of Thourioi, located in the plain at a distance of 20 km. Through the ceramics, the Portieri site can be dated in the period from approximately mid 4th until mid 3rd century BC (c. 350-250 BC).
Nuovi dati sulla vegetazione olocenica e sulla storia dell’uso del suolo nella Sibaritide interna. Preistoria e Protostoria della Calabria, Scavi e ricerche 2003, 2003
In the October 2004 campaign of the Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) of the Groningen Insti... more In the October 2004 campaign of the Raganello Archaeological Project (RAP) of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA), a survey team headed by the first author located the remains of a Hellenistic site in the foothills of the Sibaritide plain in northern Calabria (Italy). The size and nature of the artifact scatter that was mapped suggested a different type of site than the subsistence farms known so far from previous surveys. Study of the amphorae suggests that the storage of wine played a prominent role on the site. It is concluded that either we are dealing with a site that specialized in viniculture and produced for the market of the Greek town of Thourioi, located in the plain at a distance of 20 km, or with a public facility where wine could be consumed on the premises, as many fragments of drinking cups were found whereas domestic pottery and loomweights were almost absent. In this paper both the survey itself and the study of the amphorae are discussed.
The pollen containing part of a 3-m long core from the eastern Pollino Mountains covers the final... more The pollen containing part of a 3-m long core from the eastern Pollino Mountains covers the final stage of the Neolithic and most of the Bronze Age. Quercus cerris (Turkey oak) dominates the arboreal pollen set, accompanied by one or more deciduous oak taxa (most likely Q. frainetto and/or Q. pubescens). The increase of Ostrya-type (hophornbeam) and Abies alba (Silver fir) as well
as the increase of Fraxinus ornus (manna-ash) in Zone II most probably indicates a thinning of the forest owing to clearing activities and / or the herding of cattle in the montane forests. Fontana Manca (‘Failing Fountain’) was fed by surface water and percolating water. The local pollen record reflects a variable water level with marshy conditions for most of the time and open water during a short period preceding the start of the Bronze Age.
The occurrence of palynomorphs Type 361 and Type 480 in the upper part of the pollen diagram (Zone III) indicates intensified human impact in the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The increase of
these types together with the further expansion of an endemic alder species (Alnus cordata) points to quite erosive conditions. Hardly any signs of plant cultivation (trees, cereals) could be traced, suggesting the local absence of permanent habitation for
the period concerned.
The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes A Comparative Study of Empires in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean World, 2018
The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea basin started in the second half of the seventh century B... more The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea basin started in the second half of the seventh century BCE with small settlements and trading posts and soon resulted in an impressive series of successful but competitive Greek poleis dotting its coasts (Ščeglov 1992; Tsetskhladze 1998; Heinen 2001: 4 with references). A Greek colony on the Black Sea was, like the cities in Greece itself, an independent polis, a form of city- state that physically consisted of the ἄστυ (asti: town, city) and its χώρα (chora: surrounding countryside) and governed by the citizen body. To sustain their growing population and to acquire the financial resources for investments in urban expansion and infrastructure, public facilities and monumental embellishment, the colonies were dependent on the productive potential of the countryside. To procure the necessary land, new colonies carved out rural territories seeking to establish, secure and enlarge their economic basis. In this chapter, I will first briefly discuss Chersonesos and the socioeconomic nature of its nearer chora on the Herakleian Peninsula and then move to the Tarkhankut Peninsula to discuss the rural development of the ‘farther’ chora of Chersonesos, drawing specifically on the results of the DSP project and its implications for our understanding of the nature of the exploitation of the steppe by both Greek and local groups. I will then discuss hegemonic policies of agricultural development and control as we may deduce these from the settlement pattern and the traces of land division found on the Tarkhankut Peninsula and from an important inscription found in Chersonesos mentioning the settlements in the farther chora by name. The relevant passages of this inscription bring into focus the political and economic ties and loyalties that existed between the centre and the periphery, and these have been read
in their landscape archaeological and economic context by Vladimir Stolba (2005). Then I will evaluate the degree to which Chersonesos was effective in the transformation of the Tarkankut Peninsula into a profitable agricultural ‘province’ vis- à- vis regional economic crisis; the sustainability of the Crimean landscape for intensive agriculture; and the lasting pressure from inland nomadic populations of the central Eurasian steppes, collectively known as the Skythians but not forming a homogeneous ethnic group (Heinen 2001:5). Finally, I will focus on the fate of northwestern Crimea in the face ofempire in the longer run.
This paper puts the results of the Džarylgač Survey Project in the context of the Greek colonization of the Crimea during the Hellenistic period. It s focus is on the exploitation by the Greek city state of Chersonessos of the Tarkhankut Peninsula located in the NW Crimea, also known as the 'farther' chora of Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraïne). For the source publication I refer to the book The Džarylgač Survey Project, eds. P. Guldager Bilde, P.A.J. Attema and K. Winther Jacobsen, Black Sea Studies 14, Aarhus; Aarhus University Press, 2012, which reports on the surveys (digitally available on https://rug.academia.edu/PeterAttema).
In this chapter, the various methods are discussed that were employed in the course of the Džaryl... more In this chapter, the various methods are discussed that were employed in the course of the Džarylgač Survey Project. Field methods ranged from intensive artefact survey in ploughed fields, aimed at documenting site and off-site patterns, to the systematic survey of large tracts of overgrown steppe landscape, recording any visible cultural features, and from extensive survey with diagnostic pottery sampling at selected sites, building reference collections for the classification of the survey pottery, to trial trenching, in order to better understand the function and chronology of sites. Equally important in the field methodology were the geophysical surveys to investigate possible subsurface features in both known archaeological sites and outside these. In addition, environmental surveys were aimed at establishing a landscape classification based on geomorphologic characteristics and at a description of the soils to provide the landscape context for the archaeological data. Besides the surveys themselves, the various recording and analytical procedures connected with the field methodology are also discussed in this chapter. These procedures concern, for example, the way in which field data and artefacts were processed and recorded in the database and in a GIS to create the various artefact distribution maps underlying our interpretations and analyses. Finally, the way in which sites were designated as such and were classified is discussed. The base for determining the extent of the research area was a wide diversity of cartographic materials, from nineteenth century maps to aerial photography and satellite images of Google Earth. Furthermore, these were an invaluable source of information, not only for orientation in the field, but especially for spatial analyses and understanding the changes that have taken place in the landscape through time. This chapter therefore begins with a detailed discussion of these sources before continuing with the methodology employed in the project for fieldwork and data recording, processing and analysis. The DSP area of study comprises ca. 450 km2, in which a 16 km wide N-S transect of ca. 200 km2 was delineated for more intensive research. The wider area of study encompasses part of the central Uplands of the Tarchankut Peninsula and part of the coastal zone N of it, between Černomorskoe and Vodopojnoe, while the transect centres on Lake Džarylgač (Fig. 2.1).13 The transect cross-cuts various types of landscape that are characteristic of the wider area of study and as such may be taken as representative for the archaeology found in each land type. From S to N and from high (170 m a.s.l.) to low (immediately above sea level) these land types consist of Plateaus/Uplands, Hillsides, Pediment, the Coastal Lake and Lowland Ridge. Chapter 3.3 gives a detailed description of the land types in the transect. Fundamental to the present discussion of the survey methodologies used by the DSP team are the two contrasting forms of land use within the transect and their related potential for the detection of surface archaeology. Whereas the lower parts of the landscape (the Pediment and Lowland Ridge) are regularly under the plough, the higher areas (Hillsides, Plateaus/Uplands) are for the larger part covered in steppe vegetation. Fig. 2.1 shows how the transect can be divided into two main 'visibility zones'. The lower area is parcelled out into vast agricultural fields with a very high overall visibility when ploughed; ploughed fields, once gridded into uniform units, are exceptionally fit for standard intensive field walking and artefact collection. The higher area, however, is largely grassland. This called for a different design of a field 13 See Chapter 1 for the motivation behind the selection area of study.
The sites discovered within the DSP area of study are listed here, together with those previously... more The sites discovered within the DSP area of study are listed here, together with those previously known. Site names beginning with 'DSP' were generally in areas subject to intensive and systematic survey tech niques unless otherwise stated. 'F' indicates ploughed fields, 'H' indicates hillside. Throughout, the following abbreviations for chronological periods are used: BA = Bronze Age; MBA = Middle Bronze Age; LBA = Late Bronze Age; LC = Late Classical; EH = Early Hellenistic; LH = Late Hellenistic; EM = Early Modern (18th-19th century). 'FL' are the official finds lists in which finds from trial trenches were recorded on the request of our Ukrainian partners. Now, the lists prevail in the archives of the institutes of archaeology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev and Simferopol' respectively.
When initiating the project, its delimitation was determined as the area roughly between Černomor... more When initiating the project, its delimitation was determined as the area roughly between Černomorskoe to the W and Masliny to the E. The southern border of the study area was the edge of the Plateau, which constitutes the spine of the peninsula. Thus, the overall study zone is roughly a trapeze measuring 5 (NS to the W) x 25 (EW to the S) x 15 (NS to the E) x 30 km (along the coast). Because the project was cancelled prior to its completion, some parts of this zone were not investigated at all. This holds true for the area between Černomorskoe and Panskoe and for the Plateau itself. In addition, in 2008 due to the wish of our Ukrainian partners, the study zone was further restricted to a 12 km wide N-S transect located roughly between Mežvodnoe and Vodopojnoe, but covering all environmental zones of the region.
In this chapter various aspects of the environment in the study area are discussed. In particular... more In this chapter various aspects of the environment in the study area are discussed. In particular its geology, hydrology, soils and present land use are dealt with. A basic understanding of the environment and of (sub) recent patterns of land use aids in the explanation of the settlement patterns revealed by the survey and in hypothesizing on related forms of land use in the past (see Chapter 6). Section 3.2 sets out with an introduction of earth science aspects pertaining to the limestone geology of the study area to which a blanket of dust (loess) was added during the last Ice Age. This is followed by a discussion of climate and natural vegetation. While the geology was mainly studied on the basis of literature and maps available to us, the discussion of climate and vegetation incorporates data from a pollen core taken in Lake Džarylgač in 2005 in a palaeo-environmental project directed by V. Stolba (reported on in Section 3.4). The chapter then moves on to a general discussion of the geo-morphology, hydrology and soils in the study area. In Section 3.3 the focus is on the survey transect. In this section a land type classification is presented compiled by J. Delvigne with W. de Neef on the basis of the former's fieldwork during the 2008 campaign. In the transect Delvigne discerns five land types: (a) the Plateaus/Uplands, (b) the peninsular Hillsides, (c) the Pediment, (d) the Coastal Lakes, and (e) the Lowland Ridge. These are systematically described and include observations in the field. Part of the fieldwork for this classification consisted of hand augerings. These were carried out in transects in order to obtain soil profiles of the Pediment and Lowland Ridge land types. Also on selected archaeological sites hand augerings were carried out. These served mainly to establish the presence of possible subsurface archaeological deposits, but were also of help in the general reconstruction of soil cover in the transect. Soil augering data of the transects and their locations are presented in Appendices 3.1-4. Finally, a brief description of (sub) recent land use is given providing insight in the environmental and socioeconomic context in which the archaeological record nowadays is found (Section 3.4). Of known biases that affect the recovery of archaeological sites the contrasting surface visibility in the DSP landscape between the ploughed zone and the peninsular Hillsides is the most prominent factor (see Chapter 2.3.1). This is due to the ongoing extensive ploughing of the Pedi-ment and Lowland Ridge following the introduction of large scale farming during the Sovjet period. In the present survey this has led to a relatively high recovery rate of pottery scatters in this zone compared to the peninsular Hillsides and the Plateaus/Uplands. The data that were used to write this chapter derive from the study of literature and maps as well as from field work. Since the available time was limited the picture we present here can only be preliminary. Nonetheless this chapter provides useful information for an evaluation of the settlement evidence found in the survey and its relation to the agricultural potential of the past landscape.
This paper is a contribution to a comparison of settlement dynamics in Greek colonial environment... more This paper is a contribution to a comparison of settlement dynamics in Greek colonial environments in two very different parts of the Greek oikumene. The comparison is based on field data collected in two projects that the Groningen Institute of Archaeology is involved in. One environment is that of the Sibaritide in South Italy; the other is the Tarchankut Peninsula in northwest Crimea. These environments, with widely differing landscapes and unique indigenous constitutions, are seen to be impacted in very different ways by Greek colonial endeavours with very different results. Nonetheless, the material record shows that in each environment a common cultural property was developed and shared by Greeks and non-Greeks.
