"International Mediterranean Survey Conference" (Pisa, 26-27 ottobre)
Il congresso si svolgerà a Pisa il 26 ed il 27 Ottobre 2012, a questo LINK potrete trovare il programma completo dell'evento e qui un breve riassunto degli interventi
Albert J. Ammerman (Colgate University, Hamilton, NY)
The Longitudinal Study of Land Use at Acconia: Placing the Fieldwork of the Survey Archaeologist in Time
The paper will present the results of the longitudinal study of land use conducted at Acconia in southern Italy between 1980 and 2007. Every nine years, we have gone back to the same area and repeated the mapping of land use on a field-by-field basis. In short, we shall return to Acconia and the landscape dynamics that we have observed there over a span of 27 years. Time will not be available today to trace the sequence of steps in the work of the Acconia Survey and in the evolution of our thinking, which led to the start of the longitudinal study in 1980. Instead, the focus will be on the changes in land use that took place between the first mapping (in 1980) and the fourth mapping (in 2007). A few final words will then be said about some of the implications of what we have observed for the development of method and theory in survey archaeology. One of the conclusions to emerge from the study is that the work of the survey archaeologist should be seen as situated in time.
Peter Attema (University of Groningen)
The Džarylgač Survey Project (NW Crimea, Ukraine), from Survey to Publication
The Džarylgač Survey Project (DSP) was carried out between 2006 – 2008 by a Danish-Dutch -Ukrainian cooperation of archaeologists from the Centre for Black Sea Studies of Aarhus University (DK), the Groningen Institute of Archaeology of the University of Groningen (NL) and the Crimean branch of the Institute of Archaeology (Simferopol). The fieldwork targeted an area around Lake Džarylgač in the NW Crimea near the Greek coastal settlement of Panskoe. A combination of intensive survey, remote sensing, soil studies, test excavations and ceramic studies revealed several aspects of the long term settlement and land use history of the study area among which a relatively short phase of intensive land use during the Hellenistic period in which both Greek colonists and indigenous peoples were involved. In the paper the methodology and main results of the DSP are discussed as presented in the recently published volume “The Džarylgač Survey Project” (Aarhus University Press, 2012).
Monica Baldassarri*, N. Campana, L. Gervasini, E. Salvatori* (*University of Pisa, Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Liguria, Genua)
The "TraMonti" project (Eastern Liguria, Italy): goals, problems of method and first results of a study of global archaeology.
The "TraMonti" project was realised in 2011 and covered the territory of nine municipalities located in the middle and lower Vara Valley (La Spezia, Italy). A substantial part of the work program aimed at a territorial survey conducted according to the methods of “global archaeology” and in order to combine both the needs of the scientific research and of the cultural heritage for the area throughout the whole diachrony.
It was therefore an opportunity on the one hand to test different methods of suveying in mountain environments, characterized by medium to low visibility and a high degree of erosion of deposits and buildings; on the other hand to retrieve data from the past experiences of “extensive” archaeology in the valley, and in some cases to test them anew, which sometimes resulted in different outcomes. This work was completed with the collection of topographic and toponomastic evidences, of the information from the medieval and modern written documents and of the contributions from the oral sources, important witnesses of a territory that in a few decades has undergone profound changes. The data obtained have been placed on the web in an “open” format: an historical-archeological WebGIS, freely accessible through a website which also proposed historical-cultural itineraries, in order to strengthen the research and to build a project of public history/archaeology.
During the project there was a catastrophic flood, which was relevant to the cultural heritage of the area and for the collective memory. This has been the starting point for a discussion on the role and responsibility of this kind of research in the areas involved by natural disasters, which are catalysts for heavy changes in the landscape and for the destruction of many traces of the ancient settlements.
