Il lavoro che segue trae origine dall’osservazione diretta di un paesaggio – quello Lepino - Pontino – dai tratti molto particolari, segnato più di altri da un profondo intervento antropico, che ne ha radicalmente modificato le... more
Il lavoro che segue trae origine dall’osservazione diretta di un paesaggio – quello Lepino - Pontino – dai tratti molto particolari,
segnato più di altri da un profondo intervento antropico, che ne ha radicalmente modificato le caratteristiche identitarie originarie.
Nel volgere di pochi anni, agli inizi del Novecento, esso ha visto cancellare le tracce del suo caratteristico assetto ecologico – ambientale, in seguito ad una vasta opera di bonifica territoriale, che rende oggi quanto mai complesso il tentativo di una sua ricostruzione in relazione al popolamento ed alle dinamiche insediative originatesi nelle passate epoche storiche...
This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary study on the drainage of damp or humid areas, the control of surface water and the centuriation operated in the plain of Rieti by the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus during the... more
This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary study on the drainage of damp or humid areas, the control of surface water and the centuriation operated in the plain of Rieti by the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus during the conquest of the Sabina region in the third century BC. This research, organised on the occasion of the bimillenary anniversary of the birth of the Emperor Vespasian, brings more wareness to consider the work of Gromatici as an inseparable unity of various processes concerning hydrographical network, road systems, land reclamation and agrarian organization. Some parallels could be established between the cases of Rieti, Pianura Pontina and the latin colony of Spoletium. This study could bring us to a better and deeper understanding of events and patterns of Romanization of central Italy.
The citation of natural environmental processes as a key element in the formation of and changes in human culture has been unfashionable for some time. Whilst scepticism of certain unfettered cultural ecological or socio-ecological... more
The citation of natural environmental processes as a key element in the formation of and changes in human culture has been unfashionable for some time. Whilst scepticism of certain unfettered cultural ecological or socio-ecological theories is understandable, archaeologists often fail to engage fully with the dynamic relationships between people and environment in the past. 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 a Roman wetland, the Pontine Marshes. Changes in settlement activity and practices in this central Italian wetland landscape close to Rome were the product of a complex interplay of elite political initiatives and management projects and local forms of environmental knowledge applied by ordinary people who had to engage with this landscape. The paper comprises an introduction to the research questions and the interpretive framework, followed by an assessment of documentary and recent archaeological research that serve to illustrate the development of human interaction with these marshes. The discussion considers the probable reasons for the waxing and waning of wetland activity, and the nature of different class-based understandings of the wetland during the Roman period.
L’indizione del primo Giubileo da parte di Bonifacio VIII il 22 febbraio 1300 appare come l’esito più sorprendente di quella diffusa aspirazione a un rinnovamento religioso che, alimentata da fattori come il gioachimismo e un certo... more
L’indizione del primo Giubileo da parte di Bonifacio VIII il 22 febbraio 1300 appare come l’esito più sorprendente di quella diffusa aspirazione a un rinnovamento religioso che, alimentata da fattori come il gioachimismo e un certo francescanesimo d’impronta spirituale, aveva attraversato la cristianità per larga parte del XIII secolo. Risposta del papato a un’esigenza di salvezza che proveniva con forza dalla più profonda sensibilità popolare, la concessione dell’indulgenza plenaria a tutti coloro che ‒ pentiti e assolti dai propri peccati (vere poenitentibus et confessis) ‒ fossero andati a Roma e avessero visitato con devozione le tombe degli Apostoli, riuscì infine a incanalare a favore della Chiesa molte delle attese escatologiche del tempo.
Obiettivo del mio intervento è provare a comprendere ‒ in considerazione dell’assoluta carenza di fonti dirette ‒ quanto del fervore che animò le migliaia di pellegrini i quali nel corso del 1300 si recarono ad limina Apostolorum sia possibile trovare nella realtà religiosa della Marittima tardo-duecentesca. A questo scopo, sono esaminati i principali caratteri dell’esperienza di fede nella regione ‒ riconducibile ai territori delle diocesi di Velletri e Terracina ‒, con particolare attenzione a cogliere elementi di continuità o innovazione rispetto ai tradizionali assetti ecclesiali: dalle forme devozionali alla presenza di antichi e nuovi Ordini religiosi, in primo luogo dei Mendicanti. Da ultimo, un breve sguardo è rivolto anche alle ricadute che il pellegrinaggio romano dovette avere dal punto di vista economico-produttivo su alcuni centri abitati della Marittima.