"This article is the third and final part of a series on the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP), a la... more "This article is the third and final part of a series on the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP), a landscape archaeology project in the northwestern Crimea that was conducted from 2006 to 2008 by the GIA and the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) of the University of Aarhus in Denmark. The objective of this project was to comprehend the wider agricultural colonisation of this area that took place in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The first article (2008) gave an introduction to this research with preliminary results, and the second (2009) discussed the landscape classification. This final article focuses on site classification based on the results of the survey in relation to the landscape classification, and according to the primary periods
of activity: the Bronze Age, the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, and the Early Modern era. The types of sites range from settlements, small and large, simple or complex, to individual features either connected with settlements or in isolation. Such a classification of sites is a heuristic device which, when used with the landscape classification, should help to understand the varying use of the landscape and the balance
between cultivation and pastoralism across the lowlands and the hillsides. Ultimately, however, the patterns observed can only properly be interpreted when brought into the broader context of
the northwestern Crimea – this is the focus of an upcoming book publication on the DSP project."
The article discusses the fieldwork in 2008 as a part of the Dzarylgac Survey Project (DSP). This... more The article discusses the fieldwork in 2008 as a part of the Dzarylgac Survey Project (DSP). This project studies the long-term settlement history of a coastal landscape on the western Crimea (Ukraine). During the 2008 campaign, a landscape classification was devised that divides the landscape into five zones: Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff, Coastal Lakes, the Pediment, the Hillsides and the Upland/Plateaus. Intensive gridded surveys
(in ploughed fields on the Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff and Pediment) and extensive surveys on the Hillsides and Upland/Plateaus continued. In this second area a windmill park
will be built in the near future, and geophysical prospections were done on a large scale to map any archaeological remains likely to be destroyed. Unfortunately, after the 2008 campaign the Crimean partners withdrew the research permit and the third planned field season will not take place. At the moment, the GIA and the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) are preparing the data of the 2007 and 2008 seasons for publication.
"Following a pilot survey in 2006, the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus, funded by t... more "Following a pilot survey in 2006, the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus, funded by the Danish National Research Foundation, started a survey around lake Dzarylgac in May 2007. This project is carried out in collaboration with the Crimean branch of the Institute of Archaeology of Ukraine (NASU) at Simferopol and the Groninger Instituut voor Archeologie (GIA).
Central to the project is the investigation of socio-economic interaction between Greek colonists and indigenous peoples during the Hellenistic period, based on a reconstruction of the
settlement and land-use patterns of the period. It is thought that in this period the northwestern Crimea was part of the remote chora of first Olbia and thereafter Chersonesos. In the Dzarylgac Survey Project (DSP), the survey methodology elaborated by the GIA Mediterranean archaeologists for their research in central
and southern Italy was successfully applied to a study area in the northwestern part of the Crimea around lake Dzarylgac. Sites dating to the Hellenistic period were discovered in the arable
fields around the lake and on the shore as well as on the surrounding slopes. These ranged from small artefact scatters to large sites with preserved stone foundations. Where useful, surveys were complemented with geomagnetic prospection and trial excavations."
One of the many intriguing questions on the Greek colonization of the northern coasts of the Blac... more One of the many intriguing questions on the Greek colonization of the northern coasts of the Black Sea concerns the socio-economic relationships that developed during the Hellenistic period between incoming groups of colonists and the indigenous peoples in the steppe. However, to investigate these relationships, detailed knowledge of both the Greek and the indigenous settlement pattern is imperative. To this end the Dzargulhach Survey Project (DSP) was formulated, a ‘Mediterranean style’ landscape archaeological project designed to reveal even the smallest activity locus in a landscape known to have been the object of Greek colonial interest. The landscape central to this project is the hinterland of the colonial coastal settlement of Panskoe in the northwestern Crimea (Ukraine), which inHellenistic times was part of the `distant’ chora of the Greek colony of Chersonesos. The fieldwork for this project is carried out byDanish,Dutch, German, Russian and Ukrainian researchers specialized in intensive survey, physical geography, geophysical prospection and excavation. In this paper the preliminary results of two campaigns are presented in light of current thinking on Greek colonization in the northwestern Crimea. The DSP is a collaborative project of the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus University (Danmark), the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) (Netherlands) and the Crimean branch of the Institute of Archaeology (NASU) (Ukraine). The project directors are dr. PiaGuldager Bilde of Aarhus University and director of the CBSS and prof. dr. P.A.J. Attema of the GIA. Currently the publication of the 2007 and 2008 campaigns is being prepared by the project team for publication as a monograph in the series Black Sea Studies of CBSS (Aarhus University Press).
The paper "Sedimentation as geomorphological bias and indicator of agricultural (un)sustainabilit... more The paper "Sedimentation as geomorphological bias and indicator of agricultural (un)sustainability in the study of the coastal plains of South and Central Italy in antiquity"can be downloaded from:
Environmental research of ancient landscapes in the coastal plains, river valleys and uplands of ... more Environmental research of ancient landscapes in the coastal plains, river valleys and uplands of the Mediterranean shows how erosion and sedimentation studies play a significant role in the evaluation of the archaeological record at the regional and local scales. As a rule, directors of landscape archaeological projects nowadays involve physical geographers in order to study erosion and sedimentation as potentially influential post-depositional processes that may expose or cover up archaeological remains (long) after regions or sites were abandoned. This is a phenomenon in the literature known as geomorphological bias, i.e. bias caused by landscape taphonomic processes. Key question here is to what extent archaeological settlement patterns are an artefact of landscape change,with deposition obscuring large parts of the ancient Mediterranean landscape. At the same time, it is important for our knowledge of past societies to establish whether these landscape processes affected the sustainability of the human environments of sites and regions already while they were settled, and how people adapted to environmental changes in accordance with the socio-political and socio-economic context. Sustainability is defined in this paper as the capacity of a rural economy to endure in a given environmental and socio-economic setting. A key question from this perspective is whether erosion and sedimentation studies can help explain why some rural landscapes in the long run were economically more viable than others. Drawing on case studies from landscape archaeological and excavation projects of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, this paper approaches Mediterranean sedimentation history in South and Central Italy from the angles of geomorphological bias and sustainability studies. The focus is on the coastal plains of the Sibaritide in South Italy and the Pontine plain in Central Italy, both of which have been subject to profound landscape changes caused by sedimentation starting at least in the Bronze Age, and caused by erosion in their hinterlands as the result of long term human impact in combination with climatic changes, sea-level change and neotectonics. Although already settled in pre- and protohistory, both coastal plains were targeted for the first time during phases of Greek and Roman colonization as areas of organized agricultural expansion. However, in both cases long term sustainable exploitation proved difficult due to a complex of environmental, technological, socio-economic, and political factors.
Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series number 97, 229-238, May 2014
This chapter is a comment on the papers collected in JRA supplement 97 on Italian urbanism in the... more This chapter is a comment on the papers collected in JRA supplement 97 on Italian urbanism in the first millennium BC by G. Cifani, J. N. Hopkins, P. Perkins, E. Govi, P.S. Lulof, E. van't Lindenhout, M. Mogetta, P.A.J. Attema et al., E. C. Robinson and S. Pope.
Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series number eighty-eight, 2012
This paper explores the development of indigenous societies in central and S Italy down to their ... more This paper explores the development of indigenous societies in central and S Italy down to their incorporation into the Roman state from the perspective of the long-term archaeological survey record of three areas: The Pontine region in central Italy, the Salento Isthmus in Apulia, and the Sibaritide in N Calabria.
The aim of this paper is to compare the present state of archaeological knowledge of the landscap... more The aim of this paper is to compare the present state of archaeological knowledge of the landscape of Central Italy between the 7th and the 4th c. BC with the way the Central Italian landscape is depicted in Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita books I-X, in which Livy relates the story of early Rome and its expansion. The early expansion of Rome was directed at the neighbouring proto-urban settlements along the Tiber, the area of the Veientes to the northwest of Rome on the right bank of the Tiber in South Etruria, the Roman Campagna south of the Tiber and the adjacent Pontine Plain further south. The Roman historians referred to the latter two areas as ‘Latium Vetus’. Over recent decades, large parts of both South Etruria and Latium Vetus have been the subject of substantial landscape-archaeological projects, while current projects aim at synthesizing existing data, notably the Tiber Valley Project in South Etruria and the Regional Pathways to Complexity Project. Their results allow tentative socio-economic and political interpretations of the settlement and land-use patterns identified in these landscapes, that relate to the formative period of Roman power between the 7th c. and the 4th c. BC.
Review of: FRANCESCA FULMINANTE. The urbanisation of Rome
and Latium Vetus from the Bronze Age to... more Review of: FRANCESCA FULMINANTE. The urbanisation of Rome and Latium Vetus from the Bronze Age to the Archaic era. xx+410 pages, 133 b&w illustrations, 25 tables. 2014. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978- 1-107-03035-0 hardback £65 & $99.
War and Society in Early Rome: from Warlords to Generals van historicus Jeremy Armstrong (Univers... more War and Society in Early Rome: from Warlords to Generals van historicus Jeremy Armstrong (Universiteit van Auckland, Nieuw-Zeeland) is een intrigerend boek over de opkomst van de Archaïsche Romeinse gentes, in het boek vertaald als ‘clans’ en in krijgstermen als oorlogs- bendes. Het boek reconstrueert op basis van literaire en archeologische bronnen hoe deze militante groeperingen van leiders en hun volgelingen in het Latium van vóór de opkomst van Rome opereerden, hoe ze zich verhiel- den tot de bevolking van de talrijke Archaïsche steden en Rome zelf en hoe zij van aanvankelijk mobiele groe- pen met wisselende allianties deel gingen uitmaken van steden waar hun leiders een politieke factor van belang konden worden
This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean reg... more This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean region – intensive surface survey, coverage of the landscape by teams walking in close order, recording patterns of human activity visible on the landsurface as scatters of pottery and lithics, or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey.
This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean reg... more This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean region – intensive surface survey, coverage of the landscape by teams walking in close order, recording patterns of human activity visible on the landsurface as scatters of pottery and lithics, or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey
Federica Boschi, Enrico Giorgi, Frank Vermeulen (eds.). Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at the Dawn of the Roman Conquest. Landscape Archaeology and Material Culture. Archaeopress Access Archaeology. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, Oxford, 2020
In this paper, result of a contribution to the 2019 Conference "Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at ... more In this paper, result of a contribution to the 2019 Conference "Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at the Dawn of the Roman Conquest. Landscape Archaeology and Material Culture, organised by Federica Boschi, Enrico Giorgi and Frank Vermeulen, I discuss the importance of data integration in landscape archaeology, taking into account issues of scale, feasibility and relevance. Referencing a current initiative-the Rome Hinterland Project (RHP)-undertaken by an international consortium of researchers to combine landscape archaeological data from field surveys in the landscapes around Rome, I highlight the potential of the archaeological record of the Marche for the integration of field data from landscape survey. I discuss the example of, and progress made within, the RHP to illustrate the feasibility of data integration.
(English) Following a synthesis of published archaeological investigations in the territory of Se... more (English) Following a synthesis of published archaeological investigations in the territory of Sezze by the team of the University of Groningen within the Pontine Region Project (PRP), this paper discusses the methodology and first results of two more recent fieldwork projects within the framework of the PRP, both funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): 1) the Avellino Event Project (AVP) of the universities of Groningen and Leiden that studies the distal effects of the great Bronze Age eruption of mount Vesuvius on the human environment of the Fondi and Pontine plains. 2) the Minor Centres project that studies the development of the settlements of Forum Appi and Ad Medias along the Via Appia in relation with the development of the Roman countryside. Both projects add significantly to the long term reconstruction of the human landscape in the plain south of Sezze as well as open up perspectives on further interdisciplinary work. (Italian) A seguito della sintesi pubblicata sulle indagini archeologiche nel territorio di Sezze, condotte dall'Università di Groningen sotto l'egida del Progetto della Regione Pontina (PRP), questo documento discute la metodologia e i primi risultati di due progetti di ricerca sul campo più recenti nel quadro del PRP, entrambi finanziati dall'Organizzazione olandese per la ricerca scientifica (NWO): 1) l'Avellino Event Project (AVP) delle Università di Groningen e Leiden che studia gli effetti distali della grande eruzione del Vesuvio risalente all'età del bronzo sull'ambiente umano della pianura di Fondi e della pianura Pontina. 2) il progetto dei Centri Minori che studia lo sviluppo degli insediamenti di Forum Appi e Ad Medias lungo la Via Appia in relazione allo sviluppo della campagna romana. Entrambi i progetti contribuiscono in modo significativo alla ricostruzione a lungo termine del paesaggio umano nella pianura di Sezze e aprono prospettive su ulteriori lavori interdisciplinari.