Oscar Belvedere (University of Palermo)
GIS and survey of the archaeological Park of Agrigento
On behalf of the Archaeological Park of Agrigento, a survey both in the urban area of the ancient Akragas, and the immediate suburbs of the city was conducted in the years 2009-2010 by a team of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Palermo, within the boundaries of the Park. The archaeological map is only one of the layers of a GIS, which brings together a large amount of information and, so, is an effective means of protection and enhancement of the archaeological heritage of ancient Agrigento.
The project involved an intensive and systematic archaeological exploration of the two areas, inside and outside the city, with the development of specific methods of investigation for each of them. Outside the city, 42 UT (Topographic Units) have been identified, from prehistory to the Middle Ages, so it is possible now to reconstruct a complete history of the population in this area, before the foundation of the city, and after the establishment of the Greek colony.
Quite different the problems posed by the survey within the boundaries of the ancient city, where we adopted strategies of data collection and documentation typical of the exploration of an urban area, aimed to the identification of functional areas, the assessment of human activities and the definition of sub-areas, based on the monitoring of the density of the objects, their distribution, the typology and chronology of the artefacts.
All information collected in the field were included in the GIS, which integrates basic and derivative cartography (maps, historical maps, archaeological maps, maps of ground visibility and density of the finds) with the alphanumeric files, 3D processing (TIN, DEM, maps of sunshine, of the exposure of slopes, etc.) and the illustrative apparatus (photographs and drawings).
John Bintliff (Leiden University)
Indigenous histories and archaeological verities: interactions between archaeological narratives and local community pasts
Archaeologists working in rural landscapes have clear academic aims and increasingly practice forms of outreach to local communities to communicate their findings. This paper investigates how rural communities have created their own narratives, sometimes using specialist published information or popular histories, but often creating alternative pasts from myth and local tales. In a Post Processual view, all such pasts have equal value, whereas a 'scientific' view would wish to replace local myth with the most plausible archaeological reconstructions.
Aurelio Burgio (University of Palermo)
The Cignana Survey (Naro-Palma di Montechiaro, Sicilia). From the infra-site artifact collection methods to interpretation of data surface.
This paper presents the preliminary results of a case study that means to evaluate the accuracy of, and the interpretative limits inherent to, infra-site surface pottery assemblages, collected by the University of Palermo in the territory of the roman villa of Cignana (near Agrigento). So, my principal aim is to analyze the artifact collection methods (together with some range of information, including modern and current land use, surface visibility, surface artifact density) and the spatial distribution of pottery assemblages (amphorae, fine and coarse/cooking wares, roof tiles) to obtain by this “visibility factors” some interpretation tools, both chronological and functional. Finally, these data are imported into the project’s GIS, and are integrated with the GIS database.
Federico Cantini, Beatrice Fatighenti (University of Pisa)
Surveying the Arno valley: the territory of San Miniato (Pisa). Methodology and preliminary results.
In this paper we present the survey of the territory of San Miniato (2010-2011), in the middle Arno valley, where we are directing (2001-2012) the archeological excavation of the early medieval vicus Wallari. We will explain the different methods and tools that we have used: the reading of aerial photographs, the survey on the ground with GPS and the data processing with the GIS software Autodesk Map 3D, that integrates the macro and the micro scale analysis. At last we will show the preliminary results of the research, proposing a synthesis of the settlement development, from the Roman Times to the end of the Middle Ages.
Anita Crispino *, Massimo Cultraro** (*Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi, Siracusa; ** Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR-IBAM, Catania)
Pre-colonial Landscapes: the impact of archaeological surveys on the protohistoric period in Sicily
In comparision with the wide archaeological documentation regarding sites with long-term stratigraphical sequence and articulated typological record, in Sicily archaeological surveys has have scarce emphasis on the general accounts of local prehistory. In many cases, survey data involve specific areas which are spatially limited and rarely interconnected, with the consequence to give scarce information on past land-use and environmental changes. Indeed, these archaeological activities place a stronger emphasis on the settlement patterns in the period between Greek colonization and Classical times.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the wide archaeological record regarding data and information from systematic surveys carried out in the last decades, mostly in the central and western district of Sicily, and to compared them with the results from regional conventional (non-survey) distribution maps on the recent phases of Prehistory. Focusing on the Middle and Late Bronze Age maps, which is the period of the impact of external forces, such as the Aegean-Mycenaean trade contacts, one result of survey work is to elaborate new paradigms in order to reconstruct and to explain some changes in settlement patterns in late Bronze Age.
