Books by Emeri Farinetti
BAR International Series 3160, 2024
Il volume raccoglie gli atti della Giornata di Studi organizzata presso l’Università di Roma Tre ... more Il volume raccoglie gli atti della Giornata di Studi organizzata presso l’Università di Roma Tre (8 novembre 2022) in cui sono stati presentati i primi risultati del “Monti Lucretili Landscape Project”. Esperti e giovani studiosi che si sono occupati di quest’area montana del Lazio presentano le loro ricerche in una prospettiva diacronica, analizzando il paesaggio da diversi punti di vista: storico, archeologico, topografico, geologico e geografico.
Attraverso casi di studio che vedono l’applicazione delle diverse metodologie proprie di ciascuna disciplina, il volume vuole stimolare un dibattito sulle metodologie di ricerca ma soprattutto sui maggiori temi storiografici che hanno toccato quest’area dei dintorni di Roma, legati alla trasformazione del paesaggio e ai cambiamenti delle forme insediative nelle diverse epoche, con un focus particolare sul periodo medievale. Inoltre, il libro propone ai ricercatori che si occupano di archeologia montana e rurale un caso di studio confrontabile con altri contesti mediterranei indagati nella prospettiva della longue durée.
The volume collects the first results of the “Monti Lucretili Landscape Project”, as presented during the meeting held at Roma Tre University (November 8, 2022).
Bintliff, J. L., E. Farinetti, B. Slapsak and A. Snodgrass (2017). Boeotia Project, Volume II: T... more Bintliff, J. L., E. Farinetti, B. Slapsak and A. Snodgrass (2017). Boeotia Project, Volume II: The City of Thespiai. Survey at a Complex Urban Site. Cambridge, McDonald Institute Monographs, University of Cambridge.
Il paesaggio può essere definito come il prodotto, in continua trasformazione, dell'interazione d... more Il paesaggio può essere definito come il prodotto, in continua trasformazione, dell'interazione di fattori naturali ed antropici. Come possiamo leggerne la storia attraverso le tracce materiali giunte fino a noi? Come possiamo individuarne le componenti ambientali e culturali che ne determinano le caratteristiche peculiari? L'uomo organizza il territorio in aree di attività diverse, quali insediamenti, luoghi di culto, aree funerarie, aree produttive... Come ne possiamo leggere le mutue relazioni nel divenire diacronico? Partendo dal presupposto di una raccolta dati fatta con metodo e organicità, il testo cerca di dare una risposta a queste domande e di fornire esempi di letture analitiche ed interpretative dei paesaggi antichi del Mediterraneo.
Aim of the work is to illustrate a possible way of dealing with a regional landscape and its long... more Aim of the work is to illustrate a possible way of dealing with a regional landscape and its long-term settlement history based on the integration of archaeological data applying a GIS based approach to the social dimension of the landscape.
The large province area (ca 2,500 sqkm) of Boeotia (Central Greece) is examined by means of GIS (Geographical Information System), processing data from different archaeological, historical and environmental sources.
The methodology established, dealing jointly with material culture and environment, follows a critical comparative regional approach and opts for both region and micro-regions as the analytical unit. It aims mainly to assess landscape characters and the interface between human and social actions and landscape, by critically assessing, first of all, the available archaeological record constituted by diverse, variegate and often incoherent data sets. Main periods of interest are the historical periods from Archaic to Late Roman, while earlier (Neolithic to Geometric) and later periods are taken into account for the analysis and understanding of diachronical processes which took place at the micro-regional and regional level.
In the first part, the theoretical background and the methodological framework, on which the followed methodology of research is based, is illustrated. Special focus is given first to the research framework, discussing the approach to the regional archaeological landscape and the use of GIS in regional studies. Secondly, is the presentation of the methodology followed in the collection, recording and management of physical and archaeological/cultural data sets in the GIS system created for this work. A relational database has been implemented (in a Microsoft Access 2004 environment) in order to record the archaeological information avalable, and it has then been included into the GIS system, realized in a ArcGIS 8.1 environment.