The Groningen Institute of Archaeology has conducted field walking surveys in the northern part o... more The Groningen Institute of Archaeology has conducted field walking surveys in the northern part of the Pontine plain, on the southwestern margins of the Lepine mountains, since 1987. The results of these surveys have only partially been published in accessible journals, and in a number of different formats. Archaeological knowledge and methodology has advanced during that period, and therefore the older studies must be reassessed as well. This article draws together and reassesses all the site-based information that is available from literature and fieldwork, including that of Italian and Dutch studies dating before 1987. All sites are classified according to their observed characteristics, and presented in the catalogue. The classification system itself is explained, and the site patterns are presented and discussed in chronological detail with attention to the biases caused by the variations in land use/land cover and in the intensity of archaeological research across the landscape.
Around 1995 BC, during the Early Bronze Age, a giant eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried a flourish... more Around 1995 BC, during the Early Bronze Age, a giant eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried a flourishing landscape of villages and fields in the plains to the north and east of the volcano under more than a meter of ash. This new research program intends to study the ensuing migration to coastal plains further north.
the article presents a brief report on field surveys and environmental research in the surroundin... more the article presents a brief report on field surveys and environmental research in the surroundings of Francavilla Marittima, Calabria, Italy
As today, in antiquity the importance of coastal and deltaic environments lay in the sea’s integr... more As today, in antiquity the importance of coastal and deltaic environments lay in the sea’s integrating role in the subsistence, resources, and trade opportunities of its people. For the first large towns of the late Bronze/early Iron Age in Central Italy, salt was an indispensable commodity being the only means available to preserve food, both for consumption and trade. It was produced in the coastal areas but the early production sites, techniques employed, and trade are still uncertain/poorly understood. In the southern part of the Tiber delta palaeo-lagoon of Ostia, at the archeological site of Piscina Torta, heaps made of hundreds of thousands of potsherds were found, possibly related to the salt production technique known as briquetage and pointing at the existence of a major early salt production and trading industry. This coastal area likely holds an outstanding record of the Late Holocene paleoenvironmental changes and of the interaction between climatic variation...
This paper presents material evidence for a continuous sequence of inhabitation of the archaeolog... more This paper presents material evidence for a continuous sequence of inhabitation of the archaeological site of Timpone della Motta at present-day Francavilla Marittima (northern Calabria) from the Middle Bronze Age 2 (MBA2) to the end of the Archaic period (ca. 1700 BC – 500 BC). The authors bring together results of investigations at eight different locations of the Timpone della Motta ranging in location from the summit of the site down to its lower slopes. Importantly, the new evidence sheds light on the transition from the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age phases, which, while characterized by continuity in hut dwellings, sees the introduction of Greek-inspired pottery wares, shapes and decorations in household and production contexts. On a regional level, the compiled evidence now securely places the Timpone della Motta among the major protohistoric settlements that sprung up in the MBA2 in the foothills lining the plain of Sybaris prior to its transformation during the late Iron Age and Archaic periods in an indigenous and then Greek sanctuary. Notably, already before the Greek colonial period, in the course of the 8th c. BC, the Timpone della Motta shows evidence for a well-established Aegean connection on the evidence of Euboean pottery and before that in the Middle and Recent Bronze Age (MBA-RBA) judging from the presence of recently identified (Italo-) Mycenean potsherds.
Paper presented at the conference 'Tracing Technology. Celebrating 40 years of archaeolog... more Paper presented at the conference 'Tracing Technology. Celebrating 40 years of archaeological research at Satricum' (Rome, 25-28 October 2017).
This contribution is the first of a series of publications by the authors to systematically discl... more This contribution is the first of a series of publications by the authors to systematically disclose the wealth of material evidence collected during some 30 years of fieldwork in the Pontine region by the Pontine Region Project. This project has, since its inception in the mid-1980s, investigated more than 36 km2 of terrain across all major geomorphological units of the region, largely by means of systematic surface investigations. During these investigations, close to 200 000 artefacts were collected for further study, including c. 1 660 fragments of (Italian) terra sigillata, the emblematic, shiny red fine table ware of the Early Imperial period. In this article, we present a detailed spatial and contextual analysis of the terra sigillata fragments that have been gathered within the Pontine Region Project and discuss the results in light of economic issues (market integration, economic growth). We then supplement this evidence by published evidence of name stamps from surrounding...
This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean reg... more This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean region – intensive surface survey, coverage of the landscape by teams walking in close order, recording patterns of human activity visible on the landsurface as scatters of pottery and lithics, or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey.
The contribution discusses a selection of tombs excavated by the Groningen Institute of Archaeolo... more The contribution discusses a selection of tombs excavated by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) of the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), in two excavation campaigns at Monte del Bufalo, Crustumerium, during the summers of 2006 and 2007. The tombs selected for discussion are two well preserved early 7th century BC tombs and a chamber tomb that dates around 600 BC. Furthermore it elaborates briefly on conservation and restoration of some of the objects in GIA’ s laboratory for Conservation and Material Studies (lCM). The contribution concludes with an outline of current initiatives for prolonging and extending the collaboration project.
This paper introduces a project that investigates developments in settlement and infrastructure i... more This paper introduces a project that investigates developments in settlement and infrastructure in the Pontine Plain (Lazio, Central Italy) through geographic models and new fieldwork. The preliminary results of this fieldwork on two sites along the Via Appia, Forum Appii and Ad Medias, show that these sites eveloped from the late 4th century BC on, with the construction of this road and related drainage works. However, the sites developed differently: Ad Medias remained small, but Forum Appii was an important centre until Late Roman times, probably due to its favourable position within infrastructural networks.
Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the Un... more Research into Pre-Roman Burial Grounds in Italy results from a specialist workshop held at the University of Groningen in 2011 highlighting new results in the field of funerary archaeology. It contains papers on funerary sites in Italy ranging from Verrucchio in Emilia Romagna to Francavilla Marittima in Calabria between the 9th and 4th centuries BC. Four papers deal with the hundreds of Iron Age and Archaic tombs excavated at Crustumerium (Rome) where the editors carry our research in a collaborative project with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (papers by B. Belelli Marchesini & W. Pantano, Sarah Willemsen, Eero Jarva, Ulla Rajala). Other papers deal with the necropoleis of Francavilla Marittima (M. Guggisberg), Satricum (M. Gnade), Verrucchio (P. von Eles), Vetulonia (C. Colombi) and Veii (S. Neri). The volume concludes with an article on St. Peter's Church in the centre of Berlin by C. Melisch and J. Sewell offering an example of recent developments in recording and assessing large funerary datasets. Archaeologists working on pre-Roman Italy are indeed frequently confronted with large burial grounds holding hundreds to thousands of graves and having complex excavation and publication histories. These and other challenges of funerary archaeology are conscientiously and creatively addresses by the authors in this volume.
Survey around lake Džarylgač (Crimea, Ukraine)
The article (in Dutch) discusses the fieldwork ... more Survey around lake Džarylgač (Crimea, Ukraine)
The article (in Dutch) discusses the fieldwork in 2008 as a part of the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP). This project studies the long-term settlement history of a coastal landscape on the western Crimea (Ukrain). During the 2008 campaign, a landscape classification was devised that divides the landscape into five zones: Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff, the Pediment, the Hillsides and the Upland/Plateaus. Intensive gridded surveys (in ploughed fields on the Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff and Pediment) and extensive surveys on the Hillsides and Upland/Plateaus continued. In this second area a windmill park will be built in the near future, and geophysic prospections were done on a large scale to map any archaeological remains that will be destroyed. Unfortunately, after the 2008 campaign the Crimean partners withdrew the research permit and the third planned field season will not take place. At the moment, the GIA and CBSS are preparing the data of the 2007 and 2008 seasons for publication.
Following a pilot survey in 2006, the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus, financed by ... more Following a pilot survey in 2006, the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus, financed by the Danish National Research Foundation, started in may 2007 a survey around the lake of Džarylgač. This project is carried out in collaboration with the Crimean branch of the Institute of Archaeology of Ukraïne (NASU) at Simferopol and the Groninger Instituut voor Archeologie (GIA). Central to the research is the investigation of socio-economic interaction between Greek colonists and indigenous populations during the Hellenistic period on basis of a reconstruction of the settlement and land use patterns of the period. It is thought that in this period the northwestern Crimea was part of the distant chora of first Olbia and thereafter Chersonesos. In the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP), the survey methodology elaborated by the GIA Mediterranean archaeologists for their research in Central and South Italy was successfully applied to a study area in the northwestern part of Crimea around lake Džarylgač. Both in the arable fields around the lake and on the coast as well as on the slopes sites dating to the Hellenistic period were discovered. These ranged from small artefact scatters to sites with still preserved stone foundations. Where useful, surveys were complemented by geomagnetic prospections and trial excavations.
Site classification in the Džarylgač Survey Project (northwestern Crimea, Ukraine)
This article ... more Site classification in the Džarylgač Survey Project (northwestern Crimea, Ukraine)
This article is the third and final part of the series on the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP), the landscape archaeology project in north-west Crimea that was conducted from 2006 to 2008 by the GIA and the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. The objective of this project was to comprehend the wider agricultural colonisation of this area that took place in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The first article (2008) gave an introduction to this research with preliminary results and the second (2009) discussed the landscape classification. This final article focuses on site classification based on the results of the survey in relation with the landscape classification, and according to the primary periods of activity in the Bronze Age, the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, and the Early Modern era. The types of sites range from settlements, small and large, simple or complex, and individual features either connected with settlements or in isolation. Such a classification of sites is a heuristic device which, when used with the landscape classification, helps to understand the varying use of the landscape and the balance between cultivation and pastoralism across the lowlands and the hillsides. Ultimately, however, the patterns observed here can only properly be interpreted when brought into relation with the wider study of northwestern Crimea – this will be the focus of the final publication.
In this paper we investigate the impact of infrastructural works on local settlement histories, u... more In this paper we investigate the impact of infrastructural works on local settlement histories, using the Pontine Region (Central Italy) as an example. We will focus specifically on two minor centers (Forum Appii and Ad Medias) located along the via Appia, in an area that in antiquity was infamous for its marshes. Work on and around these sites is carried out within the ambit of a research project entitled Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries: the role of minor centers in the economy of Roman Central Italy. It studies the lay-out and function of these (historically documented) road-side settlements, using a wide array of non-invasive archaeological methods, as well as their surrounding productive landscape and infrastructure, with a strong focus on the study of the collected artefactual evidence in order to assess the role of these sites as productive and redistributive centers. The results indicate a strong impact of infrastructural interventions on the social and economic development of this area. In Republican times, the construction of major traffic arteries (the via Appia and the Decennovium canal), land divisions and drainage works turned this previously marginal area into one of the most densely settled parts of the region.
Since the 1990s, Calabria has gradually become an important testing ground for speleo-archaeologi... more Since the 1990s, Calabria has gradually become an important testing ground for speleo-archaeological research, repeatedly attracting scholars from all over Italy and abroad willing to take part in scientific missions in underground environments. These fieldworks had the virtue to combine speleological exploration of caves with multidisciplinary archaeological investigation, in some cases paying special attention to the relationship between underground topography and accurate location of prehistoric findings. Noteworthy, specialized research was attentive to raise the awareness of local archaeological resources among the general public made of non-professionals – local residents in particular – especially with regard to prehistoric times.
This paper presents preliminary results from a new research project focusing on the archaeological deposit of the Grotte di Sant'Angelo, located in the territory of the municipality of Cassano allo Ionio (Calabria, Italy). The site is part of a larger underground system developed in the Monte San Marco massif. Evidence of prehistoric human presence was found in many areas of the underground chambers and galleries, developed over different levels, and suggests a multi-purpose and multi-period use of the hypogean spaces. In particular, the area known as “Trivio”, a sort of junction between different galleries, seems to be of special interest. The cave floor is disseminated with a series of fractures of various depths hosting abundant archaeological material: pottery dating to the Copper Age (4th-3rd millennium BC), stone tools, faunal remains, and some human remains. Ceramic containers, suspected to have hosted ritual offerings, will be the object of an in-depth taphonomic, chronological, and functional study. This, along with the contextualization of data in the light of hypogean topography, will contribute to the understanding of how prehistoric people engaged with caves and of the social and symbolic aspects of their way of living.