The wide amount of information, if integrated with data coming from different sources, gives a general framework on the main questions related to emergence of large territorial units in early Iron Age Sicily; the new paradigm contrasts with the traditional accounts which explain the phenomenon in an unilateral way as the results of Greek colonial impact in VIII century BC.
Timothy Darvill (Bournemouth University, UK)
Maltese Temple Landscape Project
The prehistoric temples located on the islands of Malta and Gozo in the heart of the Mediterranean are widely recognized as the earliest free standing buildings in the world and accordingly they have attracted the attention of generations of archaeologists, antiquarians and scholars. However, very little is known about their physical, environmental, social, and economic context, or their relationships with other contemporary features in the landscape. Investigations since 2010 by an international team of archaeologists from the UK, Germany, and Malta have begun to address these questions by focusing on the area around Skorba in the centre of Malta. This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from the first two seasons of fieldwork that place the temple complexes into their physical and social landscapes. Research has included a geoarchaeological approach included magnetometry, magnetic susceptibility surveys, soil chemistry, test-pitting, and the targeted re-examination of earlier excavation trenches and soil heaps. Together these indicate an extensive area of activity around the temple site; the results will form the basis for determining a campaign of selective excavation in future years.
Antonino Facella, Alessio Arnese (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
The Kaulonia survey: some methodological issues
A systematic intensive survey has been conducted by the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa and by the University of Pisa in the Kaulonia region (Calabria, Italy) from 2001 to 2006, covering an area of about 63 square kilometres. The results of this research have been recently published in detail in a volume edited by M. C. Parra and A.Facella. This survey has been an occasion for our team to define methodologies of investigation, to test their outcomes in the field and possibly to refine and improve fieldwork criteria, using a pragmatic approach. In this paper I would like to discuss some issues related to fieldwork, namely:
- the average extent of the area covered by a single field-walker in one day;
- the method used to delimit and map the off-site findings;
- the criteria of artefact collecting;
- last but not least, the ratio between survey costs and scientific results.
Finally, A. Arnese will illustrate the potentialities of the Kaulonia GIS for predictive analysis and further investigations.
*Kevin Ferrari, **Piero Bellotti, *Pier Luigi Dall’Aglio, **Lina Davoli, ***Marta Mazzanti,***Patrizia Torre (*University of Bologna,**University of Rome,***University of Modena and Reggio Emilia),
Methodologies for a palaeoenvironmental study: the coastal plain near the Garigliano River mouth .
Landscape Archaeology is giving more and more attention to the effects of human/climatic interactions on the evolution of ancient landscapes and societies. The achievement of this aim is possible only with the cooperation of different disciplines with their specific methodologies. We studied the coastal plain near the mouth of the Garigliano River. In addition to the analysis of aerial photographs, ancient maps, literary and iconographic sources, we collected new evidences on the field. The archaeological survey was conducted according to the traditional rules of the discipline. We found a lot of ancient sites that led us to reconstruct the settlement pattern near the coast from the Bronze Age to Modern time. An innovative approach was adopted for the geological survey, with an alternation of manual and mechanical coring. This is a very simple way to collect a lot of information concerning the stratigraphic sequence with chronological and palaeoenvironmental indications. By analyzing all the available data, we could outline the evolution of the coastal landscape and of the settlement pattern near the river mouth from the beginning of the Holocene to this day.