The main part starts with the description of the Boeotian landscape and its geographical sub-regions followed by an exame of the state of archaeological research as for the region. It follows the presentation of the archaeological record available for the individual chorai/micro-regions of Boeotia, after which aspects of the landscape and settlement of each chora are discussed in details, and micro-region and micro-landscape trends are individuated. The marked territorial character of the ancient Greek polis requires a detailed examination of the different landscape issues each chora may present, and the separate treatment of each chora facilitates the analysis of the lower rank sites, mainly directly related to the city. Moreover, there are differences in intensity and quality of research in the various chorai affecting the available data and the knowledge of landscape and settlement history. A systematic analysis of the archaeological record is performed to produce aggregation into culturally meaningful entities, through info-critique processes and comparison of data sets, lead by the challenge of dealing with a heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data body.
From the examination of the landscape at the micro-regions and settlement chambers level in the chorai chapters, I move in the final chapter to some landscape trajectories at the regional scale under thematic units by means of GIS analysis, concerning the ancient socio-political and cultural landscape within the Boeotia region.
Throughout the entire work, I compare and analyse similarities and differences among micro-regions, as well as diachronical regional trends, using data that include the diverse types of data sets involved, such as physical landscape features, data sets deriving by computer modelling, archaeological information given by the topographical tradition, information from the intensive hovering of the landscape performed by systematic artefact surface survey, epigraphical evidence, and relevant historical sources. Analyses and comments give special focus on the association between landscape zones and activities, resulting in landscape character, on cultural landscape meanings, as well as on the settlement behaviors and community choices over the landscape.
One of the challenges of this work was to make the best use of the data sets available, setting up an environment within which heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data could be integrated in a meaningful way for the study of ancient landscape dynamics.
Different methods of enhancement have been used:
- Careful analysis and critical deconstruction and reconstruction of the archaeological record, as a way of monitoring metadata and constructing meaningful datasets, constituted by the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape.
- Integration with intensive survey results, which offer a more detailed picture of the anthropic use of the landscape through time. Integration primarily helped to provide a meaningful place in the landscape for known activity foci without a specific character, or for the few rural sites/activities discovered in more extensive research traditions. Sites previously floating in the landscape were now given a more meaningful interpretive context.
- Detailed analysis of aspects and levels of settlement and landscape use in the Graeco-Roman period, and comparison with earlier or later periods of landscape occupation (Prehistoric and Ottoman-Modern) in order to detect similarities and differences, and enhance significances.
- The choice to analyse relatively small micro-landscapes, focusing primarily on the micro-region (each polis chora). This primarily helped to perform a more careful reference to the quality of collected data. It also helped the detection of micro-landscape trends within each micro-region, such as the relationship between the main polis and second rank settlements, the meaning of minor activity foci, as well as the evaluation of the use of diverse landscape zones.
- Application of theoretical approaches, in particular the settlement chamber model, the community area theory and further implications, as a meaningful framework for the analysis of the available data sets and the long-term investigation of locational choices and physical and cultural characteristics of landscape zones and settlement chambers.
- Application of a land evaluation method for the definition of land capability. The results, together with the examination of other environmental variables, were used to evaluate the physical landscape characters of each chora landscape and therefore the agro-pastoral potential available for the polis territory, as well as to evaluate the character of less determined archaeological components (activity foci). This analytical framework also allowed qualitative evaluation of clearly defined and potential settlement chambers, and assisted in the process of their detection.
- Management of data within a GIS environment. The use of GIS helped the structured collection and management of the archaeological data, allowing for the integration of cultural and environmental landscape factors, acting as a useful tool for the analysis and assessment of micro-regional and regional landscape trends.
This methodology of assessing, evaluating and analysing the available data proved to be useful in the analysis of Boeotian landscape trends. First of all, it helped in detecting micro-landscape dynamics and specific use of landscape areas, better evaluating the presence of known activity foci of more-or-less defined character within certain landscape zones.
Secondly, it proved useful in making the second rank settlements more visible, projecting windows in the landscape which would allow the second rank settlements to make their appearance. The second rank settlement level is otherwise somewhat neglected in regional studies in the area, as less clear and visible in comparison to first rank settlements (city centres/poleis) and to sites with a specific function (such as a cult place or necropolis).
Thirdly, a local level of analysis, resulting in landscape biographies of the various chorai, was integrated into a broad regional perspective. This allowed evaluation of historical patterns in terms of landscape settling in the region of Boeotia, detecting foci in the landscape around which settlement chambers would form, and exploring cultural choices over the regional landscape.