In this paper we outline a novel interdisciplinary field methodology that we will use in our rese... more In this paper we outline a novel interdisciplinary field methodology that we will use in our research project `Salt and Power, Early States, Rome and Resource Control, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and based at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. The aim of the project is to gain insight in ancient salt production on the Italian Tyrrhenian coast in the framework of early state formation in Etruria and Latium Vetus. Our approach employs geophysical, chemical and archaeological methods to study both the briquetage and saltern production modes in their specific environmental and geographical contexts.
Mobile Pastoralism, Salt and Cheese
ethnographic perspectives on the spatial configuration of a l... more Mobile Pastoralism, Salt and Cheese ethnographic perspectives on the spatial configuration of a long-term Mediterranean triad.
Organisers: Peter Attema & Wieke de Neef
This session is dedicated to a historically fundamental cornerstone of the Mediterranean economy, mobile pastoralism, and an important precondition for its functioning, salt. Both are indispensable for the production of an easily preserved and traded commodity, hard cheese. Two previous EAA sessions (2011 and 2012) focused on upland pastoral sites, published in the edited volume “Summer Farms: Seasonal exploitation of the uplands from prehistory to the present” (2016, Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 16, edited by John Collis, Mark Pearce and Franco Nicolis). In his contribution “Hard cheese: Upland pastoralism in the Italian Bronze and Iron Ages”, Mark Pearce stressed the importance of the production of hard cheese for upland land use in later Italian prehistory, as well as the central role of salt in animal husbandry and cheese-making. In this session, we aim to look beyond the upland summer farms and focus on the exchange networks in which they were embedded. We welcome papers that explore the spatial configuration of pastoral mobility of all ranges in combination with access to markets where salt could be obtained (if not at the source itself), where dairy products could be traded (if not directly to consumers) and ways in which the triad was organized. We aim at a mix of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological perspectives from around the Mediterranean basin.
Paper presented at the conference 'Tracing Technology. Celebrating 40 years of archaeological res... more Paper presented at the conference 'Tracing Technology. Celebrating 40 years of archaeological research at Satricum' (Rome, 25-28 October 2017).
Crustumerium’s Monte Del Bufalo cemetery features Early Iron Age and Orientalising fossa and Arch... more Crustumerium’s Monte Del Bufalo cemetery features Early Iron Age and Orientalising fossa and Archaic chamber tombs. While the first usually had a relatively elaborate set of grave gifts, the latter contain only few grave gifts. The funerary architecture and associated ritual customs provide insight in the social transformation of the communities around Rome between the late Orientalising and Archaic period.
Early states, territories and settlements in protohistoric Central Italy is volume is the second ... more Early states, territories and settlements in protohistoric Central Italy is volume is the second of the series Corollaria Crustumina aimed at the publication of conference proceedings, doctoral theses and specialist studies concerning the Latin settlement of Crustumerium (Rome) and Italian protohistory. It contains multidisciplinary papers of an international group of archaeologists discussing new eldwork data and theories of broad relevance to Italian archaeology and with speciic relevance to the study of Crustumerium's settlement, cemeteries and material culture in light of the site's cultural identity.
This paper is in honour of Elisabeth van ’t Lindenhout, who retired from the University of Gronin... more This paper is in honour of Elisabeth van ’t Lindenhout, who retired from the University of Groningen in 2021 as lecturer and researcher. It places her academic interest in the architecture and planning of the Archaic cities of Latium Vetus and Rome in the context of her many years of participation in the settlement excavations at Satricum. Specifically, it discusses her contribution to the important theme of the rise of monumental architecture in Latium, a topic to which she contributed her doctoral thesis and several papers in Dutch and international journals. Her academic achievement is assessed more generally within the context of contemporary developments in Latial archaeology.
This paper discusses the cultural landscape of the Greek apoikia Kroton, located in Calabria, Sou... more This paper discusses the cultural landscape of the Greek apoikia Kroton, located in Calabria, South Italy, from the eighth to fourth centuries BC. It aims at a data-driven reconstruction of the chora and eschatia of Kroton within the delineated timeframe. For this purpose, site data were recorded in a geodatabase and analysed in a GIS (Geographic Information System). As the landscape is regarded as a cultural construct, the geological and geomorphological qualities of the Krotoniatide, the landscape in which Kroton is situated, were of importance to the analysis as well as Greek practices of landscape organisation and demarcation and interactions between indigenous and (other) Greek communities. Based on the archaeological record, four phases are discernable. They show that the development of the cultural landscape of Kroton was closely intertwined with developments within in the polis but also among the indigenous communities of the Krotoniatide and the other Greek poleis of Magna Graecia.
Chora and eschatia of the Greek apoikia Kroton (South Italy), 2022
This paper discusses the cultural landscape of the Greek apoikia Kroton, located in Calabria, Sou... more This paper discusses the cultural landscape of the Greek apoikia Kroton, located in Calabria, South Italy, from the eighth to fourth centuries BC. It aims at a data-driven reconstruction of the chora and eschatia of Kroton within the delineated timeframe. For this purpose, site data were recorded in a geodatabase and analysed in a GIS (Geographic Information System). As the landscape is regarded as a cultural construct, the geological and geomorphological qualities of the Krotoniatide, the landscape in which Kroton is situated, were of importance to the analysis as well as Greek practices of landscape organisation and demarcation and interactions between indigenous and (other) Greek communities. Based on the archaeological record, four phases are discernable. They show that the development of the cultural landscape of Kroton was closely intertwined with developments within in the polis but also among the indigenous communities of the Krotoniatide and the other Greek poleis of Magna Graecia.
This article discusses the consequences of the Early Bronze Age eruption of the Monte Somma-Vesuv... more This article discusses the consequences of the Early Bronze Age eruption of the Monte Somma-Vesuvius that devastated the proximal areas around the volcano around 1900 BC and must have caused a crisis as the substantial population sought refuge elsewhere. In particular, it investigates the hypothesis that refugees fled north along the Tyrrhenian coast and settled in the Pontine coastal plain, which lay at the basis of the NWO Open Competition program The Avellino Event. Based on new environmental reconstructions of the Pontine plain and on the available archaeological evidence both there and in the buried landscapes near the Vesuvius itself, its suitability for Early Bronze Age settlement and land use is assessed in detail. The article concludes that though suitable, the population density of the Pontine plain remained very low until at least the Middle Bronze Age, some 150 years after the eruption.
In this paper we outline a novel interdisciplinary field methodology that we will use in our rese... more In this paper we outline a novel interdisciplinary field methodology that we will use in our research project `Salt and Power, Early States, Rome and Resource Control, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and based at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. The aim of the project is to gain insight in ancient salt production on the Italian Tyrrhenian coast in the framework of early state formation in Etruria and Latium Vetus. Our approach employs geophysical, chemical and archaeological methods to study both the briquetage and saltern production modes in their specific environmental and geographical contexts.
This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean
reg... more This article deals with a relatively new form of archaeological research in the Mediterranean region – intensive surface survey, coverage of the landscape by teams walking in close order, recording patterns of human activity visible on the landsurface as scatters of pottery and lithics, or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey.
This paper discusses the remarkable evolution of the department of Classical archaeology at the U... more This paper discusses the remarkable evolution of the department of Classical archaeology at the University of Groningen, which in the 1970’s developed from a small, predominantly (art-)historical institute to a research group with a strong interest in pre-classical societies and an emphasis on primary fieldwork data. First, we present the Groningen archaeologists with an interest in the Mediterranean before the establishment of a permanent chair in Classical Archaeology in 1954 and show how they operated within an art-historical framework. We then highlight the researchers who shaped the process towards a more theoretically informed and practically based Mediterranean archaeology: from Annie Zadoks-Josephus Jitta (professor between 1954-1975), her successor Marianne Kleibrink (chair between 1975-2003), to the ‘Satricum-generation’ who learned the fieldwork ropes at this excavation in Central Italy between 1978-1989. We conclude with the enduring effect of the ‘protohistoric turn’ on the current research lines of Mediterranean archaeologists at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology.
"One of the many intriguing questions on the Greek colonization of the northern coasts of the Bla... more "One of the many intriguing questions on the Greek colonization of the northern coasts of the Black Sea concerns the socio-economic relationships that developed during the Hellenistic period between incoming groups of colonists and the indigenous peoples in the steppe. However, to investigate these relationships, detailed knowledge of both the Greek and the indigenous settlement pattern is imperative. To this end the Dzargulhach Survey Project (DSP) was formulated, a ‘Mediterranean style’ landscape archaeological project designed to reveal even the smallest activity locus in a landscape known to have been the object of Greek colonial interest. The landscape central to this project is the hinterland of the colonial coastal settlement of Panskoe in the northwestern Crimea (Ukraine), which inHellenistic times was part of the `distant’ chora of the Greek colony of Chersonesos. The fieldwork for this project is carried out byDanish,Dutch, German, Russian and Ukrainian researchers specialized in intensive survey, physical geography, geophysical prospection and excavation. In this paper the preliminary results of two campaigns are presented in light of current thinking on Greek colonization in the northwestern Crimea. The DSP is a collaborative project of the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at Aarhus University (Danmark), the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) (Netherlands) and the Crimean branch of the Institute of Archaeology (NASU) (Ukraine). The project directors are dr. PiaGuldager Bilde of Aarhus University and director of the CBSS and prof. dr. P.A.J. Attema of the GIA. Currently the publication of the 2007 and 2008 campaigns is being prepared by the project team for publication as a monograph in the series Black Sea Studies of CBSS (Aarhus University Press).
This session explores the environmental and economic entanglement between lowland and highland zo... more This session explores the environmental and economic entanglement between lowland and highland zones in Mediterranean landscapes. Although highland zones remain generally under-represented in archaeological landscape research, their economic importance to past socie es has long been acknowledged on account of the availability of a wide range of resources. These include primary materials such as metals, stone, salt, mber, game etc., but also pastures. Transit routes through upland areas are crucial to their availability and thus a major factor in the economic entanglement between lowlands and highlands. Informa on on the long-term human impact related to the exploita on of these resources is, apart from archaeological studies, increasingly becoming available through environmental research. For instance, palynological studies indicate that Neolithic communi es in various parts of the Italian peninsula systema cally deforested woodland areas to expand their pastures.
The Early Bronze Age eruption of the Monte Somma Vesuvius (1995+-10 BC) must have had an enormous... more The Early Bronze Age eruption of the Monte Somma Vesuvius (1995+-10 BC) must have had an enormous impact on the landscape and inhabitants of the Campania region in central Italy. This devastating so-called Avellino (AV) eruption buried the landscape to the north and south of the volcano in a deep layer of volcanic ash. However, forewarned by a small initial eruption, the population was just able to flee the area, taking only bare necessities. A multidisciplinary study involving geology, palaeoecology and archaeology has been set up to test the project's central hypothesis that a significant portion of the refugees decided to resettle in the nearest coastal plains to the north - the Pontine Plain and Fondi Basin of South Lazio. We should be able to detect such a migration by tracing the ecological, demographic and cultural impacts that this immigrant population must have had. This poster presents the results from the environmental studies conducted so far by the Project; more detailed and archaeological results are published in an upcoming special issue of Quaternary International.
Towards an integrated database for the study of long-term settlement dynamics, economic performance and demography in the Pontine Region and the hinterland of Rome
This draft paper provides an overview of the challenges involved in creating an overarching datab... more This draft paper provides an overview of the challenges involved in creating an overarching database for the Pontine Region project (South Lazio, Italy) and its potential for aggregate and comparative longitudinal socio-economic and demographic studies of the Pontine landscape and past populations. Next, it discusses a current initiative aimed at integration of the Pontine Region database with two other major survey projects, the Suburbium Project (Sapienza Rome) and the Tiber Valley Project (British School at Rome) to design an aggregate database that covers representative sections of Rome’s Suburbium. To this end, an international consortium of researchers is active composed of members from the Universities of Groningen (NL), Durham (UK), St. Andrews (UK), Cologne (G), Leiden (NL) and Melbourne (AUS). This new project - the Rome Hinterland Project (RHP) - is supported by an internationalization grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research NWO to which all members contributed financially. The paper was presented at the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018 as part of Panel 11.1: The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New approaches to Rome's ancient countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial period was organised by Peter Attema (University of Groningen) Gabriele Cifani (Tor Vergata, Rome) Günther Schörner (University of Vienna).