Carlotta Franceschelli*, Federica Boschi**, Pier Luigi Dall’Aglio**, Michele Silani** (*University Blaise-Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand; **University of Bologna)
Reconstructing Roman aqueducts of Néris-les-Bains: an integrated archaeological survey
This research on water supply of the Roman town of Néris-les-Bains started in 2011.
The existence of two roman aqueducts was attested since XIXth century, when some archaeological excavations were conducted in order to reconstruct their track. The aqueducts of Combes and Viviers, both realized in a subterranean ditch, were so identified: the aqueduct of Combes, 10 km long, with a drop of nearly 100 m; the aqueduct des Viviers, 35 km long, with a drop of nearly 245 m. Their construction is dated between the second half of the first century AD and the beginning of the second century AD, but their relative and absolute chronologies remain very uncertain.
The main aims of our research were to reconstruct precisely their track and their structure, and to define their chronology. We applied a multi-disciplinary methodology, combining surface and geophysical surveys (magnetometry and ground penetrating radar) and targeted archaeological excavations.
In the first two years, the track of the two aqueducts of Combes and Viviers has been reconstructed for a respectively length of 5 and 10 km. Several pieces of information concerning their structure and chronology have also been collected.
Fernando Amores Carredano*, Enrique García Vargas*, Pablo Garrido González** (*University of Seville; **Dpt. of Projects, Atlas Archaeology and Heritage Ltd)
The River Guadiamar Landscapes. Historical Reconstruction and Archaeological Valorization.
This is the name of our current research project in the former mining area of the Guadiamar River Valley, in Southwestern Spain, funded by the Focus-Abengoa Society and led by several researchers from the University of Seville (Spain), in collaboration with other scientific institutions, both Spanish and European. It is a four-years project, which will last up to 2013.
The project was conceived with very ambitious aims developing a range of activities at different levels and scales:
-Excavation at two sites, after being selected from the results of geophysical surveys in the last years. These sites provide not only contextual information about the nature and chronology of some settlements, but also the possibility of taking accurate samples from stratigraphical contexts.
-Extensive and intensive surface survey. The methodology used in this stage will be broadly discussed. The main topics here are how to deal with small or medium-sized teams, without renouncing to offsite evidence. Our philosophy –compelled by legal reasons, but also by convenience- is to minimize pottery collection, trying to get the same results.
-Mining survey. This part of our methodology focusses on the special mining remains of the upper part of the valley. Slag deposits are being sampled in order to characterise the nature of the mining activities of the Aznalcollar region, both in Roman and pre-Roman times.
-Finally, environmental approaches complete the frame of the project, by means of pallinological and geological sampling.
All the results are finally integrated into a huge GIS database, in order to provide an adequate frame in which Landscapes approaches will be performed. The objective is to understand the formation of this impressive mining landscape, from Prehistory to the present day.
And finally, we must stress how the project results will be managed by the Focus-Abengoa Campus at Casa Quemada Estate (Seville), which we intend to be in the next future an educational and research centre for Historical Landscapes, whereas the research at the valley goes on.
Stefan Groh (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut Wien)
Urbium or Suburbium - New Research on the topography of Aquileia (Italy)
The department of Central-European Archaeology of the Austrian Archaeological Institute is carrying out surveys and excavation projects in the adjacent countries of Austria in middle Europe and the Mediterranean. These projects mainly focus on the urban, suburban and rural settlement structures of Roman towns along the Amber route and the rivers.
In 2011 we started a new research project in Aquileia in northern Italy. Founded as a colonia latina in 181 B.C., Aquileia played a key role in the economical and political development of the northern provinces. As the political and administrative centre of the Regio X, it formed the starting point of the amber route, and its river ports were a trading hub for the export of Mediterranean goods to the north. Besides, Aquileia also served as a central logistic base for the military campaigns in Illyria, Pannonia and Dalmatia.