Anthology of some articles written along the past 40 years about some aspects of late antiquity and early middle ages in some towns about 30/40 km south of Rome. The texts where enhanced with notes and updates and give new light to the so... more
Anthology of some articles written along the past 40 years about some aspects of late antiquity and early middle ages in some towns about 30/40 km south of Rome. The texts where enhanced with notes and updates and give new light to the so called dark ages that aren't as dark as often told. The most innovative part of the text concerns the environmental catastrophe that led to the definitive collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
Altamura F., 2020. L’archeologia sperimentale di Alberto Carlo Blanc: appunti inediti di un pioniere della Preistoria italiana, in Archeologie sperimentali, 1, pp. 28-35. ISSN 2724-2501 Riassunto: Due documenti inediti dell’archivio... more
Altamura F., 2020. L’archeologia sperimentale di Alberto Carlo Blanc: appunti inediti di un pioniere della Preistoria italiana, in Archeologie sperimentali, 1, pp. 28-35. ISSN 2724-2501 Riassunto: Due documenti inediti dell’archivio Blanc-Aguet a Roma contengono appunti di archeologia sperimentale dello studioso Alberto Carlo Blanc, risalenti ai primi anni ‘50 del secolo scorso. Le annotazioni riguardano la scheggiatura di ciottoli silicei e la percussione di ossa di bue. Queste osservazioni, finalizzate a fornire elementi di confronto per i contesti preistorici indagati da Blanc, anticipano di molti decenni l’ingresso di tali tematiche negli studi archeologici italiani, confermando l’intuito e la lungimiranza scientifica dello studioso. Abstract: In the early 1950s the archaeologist Alberto Carlo Blanc conducted two experimental studies to obtain comparisons for the prehistoric contexts he was investigating, one focused on knapping flint pebbles, the other on striking ox bones, presumably with a hammerstone. Blanc’s notes, housed in the Blanc-Auget archive in Rome, are presented here for the first time. They attest to his intuition and scientific farsightedness in practicing experimental archaeology many decades before these methodologies entered the field of prehistoric studies in Italy.
Giornata di Studi "Prima della città. Storia e rappresentazioni delle Paludi Pontine tra fine '800 e inizio '900". Latina, 19 settembre 2020, Fondazione Roffredo Caetani
The citation of natural environmental processes as a key element in the formation of and changes in human culture has been unfashionable for some time. Whilst scepticism of certain unfettered cultural ecological or socio-ecological... more
The citation of natural environmental processes as a key element in the formation of and changes in human culture has been unfashionable for some time. Whilst scepticism of certain unfettered cultural ecological or socio-ecological theories is understandable, archaeologists often fail to engage fully with the dynamic relationships between people and environment in the past. 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 a Roman wetland, the Pontine Marshes. Changes in settlement activity and practices in this central Italian wetland landscape close to Rome were the product of a complex interplay of elite political initiatives and management projects and local forms of environmental knowledge applied by ordinary people who had to engage with this landscape. The paper comprises an introduction to the research questions and the interpretive framework, followed by an assessment of documentary and recent archaeological research that serve to illustrate the development of human interaction with these marshes. The discussion considers the probable reasons for the waxing and waning of wetland activity, and the nature of different class-based understandings of the wetland during the Roman period.
Das vorliegende Buch beschäftigt sich mit „Mensch und Landschaft im südwestlichen Latium in der römischen Antike“. Es zielt darauf ab, zu einem besseren Verständnis des komplexen Verhältnisses vom Menschen zur ihn umgebenden Landschaft... more
Das vorliegende Buch beschäftigt sich mit „Mensch und Landschaft im südwestlichen Latium in der römischen Antike“. Es zielt darauf ab, zu einem besseren Verständnis des komplexen Verhältnisses vom Menschen zur ihn umgebenden Landschaft beizutragen. Zentrale Themen umfassen geomorphologische Transformationsprozesse in und seit der Antike, Wetter und Klima in der Antike, Landwirtschaft, Hortikultur, Forstwirtschaft, Tierzucht, Fischfang und Fischzucht im Untersuchungsgebiet, Bevölkerungsgeschichte und Lebensbedingungen in der Antike sowie Fragen zur Siedlungskunde im Gebiet der südlichen Provincia di Roma, die mit quantitativen, GIS-gestützten Methoden beantwortet werden.
Das Untersuchungsgebiet erstreckt sich von Rom und dem Tiber im Norden zu den Albaner, den Lepiner und Ausoner Bergen im Osten, Terracina im Süden und dem Tyrrhenischen Meer im Westen. Der Untersuchungszeitraum konzentriert sich auf die Periode vom 4./3. Jh. v. Chr. bis zum 3./4. Jh. n. Chr.