Article orginally published on-line; http://www.irfrome.org/ei/images/stories/crustumerium/Nijboer.pdf as a result from the conference Alla ricerca dell’identità di Crustumerium. Atti della giornata di studio organizzata dall'Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Roma, 5 marzo 2008
Two excavation campaigns of the University of Groningen at Monte Del Bufalo, Crustumerium. Prelim... more Two excavation campaigns of the University of Groningen at Monte Del Bufalo, Crustumerium. Preliminary results and future plans.
In the summers of 2006 and 2007, a team of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) headed by Peter Attema and Bert Nijboer, excavated various tombs of the Monte Del Bufalo cemetery. The excavations were carried out as part of a collaboration project between the GIA and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) in the person of Francesco di Gennaro.
Chapter 9 in: Attema, P.A.J. & A.J. Bronkhorst (eds.), 2020. The People and the State. Material c... more Chapter 9 in: Attema, P.A.J. & A.J. Bronkhorst (eds.), 2020. The People and the State. Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in Central Italy (800-450 BC) from the perspective of ancient Crustumerium (Rome, Italy). Groningen: University of Groningen / Groningen Institute of Archaeology & Barkhuis, pp. 153-94.
Book and cover design: S.E. Boersma, RUG/GIA.Image editing: A.J. Bronkhorst & S.E. Boersma, RUG/GIA. ISBN printed book: 9789493194236ISBN e-book: 9789493194243
Humans have been populating coastal areas for thousands of years. By exploiting the available res... more Humans have been populating coastal areas for thousands of years. By exploiting the available resources, they have been deeply modifying such settings, becoming protagonists of global environmental and climatic changes since the late Quaternary. The development of infrastructures related to salt production, fisheries and mollusk harvesting together with the landscape modification linked with the expansion of harbors in bays, deltas and lagoons is visible both in the geological and archaeological record documenting the high level of human environmental interaction. In parallel, inhabiting and manipulating dynamic coastal areas subject to floods, storms, changes in sediment supply, and variation in relative sea level made infrastructures and environmental control indispensable. Consequently, it is crucial to get a better understanding of the changes of human-environmental interactions at different time scales. Such unique areas represent an exceptional chance to learn about landscape, ecosystem changes but also technological development of the past. To achieve these goals, multidisciplinary geoarchaeological studies offer a one of a kind approach towards understanding the complex interaction between nature and humans. In this session, we welcome crossdisciplinary geoarchaeological studies where the exploitation of coastal areas is studied from a palaeoenvironmental evolution and human activity perspective. Contributions showcasing specific case studies in which human environment interactions in coastal areas are reconstructed including both the developing infrastructures and resilient adaptation to the natural pressure are welcomed.
In recent years, the GIA collaborated with the Center for Information Technology of the Universit... more In recent years, the GIA collaborated with the Center for Information Technology of the University of Groningen in a project dealing with the digital elaboration of the excavations at Crustumerium.
Crustumerium figured prominently in many of the events related to Rome’s earliest history. Around 500 BC, the city was taken by Rome, abandoned and largely forgotten until its location was rediscovered in the 1970s.
Even after some 2500 years, a man-made mound on the border between the settlement and its burial grounds stands out in the landscape. Excavations by the University of Groningen and the Italian Archaeological Service reveal that it holds the key to the story of the rise and fall of Crustumerium. The excavation team realised that the mound can only be analysed and rendered comprehensible through advanced digital techniques. To achieve a proper archaeological interpretation of the monument, the team has started to explore the potential of the data in an accurate 3D environment.
Archaeological sites in caves and caverns testify to the engagement of past societies with the un... more Archaeological sites in caves and caverns testify to the engagement of past societies with the underground realm. The ‘dark zones’ of the caves in particular, pervaded by the deep darkness, were often used as places for religious-related activities, which frequently consisted in the abandonment of offerings in a pottery recipient. This research proposal, to be realized at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and Università del Salento aims to explore the information potential of ceramic containers abandoned in caves, giving the example of the Early Copper Age (3700-3300 BC) deposit of Grotta Inferiore di Sant’Angelo (Cassano allo Ionio, Italy), which may have resulted from cultic activities.
The research is composed of three phases:
Phase 1 - Taphonomy: Analysis of the spatial distribution of the potsherds.
Phase 2 - Vessels’ function: Assessment of the vessels’ function by means of (2a) typology, (2b) petrography, (2c) traceology, and (2d) residue.
Phase 3 - Contextualization: Critical discussion of data in regard to cave spatiality and physicality and broader economic, social, and symbolic dimensions of Early Copper Age communities in the region.
Acquired data will provide insights into the engagement of the 4th millennium BC communities with the underground spaces. The proposed pilot study will provide a new, different, angle for cave archaeology that draws attention to the function of the ceramic containers introduced in spaces pervaded by deep darkness. Hence, this study will advance the broader research on the social functioning of prehistoric societies.
Under the supervision of Prof. Peter A.J. Attema, Dr. Felice Larocca, and Prof. Giuseppe E. De Benedetto
Uploads
José Ernesto Moura Knust
Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman,
Mediterranean and Global Frameworks
Stephen A. Collins-Elliott
Measuring Rural Economic Development through Categorical Data Analysis in Southern Etruria and Latium (400 BC – 50 AD)
Peter Attema – Tymon de Haas – Gijs Tol – Jorn Seubers
Towards an Integrated Database for the Study of Long-term Settlement
Dynamics, Economic Performance and Demography in the Pontine Region
and the Hinterland of Rome
Alessandro Launaro
A View from the Margins: Interamna Lirenas and its Territory in the Long Term
Günther Schörner – Veronika Schreck
Production and Trade in Late Republican and Imperial Inland Etruria:
Integrating Archaeological and Archaeometric Results of the Val di Pesa
and Val Orme-Project
Anna Maria Mercuri – Eleonora Rattighieri – Rossella Rinaldi –
Assunta Florenzano
The Archaeobotanical Study of Agriculture of Roman Peasants:
Skilled Farmers of the 1st BC – 5th AD in Tuscany, Central Italy
Willem M. Jongman
The Voice of the Silent Majority: Archaeological Surveys and the History
of the Roman Countryside
abstract:
Since the 1960s, excavations, survey and environmental studies have generated a wealth of data on the countryside around Rome north and south of the Tiber. Data pertain to rural settlement types ranging from the small farmstead to the large villa, and regard nonurban burial grounds, production facilities, such as pottery kilns, smithies and quarries, as well as infrastructure and field systems. Also, a growing interest can be noted in such important issues as crop choice, manuring, land reclamation and land degradation. In combination, this wealth of information, often still unconnected, can inform us on the functioning and performance of the Roman economy in a crucial period of Rome's rise to power during the Archaic and mid-Republican periods. It can also be used to investigate its subsequent development during the Late Republican and Early Imperial period within the expanding Mediterranean economic network of that period. The aim of the session "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome's Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" was to bring together methodologically informed, data-driven studies that shed light on the drivers and performance of the Central Italian rural economy during the Archaic to Imperial period.1 The session was accepted as part of the theme "Methodology: Survey archaeology, natural sciences, quantification", one of the overarching themes defined by the organizers of the 19 th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The original session was split up chronologically with a set of papers reflecting on the Archaic and Mid-Republican period first and then followed by a set of papers focusing on the Late Republican and Imperial periods. However, for the publication we have chosen to start with papers offering a broad synthetic perspective and to zoom in afterwards on case studies of regional and local relevance. The first paper by José Ernesto Moura Knust (Instituto Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro) entitled "Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman, Mediterranean and Global Frameworks" advocates to view Roman rural settlement not as a unique phenomenon but rather as part of a Mediterranean-wide historical process that requires a Mediterranean or even global historical framework for explanation. According to Knust, factors that should be taken into account are climate, connectivity leading to exchange of agricultural technology (including tools and crops), commercialization, and demographic pressure. In such an explanatory framework he sees agricultural intensification as the main driver leading to dispersed rural settlement in the ancient world, although in world history nucleated scenarios (as in the medieval period) occur as well.
of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.
deals with the results of the project The People and the State,
Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in
Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close
collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, is about
the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium
resulting from Rome’s rise to power.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology,
geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological
and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is
established between changes in material culture on the one hand
and developments in social structure and political centralisation
in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
https://www.barkhuis.nl/product_info.php?products_id=266
1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI
DINAMICHE INSEDIATIVE E CULTURA MATERIALE AI CONFINI CON ROMA (ON THE SLOPES OF THE ALBAN HILLS , SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS AND MATERIAL CULTURE ON THE
CONFINES OF ROME, edited by Agnese Fischetti and Peter Attema, University of Groningen / Groningen Institute of Archaeology
& Barkhuis Publishing, 2019.
2) the introduction by the editors to the volume
3) the article Attema "MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX…
ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA.
Please find below the Italian and English abstracts
Sommario
Prendendo le mosse dal lavoro dello studioso Marie-René de La Blanchère che operò nella Pianura Pontina (Italia Centrale) alla fine del XIX secolo, si tratteranno aspetti relativi alla storia, agli sviluppi e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. Si evidenzierà l’importanza che la scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo. Secondo l’autore, tali progetti si configurano come punto di incontro fra il singolo ritrovamento e la grande storia del Mediterraneo.
Parole chiave: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, archeologia dei paesaggi, teoria, metodo.
Abstract
Departing from the landscape archeological investigations carried out by Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy) in the late 19th c. AD, this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology in a broad disciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology to structure data collected in regional landscape archaeological projects. The latter are, according to the author, well-positioned at the interface of the individual find and the grand Mediterranean narrative.
Keywords: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, landscape archaeology, theory, methodology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE VII
State Formation
1 EARLY STATES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN IRON AGE (CA. 1000-400 BC) by John Bintliff
2 RELIGION, ART, LAW, ETHNICITY AND STATE FORMATION IN PROTOHISTORIC ITALY by Alessandro Guidi
Studies of Crustumerium
3 THE SOUTHERN AGER OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CRUSTUMERIUM by Fabiola Fraioli
4 EXPLORATORY TRENCHES IN THE SOUTHERN TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM (TENUTA INVIOLATELLA SALARIA)
by Andrea Di Napoli
5 MANY RIVERS TO CROSS - REVISITING THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM WITH A COST SURFACE BASED SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS by Jorn Seubers
Territorial Modelling
6 HIERARCHICAL AND FEDERATIVE POLITIES IN PROTOHISTORIC LATIUM VETUS. AN ANALYSIS OF BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE SETTLEMENT ORGANIZATION by
Luca Alessandri
7 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN SOUTH ETRURIA AND LATIUM VETUS by Angelo Amoroso
8 SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND EARLY LATIN CITIES (CENTRAL ITALY) by Francesca Fulminante, Sergi Lozano & Luce Prignano
Demography, Infrastructure and Architecture
THE TOWN AND TERRITORY OF NEPI: THE POPULATION OF THE EARLIEST NEPI by Ulla Rajala
EMERGING INFRASTRUCTURES AT PROTO-URBAN CENTRES IN CENTRAL TYRRHENIAN ITALY by Eero Jarva & Juha Tuppi
TAKING COURAGE: FROM HUTS TO HOUSES. REFLECTIONS ON CHANGES IN EARLY ARCHAIC ARCHITECTURE IN LATIUM VETUS (CENTRAL ITALY) by Elisabeth van ‘t Lindenhout
Systematic archaeological surveys, studies of existing site inventories and relevant artefact studies are all combined in this well-illustrated volume that provides a detailed account of the appearance of the first permanent dwellings during the Bronze and Iron Ages, of the rise of Archaic and Roman rural and maritime settlement and of the gradual process towards incastellamento during the Middle Ages.
Om een zeer gedetailleerd beeld te krijgen van de ontwikkeling van menselijke activiteiten van de late Bronstijd tot de opkomst van het Romeinse Rijk, is er minutieus onderzoek gedaan naar nederzettingen, heiligdommen en begraafplaatsen. De milieugeschiedenis van deze gebieden en de geschiedenis van het door mensen gebruikte land zijn parallel geanalyseerd door gespecialiseerde projecten. Wat ontstaat, is een ongeëvenaarde reeks van inzichten in hoe regionale samenlevingen zich intern ontwikkelen en reageren op externe interventies zoals het kolonialisme, imperialisme en internationale handel.