The volume is completed by some appendices: the analytical description of the archaeological evidence known for the region structured according to the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape; a qualitative geographical description of Boeotian landscape sub-regions.
Papers by Emeri Farinetti
Farinetti, E., Avgerinou, P. (2023). WeMALP (Western Megaris Archaeological Landscape Project): t... more Farinetti, E., Avgerinou, P. (2023). WeMALP (Western Megaris Archaeological Landscape Project): the 2022-2023 campaigns. ANNUARIO DELLA SCUOLA ARCHEOLOGICA DI ATENE E DELLE MISSIONI ITALIANE IN ORIENTE, 101, 809-838.
Journal of Greek Archaeology
The existence of openings in the city wall determines the very essence of the city: gates are bot... more The existence of openings in the city wall determines the very essence of the city: gates are both the weakest and the strongest spots of a town, and they form the connection with the outside world, affecting the character of the inner space. In this volume, the description itself of the city of New Halos, the examination of its urban layout and its surroundings, moves towards, and at the same time culminates in, the detailed description of one of its gates, the Southeast Gate, systematically excavated during the period 1995-2006.
In this contribution, we present an attempt to approach the past landscape of the Lavrion area, c... more In this contribution, we present an attempt to approach the past landscape of the Lavrion area, considering inscriptions dated to the 4th cent. BCE, recording the leases of the mines by the Athenian polity to individuals (the poletae record), as mental maps. The research aim is threefold: first, to reconstruct a flexible set of abstract mental maps, beyond a defined geometric space, in order to explore the network of spatial relationships defined in the epigraphical record and the social and economic meanings involved; second, to develop a methodology for the production of an "intermediate" map, spatially and geometrically correct, which transforms the mental map into an intra-referential map; third, final goal is to proceed to a reconstruction (insofar it is possible) of the landscape and the topographical layout of the area as in the 4th cent. BCE.
In the Copais area the history of the landscape can be seen as strongly marked by the presence of... more In the Copais area the history of the landscape can be seen as strongly marked by the presence of the large marshy lake until its total drainage at the end of the 19th century. In this article the water behaviour of the Copais basin will be described and the results of the digital modelling of the water level fluctuations will be presented. The reconstruction of the lake/marsh behavior, source of a parallel economy as of disease, would help to better interpret and evaluate the available archaeological record and would throw light on the relationship between human settlement and communities and the wet environment. For this purpose, a dynamic digital reconstruction of the lake fluctuations has been implemented, combining the results of the work of the German team lead by the ingeneer J. Knauss and the Munich University équipe, the geomorphological and palaeoenvironmental studies carried out on the area, the examination of aerial photographs and the known archaeological evidence and historical data.
Constructions of Greek Past, 2003
BAR International Series 3160, 2024
BAR International Series 3160, 2024
Marginality has proved to be a relative issue, and intensive and systematic archaeological surfac... more Marginality has proved to be a relative issue, and intensive and systematic archaeological surface surveys are often able to enhance hidden landscapes and bring whole regions or microregions back to the main historical narrative. The Cicolano Survey research project aims at the reconstruction of the long-term human settling in the upland area gravitating around the Corvaro plain, within the wider Cicolano region, with particular interest in the diachronic man-environment interaction, for the human eco-dynamics, for past land-use, for rural landscape transformations and the movement in the area, linked to transhumance routes. In four field seasons intensive and systematic artefact surface surveys were carried out in sampling areas of the plain as well as on the surrounding mountain areas. Systematic research was also carried out on the Frontino hill, a long-life fortified defensive high spot overlooking the upland Corvaro plain. Survey results offer a previously unknown picture of an extensively occupied landscape in the Roman period, when the upland people inhabiting the Cicolano, never fully Romanised in a political sense, made their strong archaeological appearance showing a dispersed settlement pattern, which follows the less clearly visible lines of the pre-Roman period landscape.
Archeostorie. Journal of Public Archaeology, 2021
This paper intends to explore issues related to rural landscapes as a common good and the signifi... more This paper intends to explore issues related to rural landscapes as a common good and the significance of the micro-regional or community scale in terms of their great potential to increase awareness of historical narratives, values and meanings, on the basis of which heritage communities may be built.