The research project focuses on the diachronic development of the western part of the ancient town and the suburbium of Aquileia. The dynamic development processes of a town are usually most tangible in its outer zones. In Aquileia, the gradual extension of the town is revealed by the spatial and chronological sequence of the Republican, Imperial and Late Antique-Byzantine defence walls. First investigations by geophysical prospections reveaeled a new (second) harbor which was situated close to the imperial center of the town. It was connected by an artificial channel (Canale Anfora) with the sea. A suburban artisan quarter was discovered underneath the circus, between the Via Annia to the north and the Canale Anfora to the south. It consists of numerous buildings with oven batteries, aligned with the newly discovered river channel. The suburban artisan quarter was given up in the Tetrarchic period as the circus and the Late Antique defence wall were built, the area became an intraurban zone.
Giacomo Landeschi (Arc-Team S.a.s.)
From Landscape to Webscape: exploring new methodological approaches in field survey analysis
Over thirty years have passed since the so-called GIS revolution, which provided archaeology, along with many other geo-spatial disciplines, with new therotical frameworks. From then on, GIS has been adopted in many fieldwork projects, with the aim not just to collect or store data, but with the precise scope of creating new interpretative paths, by using ever more sophisticated spatial analysis techniques along with high-resolution data. Furthermore, an ongoing revolution is represented by the Web, which has rapidly become a major tool for the dissemination of knowledge.
It is not far from true defining as a “Webscape” such a new spatio-temporal dimension, where the landscape data (artefacts, soil assemblages) can be explored and investigated through an interactive approach, by experiencing in a virtual way, the original context of research: the field. According to Chapman's definition of GIS as a 'place for thinking', Web can be inferred as a place for sharing and enhancing knowledge, through a holistic approach based on the analysis and visualization of multiple sources.
In this sense, the present contribution is aimed at testing new narrative paths for enhancing the communicative power of a field survey project. In order to reach this aim, Google Earth software has been explored as a possible means for such an achievement.
As Google Earth is rapidly becoming a de facto standard for the implementation and sharing of geo-spatial data, it is worth to be analyzed the impact which it could have on field survey strategies, considering the linkage it represents between two strictly intercorrelated research fields, GIS, intended as the exploratory place (data collecting and processing), and World Wide Web, intended as the explanatory place (data communication and sharing).
With this aim, a field survey project carried out in the Portus Pisanus area has been examined as a case study for testing such a methodological approach, trying to investigate the contribution of GE platform to the landscape analysis, highlighting pros and cons can be derived in archaeological research.
Maria Luisa Marchi (University of Foggia)
Project “Archaeological Map of Italy - Forma Italiae”. Landscape of Daunia: Ager Venusinus and Lucerinus.
The results of the two research projects related to the Carta Archeologica d’Italia – Forma Italiae are presented.
The first project concerns the district of Venosa in Basilicata, where the University of Roma «La Sapienza», for 20 years has been conducting investigations testing new methods and advanced technologies.
The second project concerns the territory of the Luceria colony, in Apulia, starting from the area of the medieval site of Montecorvino, in the Daunian subapennine. The methodology is based on the extensive and systematic survey of all the selected district. The countryside is systematically searched by groups of students and researchers in different seasons, time of the day, weather and visibility conditions and status of cultivation of the ground. The gps georeferenced data are integrated in a GIS specifically realized.
The data collected from both projects have allowed to verify the important modifications of the landscape produced by the Roman’s activities, that in Daunia occurred in the IV – III cent. B.C. These modifications are represented by the creation of the road network characterizing the centuriation, with the realization of a new distributive system for the land plots to be assigned to the occupants of the colony (sortes) and the building of a myriad of new farms. All these
activities produced the inevitable changes in the cultivations and productive system.
A very interesting part of our project regards the populating of the Daunia settlement area before the Roman penetration for which unexpected new evidence emerged during our work.