José Ernesto Moura Knust
Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman,
Mediterranean and Global Frameworks
Stephen A. Collins-Elliott
Measuring Rural Economic Development through Categorical Data Analysis in Southern Etruria and Latium (400 BC – 50 AD)
Peter Attema – Tymon de Haas – Gijs Tol – Jorn Seubers
Towards an Integrated Database for the Study of Long-term Settlement
Dynamics, Economic Performance and Demography in the Pontine Region
and the Hinterland of Rome
Alessandro Launaro
A View from the Margins: Interamna Lirenas and its Territory in the Long Term
Günther Schörner – Veronika Schreck
Production and Trade in Late Republican and Imperial Inland Etruria:
Integrating Archaeological and Archaeometric Results of the Val di Pesa
and Val Orme-Project
Anna Maria Mercuri – Eleonora Rattighieri – Rossella Rinaldi –
Assunta Florenzano
The Archaeobotanical Study of Agriculture of Roman Peasants:
Skilled Farmers of the 1st BC – 5th AD in Tuscany, Central Italy
Willem M. Jongman
The Voice of the Silent Majority: Archaeological Surveys and the History
of the Roman Countryside
abstract:
Since the 1960s, excavations, survey and environmental studies have generated a wealth of data on the countryside around Rome north and south of the Tiber. Data pertain to rural settlement types ranging from the small farmstead to the large villa, and regard nonurban burial grounds, production facilities, such as pottery kilns, smithies and quarries, as well as infrastructure and field systems. Also, a growing interest can be noted in such important issues as crop choice, manuring, land reclamation and land degradation. In combination, this wealth of information, often still unconnected, can inform us on the functioning and performance of the Roman economy in a crucial period of Rome's rise to power during the Archaic and mid-Republican periods. It can also be used to investigate its subsequent development during the Late Republican and Early Imperial period within the expanding Mediterranean economic network of that period. The aim of the session "The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New Approaches to Rome's Ancient Countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial Period" was to bring together methodologically informed, data-driven studies that shed light on the drivers and performance of the Central Italian rural economy during the Archaic to Imperial period.1 The session was accepted as part of the theme "Methodology: Survey archaeology, natural sciences, quantification", one of the overarching themes defined by the organizers of the 19 th International Congress of Classical Archaeology on Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World. The original session was split up chronologically with a set of papers reflecting on the Archaic and Mid-Republican period first and then followed by a set of papers focusing on the Late Republican and Imperial periods. However, for the publication we have chosen to start with papers offering a broad synthetic perspective and to zoom in afterwards on case studies of regional and local relevance. The first paper by José Ernesto Moura Knust (Instituto Federal Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro) entitled "Far from the Walls. Explaining Rural Settlement Dispersal within Roman, Mediterranean and Global Frameworks" advocates to view Roman rural settlement not as a unique phenomenon but rather as part of a Mediterranean-wide historical process that requires a Mediterranean or even global historical framework for explanation. According to Knust, factors that should be taken into account are climate, connectivity leading to exchange of agricultural technology (including tools and crops), commercialization, and demographic pressure. In such an explanatory framework he sees agricultural intensification as the main driver leading to dispersed rural settlement in the ancient world, although in world history nucleated scenarios (as in the medieval period) occur as well.
of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.
deals with the results of the project The People and the State,
Material culture, social structure, and political centralisation in
Central Italy (800-450 BC). This project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, carried out between 2010 and 2015 in close
collaboration with the Archaeological Service of Rome, is about
the changing socio-political situation at ancient Crustumerium
resulting from Rome’s rise to power.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology,
geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological
and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is
established between changes in material culture on the one hand
and developments in social structure and political centralisation
in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
The volume brings together data from the domains of geology, geoarchaeology, urban and rural settlement archaeology, funerary archaeology, material culture studies as well as osteological and isotope analyses. On the basis of these data, a relationship is established between changes in material culture on the one hand and developments in social structure and political centralisation in Central Italy on the other in the period between 850 and 450 BC.
https://www.barkhuis.nl/product_info.php?products_id=266
1. the contents of the book "ALLE PENDICI DEI COLLI ALBANI
DINAMICHE INSEDIATIVE E CULTURA MATERIALE AI CONFINI CON ROMA (ON THE SLOPES OF THE ALBAN HILLS , SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS AND MATERIAL CULTURE ON THE
CONFINES OF ROME, edited by Agnese Fischetti and Peter Attema, University of Groningen / Groningen Institute of Archaeology
& Barkhuis Publishing, 2019.
2) the introduction by the editors to the volume
3) the article Attema "MAIS SUPPOSONS UN ÂGE PLUS HEUREUX…
ARCHEOLOGIA DEL PAESAGGIO SU SCALA REGIONALE: QUALE PUNTO D’INCONTRO TRA L’ARCHEOLOGIA DI RICOGNIZIONE E LA GRANDE NARRAZIONE STORICA MEDITERRANEA.
Please find below the Italian and English abstracts
Sommario
Prendendo le mosse dal lavoro dello studioso Marie-René de La Blanchère che operò nella Pianura Pontina (Italia Centrale) alla fine del XIX secolo, si tratteranno aspetti relativi alla storia, agli sviluppi e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. Si evidenzierà l’importanza che la scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio dell’archeologia del paesaggio mediterraneo. Secondo l’autore, tali progetti si configurano come punto di incontro fra il singolo ritrovamento e la grande storia del Mediterraneo.
Parole chiave: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, archeologia dei paesaggi, teoria, metodo.
Abstract
Departing from the landscape archeological investigations carried out by Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy) in the late 19th c. AD, this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology in a broad disciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology to structure data collected in regional landscape archaeological projects. The latter are, according to the author, well-positioned at the interface of the individual find and the grand Mediterranean narrative.
Keywords: Marie René De La Blanchère, Latium vetus, landscape archaeology, theory, methodology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE VII
State Formation
1 EARLY STATES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN IRON AGE (CA. 1000-400 BC) by John Bintliff
2 RELIGION, ART, LAW, ETHNICITY AND STATE FORMATION IN PROTOHISTORIC ITALY by Alessandro Guidi
Studies of Crustumerium
3 THE SOUTHERN AGER OF THE ANCIENT CITY OF CRUSTUMERIUM by Fabiola Fraioli
4 EXPLORATORY TRENCHES IN THE SOUTHERN TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM (TENUTA INVIOLATELLA SALARIA)
by Andrea Di Napoli
5 MANY RIVERS TO CROSS - REVISITING THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT CRUSTUMERIUM WITH A COST SURFACE BASED SITE CATCHMENT ANALYSIS by Jorn Seubers
Territorial Modelling
6 HIERARCHICAL AND FEDERATIVE POLITIES IN PROTOHISTORIC LATIUM VETUS. AN ANALYSIS OF BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE SETTLEMENT ORGANIZATION by
Luca Alessandri
7 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN SOUTH ETRURIA AND LATIUM VETUS by Angelo Amoroso
8 SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND EARLY LATIN CITIES (CENTRAL ITALY) by Francesca Fulminante, Sergi Lozano & Luce Prignano
Demography, Infrastructure and Architecture
THE TOWN AND TERRITORY OF NEPI: THE POPULATION OF THE EARLIEST NEPI by Ulla Rajala
EMERGING INFRASTRUCTURES AT PROTO-URBAN CENTRES IN CENTRAL TYRRHENIAN ITALY by Eero Jarva & Juha Tuppi
TAKING COURAGE: FROM HUTS TO HOUSES. REFLECTIONS ON CHANGES IN EARLY ARCHAIC ARCHITECTURE IN LATIUM VETUS (CENTRAL ITALY) by Elisabeth van ‘t Lindenhout
Systematic archaeological surveys, studies of existing site inventories and relevant artefact studies are all combined in this well-illustrated volume that provides a detailed account of the appearance of the first permanent dwellings during the Bronze and Iron Ages, of the rise of Archaic and Roman rural and maritime settlement and of the gradual process towards incastellamento during the Middle Ages.
Om een zeer gedetailleerd beeld te krijgen van de ontwikkeling van menselijke activiteiten van de late Bronstijd tot de opkomst van het Romeinse Rijk, is er minutieus onderzoek gedaan naar nederzettingen, heiligdommen en begraafplaatsen. De milieugeschiedenis van deze gebieden en de geschiedenis van het door mensen gebruikte land zijn parallel geanalyseerd door gespecialiseerde projecten. Wat ontstaat, is een ongeëvenaarde reeks van inzichten in hoe regionale samenlevingen zich intern ontwikkelen en reageren op externe interventies zoals het kolonialisme, imperialisme en internationale handel.
Amsterdam and Leiden looked into the distal effects of a powerful eruption of the Somma–Vesuvius volcano in Campania on the
former wetlands of the Agro Pontino and Fondi coastal plains in Central Tyrrhenian Italy. These wetlands are located c. 60 km south
of Rome and between 90 and 140 km north-west of Mount Vesuvius. The ‘Avellino’ eruption took place during an advanced stage of
the Early Bronze Age and was radiocarbon dated around 1900 BCE. This article reports on the results of the research programme
“The Avellino Event: Cultural and Demographic Effects of the Great Bronze Age Eruption of Mount Vesuvius”, funded by the Dutch
Research Council. The team’s main hypothesis, that people living in the surroundings of Mount Vesuvius in the Early Bronze Age who
had time to escape the proximal effects of the eruption – pyroclastic flows and heavy ash falls – fled to the relative safety of nearby
coastal areas to build a temporary or permanent new existence, was disproved by field evidence early on. No major environmental and
archaeological impacts were evident in the archaeological and environmental record of the study area around the date of the eruption.
Nonetheless, the research resulted in a significant increase in geological and palaeobotanical data, which has proved extremely useful
for the reconstruction of the longue durée of human–landscape interactions. The Avellino tephra was a most reliable chronological
horizon in this reconstruction contributing to the overall objectives of the long-running Pontine Region Project of the University of
Groningen. This contribution contains an overview of the main results of the Avellino Event Project, including an overview of scientific
publications, valorisation output, and a brief discussion of some remarkable spin-off projects.
for direct access, see: https://books.openedition.org/efr/5980
Sulla scorta delle riflessioni scaturite dall’analisi del lavoro svolto da Marie-René de La Blanchère nelle terre pontine, questo contributo affronterà aspetti relativi alla storia, allo sviluppo e alle prospettive future dell’archeologia del paesaggio del Mediterraneo in un’ampia prospettiva interdisciplinare. A tal fine, si evidenzierà l’importanza che la Scuola delle Annales riveste nel quadro dell’archeologia del paesaggio per la sua funzione di convogliare i dati derivanti da singoli progetti di archeologia del paesaggio su scala regionale nel contesto più ampio del Mediterraneo. Riguardo al contributo di La Blanchère, sottolineerò in special modo la tesi centrale della sua analisi, vale a dire la tesi secondo la quale le terre pontine sono caratterizzate nell’antichità da un paesaggio intensivamente abitato e produttivo, un dato che, da una prospettiva storica, è stato sottolineato da Filippo Coarelli e confermato dalle attuali ricerche archeologiche del paesaggio nelle terre pontine.
Departing from the work of Marie-René de La Blanchère in the Pontine Region (Central Italy), this paper discusses aspects of the history, developments and future of Mediterranean landscape archaeology from a broad interdisciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the importance of Annales scholarship for Mediterranean landscape archaeology as a means to structure the data procured by individual regional landscape archaeological projects. More specifically with respect to the work of La Blanchère, the paper highlights his central thesis that the Pontine Region in Roman times was an intensively exploited landscape, a fact that has been stressed by Filippo Coarelli from a historical perspective, a view that is corroborated by modern archaeological research of the Pontine landscape.
The PRP database structure is aimed at the aggregate and comparative analysis of rural settlement patterns across these different landscape zones in space and time, and to reconstruct economic and demographic trends on the local and regional scales from protohistory into the medieval period.
In the first part of this article we will give an overview of the challenges involvedin creating this overarching project database, and present recent work done on the Pontine Region Project and its database as well as longitudinal socio-economic and demographic studies of the Pontine landscape and past populations to illustrate the analytical potential of data integration. So far, we have carried out a restricted number
of quantified socio-economic case studies of specific landscapes within the Pontine Region and are working towards truly comparative analyses on the regional scale of the Pontine landscape based on the Pontine data. Moreover, we will outline an objective for the future: to incorporate ‘legacy’ datasets in our database. In our case these especially comprise topographic studies, among which are several Forma Italiae archaeological inventories to complement our own site data, and to allow us to link rural settlement patterns to urban development and infrastructure.
