The Archaeology of Central and Southern Roman Italy: Recent Trends and Approaches

Abstract

For the historian of the Roman period, the archaeology of Central and Southern Italy raises (and sometimes provides answers to) a fascinating variety of questions. The Pontine plain and the valleys of the Liri and Sacco were the areas first affected by Roman expansion beyond the Latial plain, and it was here that the Romans tested and perfected the techniques of organization and control of territory that were to be used with such success elsewhere in Italy and eventually throughout the Mediterranean: in particular, colonization, municipalization, and the transformation of the rural landscape which accompanied them. This area too saw the development of the villa system of agriculture, which came to be predominant in Central Italy during the first century B.C., and was imitated throughout the Empire; but there were also striking differences between agricultural practices in the plains and in the mountains above. This geographical diversity was paralleled by a complex cultural mix, as aspects of both Greek and Roman culture were adopted by the local populations, who themselves moved around an increasingly unified Italy with greater ease, leading to further cultural transformations.

Mapping the origins of Imperial Roman workers (1st–4th century CE) at Vagnari, Southern Italy, using 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O variability

“…Roman period mobility is traditionally studied through archaeological and epigraphic evidence, as well as Graeco‐Roman texts, census data, and funerary inscriptions (e.g., Attema and van Leusen, ; Bagnall and Frier, ; Benelli, ; Curti, Dench, and Patterson, ; DeLigt and Tacoma, ; Noy, ). Documentary sources and archaeological evidence are useful for understanding mobility at a population level.…”

Human Mobility in Roman Italy, I: the Free Population

“…While the physical dimension of colonization in this period has been well explored through excavations of some of the resultant sites, the impact of these 'local manifestations of a Roman mentality' on the surrounding population is more difficult to discern. 127 For instance, the appearance of Latin inscriptions in this region cannot be taken to signify discontinuity with former customs. 1 Authors of regional studies regularly ascribe considerable consequence to the foundation of colonies in subject territories.…”

Sicilian landscape as contested space in the first century BC: three case studies

“…80 Horden and Purcell 2000: 126. 81 Vasaly 1993;Dench 1995;Curti, Dench, and Patterson 1996;Laurence and Berry 1998;Clarke 1999;Williams 2001;Bradley, Isayev, and Riva 2007;Fitzjohn 2007;Isayev 2007;Prag , 2011a of the authors influenced their constructions of landscape, and second, the role the Sicilian landscape played in socio-cultural interactions between the island province and Rome. 82 Across these four authors, three key methodological and argumentative approaches become clear -the openness of ancient literature to a geographical reading, the considerations of the social, literary, and political contexts of ancient works, and the role of human agency within these geographical readings.…”