Victorino Mayoral Herrera, Luis Sevillano Perea
Merida Institute of Archaeology (Spanish Council of Scientific Research/Regional Government of Extremadura)
Contributa Iulia Ugultunia: the archaeological study of a Romanization process through the use of non-destructive techniques.
In this speech we will outline the main features of a research Project focused in the Roman town of Contributa Iulia Ugultunia (Medina de las Torres, Badajoz, Spain) and its surrounding territory. Our main objective is to analyse changes in the area between Late Iron Age and early Roman times, combining several non-invasive recording techniques. They include aerial photography, surface survey and geophysical survey. Preliminary results of the first field campaigns are shown. In one hand, the aerial survey has provided quite clear crop-marks defining the spatial structure of the town and the extramural area. In the other hand, the electrical conductivity and Ground Penetrating Survey are showing a good result that confirms the layout of the city wall perimeter and the urban structure. Finally, regarding surface survey, we will explain the overall plan and first results of fieldwork that will be carried out in autumn, 2012.
Yasemin Özarslan (Koc University, Istanbul, TURKEY)
Surveying an Iron Age mountain-top capital in Anatolia: The Kerkenes Dağ Project
Over the course of twenty years of research at Kerkenes Dağ in Central Turkey, a combination of different archaeological survey techniques have been employed to understand the urban structure of this Iron Age mountain-top city. These techniques include aerial photographic surveys, a GPS and geomagnetic survey of almost the entire site which has an area of nearly 2.5 km² as well as electrical resistivity surveys in selected areas of the site. Experiments were also made with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Electrical Conductivity and Magnetic Susceptibility. The surveys were accompanied by ground-truthing, total station surveys, and test excavations as well as a regional survey program of environmental and geomorphological studies by coring local sediments in the surrounding valleys. Since 2000 results have been complimented by substantial excavation in selected areas. The end results were brought together in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) allowing for further analyses providing insights into the many aspects of the urban pattern. While each technique helped reveal archaeological evidence at different speeds and scales, problems have arisen from time to time due to equipment, weather and soil conditions, the absence of institutional backing, degrees of surface visibility, the nature, the depositional history of the site, and the roughness of the terrain. In this presentation I will discuss the usefulness of these techniques in furthering our understanding of this extensive Iron Age site together with an assessment of their problems and limitations.
Giovanna Pizziolo, Nicoletta Volante (University of Siena)
Prehistoric survey in Grosseto area: criteria of analysis and first results of field activities
Since 2010 survey activities undertaken by the Dipartimento di Archeologia e Storia delle Arti of the University of Siena in collaboration with the Interuniversity Research Centre for the Study and Promotion of Prehistoric Cultures, Technologies and Landscapes have been oriented to the investigation of prehistoric contexts in Grosseto area (Southern Tuscany).
The study area is an alluvial coastal plain that has been characterised by substantial changes during the last 20.000 years. From a Landscape Archaeology perspective the comprehension of these dynamic conditions is fundamental to an investigation of the prehistoric settlement strategies as part of the general Man-Environment relationship. In the study area the shift in sea level between the Neolithic and Copper age, played a fundamental role in shaping the shorelines which have been delineated along the Pleistocene terraces. Our ongoing research is focused on the reconstruction of the prehistoric landscape highlighting what we consider to be those features of the past that are still observable in the present and most likely responsible for what played out over time. This research has been developed in a GIS environment using a multi-scale dataset and different types of sources, including archaeological excavation and survey data, historical cartography, and aerial photographs.
The survey activities have been organised taking into account the reconstruction of hypothetical prehistoric shorelines and other predictive criteria related to archaeological potentialities of present day surfaces.
Jeroen Poblome, Ralf Vandam, Johan Claeys (Catholic University of Leuven)
Surveying liminality. Is there meaning to potsherds at 2000m asl?
Jorn Seubers (University of Groningen)
Testing the Archaic boom, preliminary results from the GIA Crustumerium Survey 2012.