In the second part of the paper, we discuss the possibility and potential to integrate the Pontine Region database with those of two other major survey projects, the Suburbium Project (Sapienza Rome) and the Tiber Valley Project (British School at Rome), to design an aggregate database that covers representative sections of Rome’s Suburbium.4 To this
end, we have formed an international consortium of researchers from the Universities of Groningen (NL), Durham (UK), St. Andrews (UK), Cologne (G) and Melbourne (AUS). This new project, called the Rome Hinterland Project (RHP), is supported by an internationalization grant from the Netherlands Organization of
Scientific Research (NWO) to which all partners contributed financially.5 This initiative will facilitate longitudinal and quantitative studies on socio-economic and demographic aspects of Rome’s hinterland from its formation to well into the medieval period.
the Pontine region, south of Rome. The study illustrates how various concepts, commonly used in archaeology to describe and at times explain cultural change may or may not apply to the specific case of the Pontine region, a landscape that historically counts as one of the earliest
zones of Roman expansion. First of all I ask what Romanization might entail in a Latin context of which Rome itself was part. Secondly I look critically at the use of the term Roman colonization in the context of the late 6th and 5th c. BC in this landscape that I have in earlier research described as a ‘laboratory of Roman colonization’
The full edited volume is downloadable (fully Open Access) via the link:
https://www.unipapress.it/it/book/imperium-romanum_325/
PAROLE CHIAVE: età del Bronzo, età Romana, Avellino evento, Sezze, Forum Appii, Ad Medias, Pontine plain, archeologia dei paesaggi, paleogeografia.
of structural remains at the site. The investigation yielded evidence belonging to two main occupational phases. A large quantity
– and wide variety – of Late Antique materials indicate the presence of a substantial settlement, that is alluded to in historical and textual
evidence as well. For the High Medieval period (12th century AD) evidence was obtained for the production of pottery (ceramica a
bande rosse) and lime, possibly forming part of the economic basis of a larger (private or ecclesiastical) estate.
Keywords: Italy, Pontine Region, Astura, Late Antiquity, medieval period, Late Antique economy, Peutinger Map, connectivity, road
station, pottery production, lime production.
Livy and other ancient authors describe how the Pontine region played a key role in Rome’s earliest expansion. Between the late 6th and 4th centuries BC, the Romans would have brought the region under control through the foundation of colonies. However, recent scholarship has problematized the rendering of this colonial past in the literary sources, casting doubt on the nature and existence of these early colonies.
So far, the archaeological evidence (e.g. polygonal masonry fortifications of the colonies) has hardly been studied critically. In an attempt to bring such evidence to the debate, this paper discusses these fortifications
in their regional setting. In particular, we focus on the case of Norba, a colony founded in 492 BC on the edge of the Lepine Mountains. We build on the landscape archaeological data collected within the Pontine
Region Project, which allows for a detailed reconstruction of the system of fortifications in relation to changes in settlement patterns. In addition, GIS-based techniques (cost path and viewshed analysis) are employed to analyse the coherence and context of these fortifications. The analysis shows how already before Roman colonization, a complex system of fortifications dominated the settled landscape and controlled the routes through the Lepine Mountains. After the Archaic period,
however, Norba gradually became the focal point of this system. The analysis thus sheds new light on the context in which the foundation of this colony took place. It furthermore suggests that a hypercritical
attitude towards the historical narrative is perhaps not warranted by the archaeological evidence – even though Norba’s polygonal masonry fortifications themselves do not belong to the early colonial phase.
The paper is published in:
FOCUS ON FORTIFICATIONS
New Research on Fortifications in the
Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East
edited by Rune Frederiksen, Silke Müth, Peter I. Schneider
and Mike Schnelle
Hardcover Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-131-3
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78570-132-0
Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Volume 18
© Oxbow Books 2016
Oxford & Philadelphia
www.oxbowbooks.com
Mid-Republican period, at a time that regions further from Rome were confronted with Roman expansion and its impact
on indigenous Italic urban and rural landscapes for the first time. This heritage not only figured in the literary sources, but
was also prominently present in the landscape. This paper discusses two dynamics that helped shape the Late-Republican and Early Imperial landscape of the Pontine region. One was the development of Roman urban settlements in the Mid-Republican
period, a partly organic and partly steered process in which the role of Rome became ever more evident. The other was the
planned expansion of agricultural land into marginal areas through land reclamation during that same period.
of the Pontine region occurred.
KEYWORDS
Italy;Pontine Region;Sezze; Setia, archaeological field survey;Roman period;Roman economy, off-site archaeology
southernmost edge of a large site that was tentatively
identified by Fabio Piccarreta (1977) as the settlement
Astura, depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana. In the summers of 2007 and 2008 a team of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) mapped and sampled the section with archaeological materials exposed by marine erosion. The principal aim of the study was to obtain insight in the pottery wares and shapes that circulated in the wider study area between the late Roman and the early Medieval period, a phase for which sites are few in the database of GIA’s long-running Pontine Region Project.
This article provides an overview of the types of amphorae, coarse and cooking wares attested. These indicate that the site participated in long-distance trade networks, probably using the
harbour at Torre Astura as a landing-stage and taking advantage of the Via Severiana to connect wit the hinterland. The paper presents a catalogue of the excavated materials.
shows that the sites themselves had been occupied earlier, in some cases from the Archaic period on. We subsequently discuss these thirteen platform sites in their wider geographical context, showing that they were part of a complex settlement system. The platforms were the sites of farms involved in specialised production of olive oil, intensively exploiting the footslopes around the towns of Cora, Norba and Setia. While platform sites in close proximity to Norba and Setia may represent extra-urban sanctuaries, a third group of platform sites represent estates that exploited the cultivable areas in the interior Lepine Mountains. The evidence thus suggests that the platform site is an important phase in the development of villas: they most probably represent elite estates involved in specialised, market-oriented production. Although the development of these sites, which scholars have attributed to different historical contexts, definitely needs further (stratigraphic) study, in the Lepine Mountains they may well have evolved in the 3rd century BC.
a) the severe erosion of the topsoil and theunderlying soft volcanic bedrock caused by centuries of ploughing that has profoundly affected
the preservation of tomb architecture, i.e. landscape processes;
b) post-depositional processes affecting organic materials (wood, textiles, human bone) and inorganic materials (pottery, metal) in the tombs as a result of flooding, collapse and the acidity of the soil, i.e. taphonomy.
This chapter and the book in which it is published (M. A. Guggisberg, M. Billo-Imbach (eds.), Burial Taphonomy and Post-Funeral Practices in Pre-Roman Italy. Problems and Perspectives (Heidelberg 2023) are are free downloadable from https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1211
For the volune in which this paper has appeared see: https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503602325-1 = Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy, Paradigms for Cultural Change, edited by Jeremy Armstrong, Aaron Rhodes-Schroder (eds), p.117-146.
Seubers'detailed study of Crustumerium's urban and rural settlement
dynamics, for which the author assembled all data from previous work while adding new landscape archaeological studies and sophisticated territorial and data analyses, elaborates a new scenario on the relation between the urban core and its countryside that is reviewed within the theoretical framework of the debate on early state formation and landscape archeological methodology
of the Tiber valley near Crustumerium in Roman times
This paper reports on a short field campaign aimed at investigating an extensive cropmark identified in aerial photography by the first author. The cropmark is situated in the Tiber floodplain near the ancient settlement of Crustumerium, north of the centre of Rome and close to old riverbanks of the river Tiber. Surface finds, coring and geophysical
mapping suggest that the cropmark indicates the buried remains of a substantial building complex of probably Roman Imperial date.
This is an important discovery, which contributes to our understanding of the palaeogeography, sedimentation regime and settlement
history of the Tiber floodplain. In this paper we limit ourselves to an initial (and speculative) interpretation of the cropmark in terms
of its extent and individual components. The fieldwork was carried out in the framework of the Crustumerium project of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome.
mound at Crustumerium (Italy)
In 2014, researchers of the GIA and the archaeological service of Rome discovered that a giant mound at the Latin settlement of Crustumerium near Rome (9th c. to 5thc. BCE) contained a mortuary record of 300
years. Archaeological excavations and geophysical research revealed the mound as having a complex stratigraphy and intricate spatial relationships with the surrounding settlement and burial grounds. This made the excavation team realize that the mound can only be analysed
and rendered comprehensible through advanced digital techniques. To achieve a proper archaeological interpretation of the monument, the team has started to explore the potential of the data in an accurate 3D environment. This paper discusses the present status and future perspectives of the project, highlighting 1) the scientific potential and challenges ofstudying complex archaeological features in
a 3D environment and 2) the translation of such work into an appealing while scientifically valid model for public outreach.
The main text is in Dutch!
Exhibition, Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, Copenhagen from May 19 till October 23, 2016
The ancient city Crustumerium was a centre for cultural exchange and played a significant role in the story of the foundation of Rome. For some 1,500 year Crustumerium was merely a recurrent reference in historical sources. When in 1975 archaeologists located the city, some 15 km north of the Italian capital, it was an archaeological breakthrough of the first order, and Crustumerium has since been the object of numerous successful excavations.
The main contributors to this exhibition are the Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket, SSBAR (the archaeological superintendence of Rome) and the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (University of Groningen, the Netherlands). We especially would like to thank Dr.ssa P. Filippini of the SSBAR for her support.
For more information visit:
http://www.glyptoteket.com/whats-on/calendar/crustumerium-death-and-afterlife-at-the-gates-of-rome
In the surveys carried out by the University of Groningen since 2000 in the hinterland of the Sibaritide, a protohistoric settlement in use between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age was discovered at Timpone delle Fave, in the territory of Frascineto. This site is characterized by the presence of fragments of corded pithoi, mainly dating to the Final Bronze Age. Pottery productions based on Aegean technology are in fact found in several sites in the foothills along the Sybaris plain and can be considered indicators of the profound changes in settlement organization during the Late Bronze Age. In order to evaluate the possible effects that relationships between local and Aegean cultures had on the socio-cultural structure of Late Bronze Age settlement organization, a reconstruction of these contacts is proposed on a landscape scale. The available data so far confirm that during the Late Bronze Age settlement disappeared from the upland and mountainous areas of the Sibaritide. This observation leads us to believe that the incorporation of new production modes contributed to a preference for settlement locations closer to the plain, along natural communication routes, where production was easier to manage and control. However, it seems that existing social structures by and large persisted as full-fledged urbanization processes did not take place in the area, contrary to what is observed in other Italian regions during the period between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.
This paper can be found in: Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy, Paradigms for Cultural Change
Jeremy Armstrong, Aaron Rhodes-Schroder (eds), pp.235-275, Brepols, 2023
Keywords: Archaeological survey, Hellenistic period, rural settlement, pottery, South Italy, Sibaritide, Thurii.
as the increase of Fraxinus ornus (manna-ash) in Zone II most probably indicates a thinning of the forest owing to clearing activities and / or the herding of cattle in the montane forests. Fontana Manca (‘Failing Fountain’) was fed by surface water and percolating water. The local pollen record reflects a variable water level with marshy conditions for most of the time and open water during a short period preceding the start of the Bronze Age.
The occurrence of palynomorphs Type 361 and Type 480 in the upper part of the pollen diagram (Zone III) indicates intensified human impact in the Middle to Late Bronze Age. The increase of
these types together with the further expansion of an endemic alder species (Alnus cordata) points to quite erosive conditions. Hardly any signs of plant cultivation (trees, cereals) could be traced, suggesting the local absence of permanent habitation for
the period concerned.
in their landscape archaeological and economic context by Vladimir Stolba (2005). Then I will evaluate the degree to which Chersonesos was effective in the transformation of the Tarkankut Peninsula into a profitable agricultural ‘province’ vis- à- vis regional economic crisis; the sustainability of the Crimean landscape for intensive agriculture; and the lasting pressure from inland nomadic populations of the central Eurasian steppes, collectively known as the Skythians but not forming a homogeneous ethnic group (Heinen 2001:5). Finally, I will focus on the fate of northwestern Crimea in the face ofempire in the longer run.
This paper puts the results of the Džarylgač Survey Project in the context of the Greek colonization of the Crimea during the Hellenistic period. It s focus is on the exploitation by the Greek city state of Chersonessos of the Tarkhankut Peninsula located in the NW Crimea, also known as the 'farther' chora of Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraïne). For the source publication I refer to the book The Džarylgač Survey Project, eds. P. Guldager Bilde, P.A.J. Attema and K. Winther Jacobsen, Black Sea Studies 14, Aarhus; Aarhus University Press, 2012, which reports on the surveys (digitally available on https://rug.academia.edu/PeterAttema).
of activity: the Bronze Age, the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, and the Early Modern era. The types of sites range from settlements, small and large, simple or complex, to individual features either connected with settlements or in isolation. Such a classification of sites is a heuristic device which, when used with the landscape classification, should help to understand the varying use of the landscape and the balance
between cultivation and pastoralism across the lowlands and the hillsides. Ultimately, however, the patterns observed can only properly be interpreted when brought into the broader context of
the northwestern Crimea – this is the focus of an upcoming book publication on the DSP project."
