J.B. Ward-Perkins, the BSR and the Landscape Tradition in Post-War Italian Archaeology

Smith, Christopher

doi:10.1017/s006824621700037x

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Ashby also produced an impressive number of publications on the Roman roads and countryside. As Ward-Perkins (1970: vii) notes, Ashby shaped Italian topographical studies with his research and publications, and Christopher Smith (2018: 271) commends the mass of information Ashby collected over the years. Certainly, the grandeur of Ashby's vision and his role as the driving force in the study of the Roman road system should not be underrated.…”

Section: Ashby's Collaboration With Bsr Students and Scholarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 6 C. Smith, 2018: 273, says ‘Ashby's lament for the disappearing countryside of the Campagna is often quoted and well known.’…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 27 Despite Gardner's impressive photographic record of the Via Appia and Traiana, Ceraudo (2012: 36–7) refers to their trip as a guided tour conducted by Ashby, with the impression given that Gardner was tagging along as an assistant. See also C. Smith, 2018: 281.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expeditions From Rome: Thomas Ashby, His BSR Companions and the Roman Roads of Italy

Wade¹

2021

Pap. Br. Sch. Rome

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In the early twentieth century, Thomas Ashby published extensively on the Roman roads of Italy. The BSR Director was determined to create a lasting record of the ancient Roman road network before it was lost forever. Yet Ashby's research vision was grand and it was too ambitious a task for one man to accomplish on his own. This paper investigates the crucial role of BSR scholars in Ashby's research. It discusses his relationship with the community of residents and scholars at the BSR in the pre- and post-World War I years, especially those with whom he collaborated in order to survey, map and record the Roman roads and their surrounding countryside. Focus is given to Ashby's research on roads like the Via Flaminia and Via Appia as this work highlights his methodology, the collegial environment at the BSR during his directorship, and his successful collaboration with award-holders. To date, the role of these BSR scholars has largely been underrated. Yet there were BSR award-holders — historians, archaeologists and architects — who helped to keep Ashby's research vision alive. Without them, he could not have produced such a comprehensive and impressive body of work on Italy's Roman roads.

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Section: Ashby's Collaboration With Bsr Students and Scholarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 6 C. Smith, 2018: 273, says ‘Ashby's lament for the disappearing countryside of the Campagna is often quoted and well known.’…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expeditions From Rome: Thomas Ashby, His BSR Companions and the Roman Roads of Italy

Wade¹

2021

Pap. Br. Sch. Rome

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“…By the early twentieth century, it was already apparent that agricultural intensification, urban expansion, and infrastructure works (Ashby, 1927) were seriously damaging the archaeological landscape around Rome. This destruction accelerated during the decades after WWII, leading to the establishment of the South Etruria Survey, the first systematic, artefact-based survey within Rome's suburbium (Smith, 2018; Patterson et al, 2020). Since the 1970s, many other surveys, located within a wide radius of the city, have developed out of this long and evolving tradition, producing vast quantities of settlement and artefact data.…”

Section: The Microregional Datasetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roman Hinterland Project: Integrating Archaeological Field Surveys around Rome and Beyond

et al. 2021

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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.

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“…All these collections contain important photographic records of Italy's cultural and landscape heritage from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and reflect the importance of topographical studies to Ashby and the BSR. Wallace-Hadrill (2001: 21, 26) notes that Ashby's detailed research interests in this regard established topographical studies and landscape archaeology, particularly in Italy, as ‘an area of specifically British expertise that is one of his greatest legacies’ (also see Smith, 2018: 271). Indeed, Ashby's comprehensive and thorough research on the roads, monuments and countryside of Italy has been widely acknowledged by both his contemporaries and later archaeologists and historians (Lugli, 1946: 42–50; Hodges, 2000: 94–7; Laurence, 2012: 15–16) 3…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Road Trips, Rail Journeys and Landscape Archaeology: Reconstructing Research Itineraries and Travel Excursions in Italy Through the British School at Rome's Photographic Collections

Wade¹,

Giovenco²

2022

Pap. Br. Sch. Rome

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This article highlights the importance of photography for landscape archaeology and topographical studies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and explores the value of photographic collections for the reconstruction of research itineraries and reconnaissance excursions in this period. Photographs held at the British School at Rome are utilized to demonstrate the ways in which collections of images can be used to retrace and chronicle the historical paths and itineraries of early researchers in Italy. Several journeys involving pioneers in both topographical studies and the use of photography for landscape archaeology in Italy are discussed. The photographs taken by amateur photographers on these excursions are important visual records of the Italian countryside and its monuments. These images are cultural artefacts themselves and they demonstrate what was still accessible to scholars and archaeologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The historical paths and itineraries of these trailblazers, and the visual and textual records they produced, are now an integral part of the history of topographical studies, landscape archaeology and the Roman roads and countryside of Italy. Through photographs, this article retraces the paths of several of these pioneers and brings their historical journeys to life.

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J.B. Ward-Perkins, the BSR and the Landscape Tradition in Post-War Italian Archaeology

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

Expeditions From Rome: Thomas Ashby, His BSR Companions and the Roman Roads of Italy

Expeditions From Rome: Thomas Ashby, His BSR Companions and the Roman Roads of Italy

The Roman Hinterland Project: Integrating Archaeological Field Surveys around Rome and Beyond

Road Trips, Rail Journeys and Landscape Archaeology: Reconstructing Research Itineraries and Travel Excursions in Italy Through the British School at Rome's Photographic Collections

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