The Iron Age settlement of Crustumerium was located on a hill plateau in the Tiber Valley about 15 km north of Rome. As part of the research project "The people and the State, material culture, social structure and political centralization around Rome (800 ‐ 450 BC)”, the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) has been studying Crustumerium and its territory. In 2011 the GIA conducted a survey south of the settlement and a block survey of part of the settlement itself was conducted. This was complemented in 2012 by a block survey in the eastern territory of the ancient centre. This presentation will reveal some of the results in relation to the results of previous research and discuss how the new work could change our understanding of the history of Crustumerium.
Francesco Tarlano (University of Rome)
Ancient settlements in Upper Agri valley between geomorphology and archeological survey
The Upper Agri Valley (Basilicata) since ancient times has been one of the main traffic routes and connection between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian coastal poleis. In addition, between the fourth and third century B.C., it was characterized by an important phenomenon of "self-romanization", that means the will of the Lucan elites to join settlement patterns, first Hellenistic and then Romans. The most recent expression of this settlement tendency "to the city" is represented in the early third century B.C. by the Lucan-Roman foundation of Grumentum, a valley bottom city built in orthogonal framework, that in the first centuries of the Empire will become one of the most monumental Roman cities of southern Italy, and will present a continuity of life at least until the fifth-sixth century A.D. Since some years I am dealing with this subject: I studied the Roman road system, the land division in the valley and the pre-Roman fortified archaeological areas on the hills. My research on the territory initially took place through a series of targeted reconnaissances to archaeological areas already known in the bibliography, from which are emerged interesting data both from the point of view of settlement and from that one of infrastructures. For my Ph.D. research, on the relationship between geomorphology and ancient populations in the Upper Agri Valley, the recognitions are a key aspect for understanding the history of the area: since 2012 I am coordinating a group of students from the Universities of Bologna and Rome “La Sapienza”, for a series of campaigns of extensive surveys in the municipality of Grumento Nova (PZ).
Gijs W.Tol (University of Groningen)
Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries: first results of the Minor-Centres project
A recently initiated research project, entitled Fora, stationes, and sanctuaries, aims to study the role of minor central places in the economy of Roman Central Italy. In this paper we will present preliminary results from the first fieldwork campaign of the project that includes geophysical prospection and intensive on-site surveys on three selected minor centres -Astura along the Via Severiana, Forum Appii and Ad Medias along the Via Appia - as well as extensive surveys in their immediate hinterland.
Martijn van Leusen (University of Groningen)
Rural Life in Protohistoric Italy: how to study it.
Systematic regional field walking surveys in the Mediterranean tend to produce large numbers - often hundreds - of 'sites' (however defined). For the protohistoric period, most of these are small, with a diameter less than 20m, and not much can be deduced about their character from the scant surface evidence. Building on the excellent site-and-offsite database produced by 10 years of RAP surveys in northern Calabria, the Groningen Institute of Archaeology has begun in 2010 a new research project which aims to study in depth representative examples of such rural sites.
This paper sets out the research design, including the preliminary site classification that was used to select the test sites, and highlights some significant results of the first two years of the project. It then focuses on a discussion of the implications for our understanding of both the protohistoric surface archaeological record and of rural life in protohistoric Italy.
Frank Vermeulen, Devi Taelman (Ghent University)
New survey approaches in the suburbium of Potentia (Marche, I).
The Ghent University team of the Potenza Valley Survey has been applying intensive and integrated intra- and extra mural surveys at the abandoned Roman townsite of Potentia since 2000.
Recently the suburban area of this Adriatic coastal colony was investigated with more applications of geomorphological fieldwork (soil corings, ecological sampling, geological observations...), geophysical prospections (GPR, Earth resistance, Magnetic), aerial photography and fine mashed artefact surveys. Specific aims are a better understanding of suburban topography and settlement dynamics of this coastal landscape from Republican times to the early Medieval period. The presentation will focus on methods of integration of survey data.