(in ploughed fields on the Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff and Pediment) and extensive surveys on the Hillsides and Upland/Plateaus continued. In this second area a windmill park
will be built in the near future, and geophysical prospections were done on a large scale to map any archaeological remains likely to be destroyed. Unfortunately, after the 2008 campaign the Crimean partners withdrew the research permit and the third planned field season will not take place. At the moment, the GIA and the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) are preparing the data of the 2007 and 2008 seasons for publication.
Central to the project is the investigation of socio-economic interaction between Greek colonists and indigenous peoples during the Hellenistic period, based on a reconstruction of the
settlement and land-use patterns of the period. It is thought that in this period the northwestern Crimea was part of the remote chora of first Olbia and thereafter Chersonesos. In the Dzarylgac Survey Project (DSP), the survey methodology elaborated by the GIA Mediterranean archaeologists for their research in central
and southern Italy was successfully applied to a study area in the northwestern part of the Crimea around lake Dzarylgac. Sites dating to the Hellenistic period were discovered in the arable
fields around the lake and on the shore as well as on the surrounding slopes. These ranged from small artefact scatters to large sites with preserved stone foundations. Where useful, surveys were complemented with geomagnetic prospection and trial excavations."
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Vy~f,rVDBGC5P
till December 17th.
physical geographers in order to study erosion and sedimentation as potentially influential post-depositional processes that may expose or cover up archaeological remains (long) after regions or sites were abandoned. This is a phenomenon in the literature known as geomorphological bias, i.e. bias caused by landscape taphonomic
processes. Key question here is to what extent archaeological settlement patterns are an artefact of landscape change,with deposition obscuring large parts of the ancient Mediterranean landscape. At the same time, it is important for our knowledge of past societies to establish whether these landscape processes affected the sustainability
of the human environments of sites and regions already while they were settled, and how people adapted to environmental changes in accordance with the socio-political and socio-economic context. Sustainability is defined in this paper as the capacity of a rural economy to endure in a given environmental and socio-economic setting. A key question from this perspective is whether erosion and sedimentation studies can help explain why some rural landscapes in the long run were economically more viable than others. Drawing on case studies from landscape archaeological and excavation projects of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology, this paper approaches Mediterranean sedimentation history in South and Central Italy from the angles of geomorphological bias and sustainability studies. The focus is on the coastal plains of the Sibaritide in South Italy and the Pontine plain in Central Italy, both of which have been subject to profound landscape changes caused by sedimentation starting at least in the Bronze Age, and caused by erosion in their hinterlands as the result of long term human impact in combination with climatic changes, sea-level change and neotectonics. Although already settled in pre- and protohistory, both coastal plains were targeted for the first time during phases of Greek and Roman colonization as areas of organized agricultural expansion. However, in both cases long term sustainable exploitation proved difficult due to a complex of environmental, technological, socio-economic, and political factors.
and Latium Vetus from the Bronze Age to the Archaic
era. xx+410 pages, 133 b&w illustrations, 25 tables.
2014. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 978-
1-107-03035-0 hardback £65 & $99.
or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and
Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential
of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey
(Italian) A seguito della sintesi pubblicata sulle indagini archeologiche nel territorio di Sezze, condotte dall'Università di Groningen sotto l'egida del Progetto della Regione Pontina (PRP), questo documento discute la metodologia e i primi risultati di due progetti di ricerca sul campo più recenti nel quadro del PRP, entrambi finanziati dall'Organizzazione olandese per la ricerca scientifica (NWO): 1) l'Avellino Event Project (AVP) delle Università di Groningen e Leiden che studia gli effetti distali della grande eruzione del Vesuvio risalente all'età del bronzo sull'ambiente umano della pianura di Fondi e della pianura Pontina. 2) il progetto dei Centri Minori che studia lo sviluppo degli insediamenti di Forum Appi e Ad Medias lungo la Via Appia in relazione allo sviluppo della campagna romana. Entrambi i progetti contribuiscono in modo significativo alla ricostruzione a lungo termine del paesaggio umano nella pianura di Sezze e aprono prospettive su ulteriori lavori interdisciplinari.
The article (in Dutch) discusses the fieldwork in 2008 as a part of the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP). This project studies the long-term settlement history of a coastal landscape on the western Crimea (Ukrain). During the 2008 campaign, a landscape classification was devised that divides the landscape into five zones: Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff, the Pediment, the Hillsides and the Upland/Plateaus. Intensive gridded surveys (in ploughed fields on the Lowland Ridge/Coastal Cliff and Pediment) and extensive surveys on the Hillsides and Upland/Plateaus continued. In this second area a windmill park will be built in the near future, and geophysic prospections were done on a large scale to map any archaeological remains that will be destroyed. Unfortunately, after the 2008 campaign the Crimean partners withdrew the research permit and the third planned field season will not take place. At the moment, the GIA and CBSS are preparing the data of the 2007 and 2008 seasons for publication.
This article is the third and final part of the series on the Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP), the landscape archaeology project in north-west Crimea that was conducted from 2006 to 2008 by the GIA and the Centre for Black Sea Studies (CBSS) at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. The objective of this project was to comprehend the wider agricultural colonisation of this area that took place in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The first article (2008) gave an introduction to this research with preliminary results and the second (2009) discussed the landscape classification. This final article focuses on site classification based on the results of the survey in relation with the landscape classification, and according to the primary periods of activity in the Bronze Age, the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, and the Early Modern era. The types of sites range from settlements, small and large, simple or complex, and individual features either connected with settlements or in isolation. Such a classification of sites is a heuristic device which, when used with the landscape classification, helps to understand the varying use of the landscape and the balance between cultivation and pastoralism across the lowlands and the hillsides. Ultimately, however, the patterns observed here can only properly be interpreted when brought into relation with the wider study of northwestern Crimea – this will be the focus of the final publication.
This paper presents preliminary results from a new research project focusing on the archaeological deposit of the Grotte di Sant'Angelo, located in the territory of the municipality of Cassano allo Ionio (Calabria, Italy). The site is part of a larger underground system developed in the Monte San Marco massif. Evidence of prehistoric human presence was found in many areas of the underground chambers and galleries, developed over different levels, and suggests a multi-purpose and multi-period use of the hypogean spaces. In particular, the area known as “Trivio”, a sort of junction between different galleries, seems to be of special interest. The cave floor is disseminated with a series of fractures of various depths hosting abundant archaeological material: pottery dating to the Copper Age (4th-3rd millennium BC), stone tools, faunal remains, and some human remains. Ceramic containers, suspected to have hosted ritual offerings, will be the object of an in-depth taphonomic, chronological, and functional study. This, along with the contextualization of data in the light of hypogean topography, will contribute to the understanding of how prehistoric people engaged with caves and of the social and symbolic aspects of their way of living.
ethnographic perspectives on the spatial configuration of a long-term Mediterranean triad.
Organisers: Peter Attema & Wieke de Neef
This session is dedicated to a historically fundamental cornerstone of the Mediterranean economy, mobile pastoralism, and an important precondition for its functioning, salt. Both are indispensable for the production of an easily preserved and traded commodity, hard cheese. Two previous EAA sessions (2011 and 2012) focused on upland pastoral sites, published in the edited volume “Summer Farms: Seasonal exploitation of the uplands from prehistory to the present” (2016, Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 16, edited by John Collis, Mark Pearce and Franco Nicolis). In his contribution “Hard cheese: Upland pastoralism in the Italian Bronze and Iron Ages”, Mark Pearce stressed the importance of the production of hard cheese for upland land use in later Italian prehistory, as well as the central role of salt in animal husbandry and cheese-making.
In this session, we aim to look beyond the upland summer farms and focus on the exchange networks in which they were embedded. We welcome papers that explore the spatial configuration of pastoral mobility of all ranges in combination with access to markets where salt could be obtained (if not at the source itself), where dairy products could be traded (if not directly to consumers) and ways in which the triad was organized. We aim at a mix of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological perspectives from around the Mediterranean basin.
Information System). As the landscape is regarded as a cultural construct, the geological and geomorphological qualities of the Krotoniatide, the landscape in which Kroton is situated, were of importance to the analysis as well as Greek practices of landscape organisation and demarcation and interactions between indigenous and (other) Greek communities. Based on the archaeological record, four phases are discernable. They show that the development of the cultural landscape of Kroton was closely intertwined with developments within in the polis but also among the indigenous communities of the Krotoniatide and the other Greek poleis of Magna Graecia.
production modes in their specific environmental and geographical contexts.
region – intensive surface survey, coverage of the landscape by teams walking in close order,
recording patterns of human activity visible on the landsurface as scatters of pottery and lithics,
or building remains. Since 2000, archaeologists from Dutch and Belgian universities working
on Mediterranean survey projects have gathered annually to discuss methodological issues in
workshops that gradually attracted landscape archaeologists from other European countries and
Turkey. On the basis of these discussions, this paper, written by regular workshop contributors
and other invited authors with wider Mediterranean experience, aims to evaluate the potential
of various approaches to the archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean and provide
guidelines for standards of good practice in Mediterranean survey.
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The paper was presented at the 19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018 as part of Panel 11.1: The Rural Foundations of The Roman Economy. New approaches to Rome's ancient countryside from the Archaic to the Early Imperial period was organised by Peter Attema (University of Groningen) Gabriele Cifani (Tor Vergata, Rome) Günther Schörner (University of Vienna).
In the summers of 2006 and 2007, a team of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) headed by Peter Attema and Bert Nijboer, excavated various tombs of the Monte Del Bufalo cemetery. The excavations were carried out as part of a collaboration project between the GIA and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma (SSBAR) in the person of Francesco di Gennaro.
Book and cover design: S.E. Boersma, RUG/GIA.Image editing: A.J. Bronkhorst & S.E. Boersma, RUG/GIA.
ISBN printed book: 9789493194236ISBN
e-book: 9789493194243
The development of infrastructures related to salt production, fisheries and mollusk harvesting together with the landscape modification linked with the expansion of harbors in bays, deltas and lagoons is visible both in the geological and archaeological record documenting the high level of human environmental interaction. In parallel, inhabiting and manipulating dynamic coastal areas subject to floods, storms, changes in sediment
supply, and variation in relative sea level made infrastructures and environmental control indispensable. Consequently, it is crucial to get a better understanding of the changes of human-environmental interactions at different time scales. Such unique areas represent an exceptional chance to learn about landscape, ecosystem changes but also
technological development of the past. To achieve these goals, multidisciplinary geoarchaeological studies offer a one
of a kind approach towards understanding the complex interaction between nature and humans. In this session, we welcome crossdisciplinary geoarchaeological studies where the exploitation of coastal areas is studied from a palaeoenvironmental evolution and human activity perspective. Contributions showcasing specific case studies in which human environment interactions in coastal areas are reconstructed including both the developing infrastructures and resilient adaptation to the natural pressure are welcomed.
Crustumerium figured prominently in many of the events related to Rome’s earliest history. Around 500 BC, the city was taken by Rome, abandoned and largely forgotten until its location was rediscovered in the 1970s.
Even after some 2500 years, a man-made mound on the border between the settlement and its burial grounds stands out in the landscape. Excavations by the University of Groningen and the Italian Archaeological Service reveal that it holds the key to the story of the rise and fall of Crustumerium. The excavation team realised that the mound can only be analysed and rendered comprehensible through advanced digital techniques. To achieve a proper archaeological interpretation of the monument, the team has started to explore the potential of the data in an accurate 3D environment.
The research is composed of three phases:
Phase 1 - Taphonomy: Analysis of the spatial distribution of the potsherds.
Phase 2 - Vessels’ function: Assessment of the vessels’ function by means of (2a) typology, (2b) petrography, (2c) traceology, and (2d) residue.
Phase 3 - Contextualization: Critical discussion of data in regard to cave spatiality and physicality and broader economic, social, and symbolic dimensions of Early Copper Age communities in the region.
Acquired data will provide insights into the engagement of the 4th millennium BC communities with the underground spaces. The proposed pilot study will provide a new, different, angle for cave archaeology that draws attention to the function of the ceramic containers introduced in spaces pervaded by deep darkness. Hence, this study will advance the broader research on the social functioning of prehistoric societies.
Under the supervision of Prof. Peter A.J. Attema, Dr. Felice Larocca, and Prof. Giuseppe E. De Benedetto