Final report of a surface survey project conducted in central Italy during the early 1980's under the direction of Edith Wightman. The few known sites in this region were revisited and a restricted amount of systematic intensive survey was carried out to discover new sites and to trace ancient roads. Innovative features of the methodology include the collaboration of a geomorphologist to explore the relationship of settlements to soils and local geology. Whilst the book traces the history of the valley from Prehistoric to Medieval times, it concentrates on the Roman period with 3 chapters on communications, settlement patterns and society, and economy and the environment. It will provide useful comparative material to survey projects in other parts of Italy.

The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Urbanism in Italy in the Age of Roman Expansion explores trends in urbanism across Italy in the period when Rome extended its power across the entire peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Chapters present the most up-to-date archaeological data in the first broad and detailed treatment of this topic, superseding traditional academic particularism. They present a significant re-evaluation of the process of Roman imperialism and the role of urbanization within it. Particular attention is paid to evidence for local agency in different regions and at different sites, but general trends are also highlighted. Various types of urban sites are examined, including Indigenous urban centers that pre-date Rome’s conquest, colonies, both Greek and Roman, small centers in the hinterlands of larger urban entities, and the symbiotic relationship between urban centers and their rural territories. This volume challenges the existence of a standardized “Roman model” imposed on Rome’s vanquished enemies through conquest and highlights that this was a period of intense experimentation. Archaeological data are used to challenge traditional text-based historiographic models and reveal the complex interplay and tensions between Roman imperial control, local and regional traditions, and broader Mediterranean trends. This book is of importance to archaeologists and ancient historians working on urbanism and Roman Imperialism, as well as those interested in early urbanism in the Western Mediterranean and Europe and the comparative study of imperialism and colonialism across geographical areas and historical periods.

This important new volume examines archaeological evidence of Roman colonization of the Middle Republican period. Themes of land use, ethnic accommodation and displacement, colonial identity, and administrative schemes are also highlighted. In delving deeply into the uniqueness of select colonial contexts, these essays invite a novel discussion on the phenomenon of colonialism in the political landscape of Rome’s early expansion. Roman urbanism of the Middle Republican period brought to the Italian peninsula fundamental changes, an important example of which, highlighted by a wealth of studies, is the ebullience of a dense network of colonies, as well as a mix of senatorial tactics and individual initiatives that underpinned their foundation. Whether Latin, Roman, or Maritimae, colonies created a new mesh of communities and imposed a new topography; more subtly, they signified the mechanisms of the rising hegemony. This book brings to the fore the diversity, agendas, and overall impact of a “settlement device” that changed the Italian landscape and introduced a new idea of Roman town.

The Mediterranean landscape record is recognized for its length and richness and the opportunity it offers to study the interaction between humans and their landscape. This volume explores a variety of current archaeological issues in the context of specific landscapes from southern Spain through Greece and Cyprus to Jordan and from antiquity to recent times. Over the last 25 years, researchers have initiated a dramatic expansion in theoretical approaches--both anthropological and classical. Over the same time span, a huge volume of field survey projects has been carried out in the Mediterranean arena. The contributors to Mediterranean Archaeological Landscapes take stock of what has been learned, identify lacunae, and consider new approaches to our understanding of the rich surface landscape record of the Mediterranean. Their goal is to explore theoretically diverse interpretative themes and the methods that make those approachable.

A complex picture of differing regional trajectories emerges, whilst cultural change is everywhere apparent, in phenomena such as Christianisation, settlement nucleation and fortification."--BOOK JACKET.

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 Italièe 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 ongeèevenaarde reeks van inzichten in hoe regionale samenlevingen zich intern ontwikkelen en reageren op externe interventies zoals het kolonialisme, imperialisme en internationale handel.

A radical interdisciplinary reappraisal of the agrarian background to the political events which shaped the destiny of Rome (from Republic to Empire). The book actively builds upon the textual and archaeological evidence to trace the fate of the Italian rural free population during a crucial period of its history.

Over the past decades, archaeological field surveys and excavations have greatly enriched our knowledge of the Roman countryside Drawing on such new data, the volume The Economic Integration of Roman Italy, edited by Tymon de Haas and Gijs Tol, presents a series of papers that explore the changes Rome’s territorial and economic expansion brought about in the countryside of the Italian peninsula. By drawing on a variety of source materials (e.g. pottery, settlement patterns, environmental data), they shed light on the complexity of rural settlement and economies on the local, regional and supra-regional scales. As such, the volume contributes to a re-assessment of Roman economic history in light of concepts such as globalisation, integration, economic performance and growth.

Roman wars, like those of later times, took place in a landscape - a landscape not only consisting of mountains, plains and rivers, but also of men tilling the soil, travelling across sea or land, or employing other means in their struggle for survival (and even happiness). This book undertakes to examine Roman wars in this context of the natural and human environment. Roman warfare is generally examined from the vierpoint of the ancient authors on whose narratives our understanding depends. As a consequence, however, Roman wars seem to have become events that took place on the pages of a book rather than in the environment of the Mediterranean world. The way Roman wars were fought was determined by the geography and climate of the Mediterranean peninsulas, by the ecological restraints on agriculture and transport, and by the economic and social structures of the society of which the armies were a significant part. This book relates warfare to one of the main conditions of survival: it examines on the one hand the food supply of the many thousands that manned the Roman armies, and on the other the impact of war on the food supply of those people not waging war.

This study presents a new regional history of the middle Tiber valley as a lens through which to view the emergence and transformation of the city of Rome from 1000 BC to AD 1000. Setting the ancient city within the context of its immediate territory, the authors reveal the diverse and enduring links between the metropolis and its hinterland.