In order to achieve this, we will trace a history of European actions to preserve historic landscapes. By identifying the specific character of Mediterranean rural landscapes, we will illustrate possible strategies for virtuous community engagement with the historical environment and trace the interface forms between landscape archaeology and contemporary society, providing examples from case studies in Italy and Greece. The strategies proposed here focus in particular on the significance of the community scale, the traditional rural past and ethnoarchaeological paths of co-production of knowledge, as well as the assignment of cultural meanings to environmental features.
Fold&R survey, 2023
The Monti Lucretili Landscape Project (MoLuLaP) aims to reconstruct the long-term landscape histo... more The Monti Lucretili Landscape Project (MoLuLaP) aims to reconstruct the long-term landscape history of a mountainous area
northeast of Tivoli (Latium, Italy), included in the Monti Lucretili Regional Natural Park. One of the main aims of the research
project is to look at the changing patterns of economic activity that have affected the landscape over time, such as agricultural
exploitation, pastoralism, and transhumance practices, and their effects on the environment and on the settlement pattern.
The first archaeological survey campaigns between 2020 and 2022 focused on the Montefalco castle, one of several deserted
medieval castles in the area, and the surrounding landscape, and were conducted by the Department of Humanities of the
University of Roma Tre. The fortified villages formed a network of highly nucleated fortified centres, each controlling and
exploiting a well-defined micro-region within the wider area, which are selected as optimal sample research units to be
investigated in the long-term.
The paper aims to broaden the discussion about the integrated use of archaeology and computer app... more The paper aims to broaden the discussion about the integrated use of archaeology and computer applications, bringing into focus the potential of historical data in the GIS based studies. We particularly explore possible ways of processing historical information (such as population and agricultural production data) bringing them into the GIS system as constitutive factors of analysis, in addition to the commonly used environmental data. As a case study we examine historical sources (Ottoman Imperial Archives) available for the history of Boeotia (central Greece). The paper addresses methodological questions about ways of structuring and managing those historical sets of data. At the alphanumeric level the diverse data-sets are structured and gathered into a database. Accordingly, at the graphic level all the recorded information are given a spatial character and spatial features are attached to them. The medieval and post-medieval data on population and economic production of the pro...
3rd Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA-GR) Conference, 2018, 2019
The paper presents the methodological guide-lines and the very preliminary phases of a GIS-based ... more The paper presents the methodological guide-lines and the very preliminary phases of a GIS-based project
carried out at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens, with the main aim to explore the Athens of Pausanias,
by reconstructing the urban pathways which the ancient traveller chose to walk and to describe, the monuments
that he saw standing and the built environment he crossed over. The project applies the GIS platform used for the
reconstruction and analyses of the urban context of Rome (implemented by a La Sapienza University team to
analyse the development of the city from the 9th C BC to the 6th C AD), modifying it according to the peculiar
urban characteristics of Athens. It is part of the wider attempt to build up a GIS platform devoted to Roman
Athens, aiming at the reconstruction of the ancient city layout and at the analyses on spatial and social
relationships within it. The specific goal of the project presented here (led by Emeri Farinetti and Maria Chiara
Monaco) is to explore Pausanias’ Athens through the traveler’s eyes, approaching this way a twofold research
perspective: the reconstruction of the urban plan and the layout of the monuments of the city in the Hadrian
period, as well as the ideal approaching to the ancient traveler’s mental map, employing both the legacy data he
left us and the archaeological record available.
Annuario della Scuola Italiana di Atene, vol.99.1, 2021
Collection of papers edited by E. Farinetti
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Books by Emeri Farinetti
Attraverso casi di studio che vedono l’applicazione delle diverse metodologie proprie di ciascuna disciplina, il volume vuole stimolare un dibattito sulle metodologie di ricerca ma soprattutto sui maggiori temi storiografici che hanno toccato quest’area dei dintorni di Roma, legati alla trasformazione del paesaggio e ai cambiamenti delle forme insediative nelle diverse epoche, con un focus particolare sul periodo medievale. Inoltre, il libro propone ai ricercatori che si occupano di archeologia montana e rurale un caso di studio confrontabile con altri contesti mediterranei indagati nella prospettiva della longue durée.
The volume collects the first results of the “Monti Lucretili Landscape Project”, as presented during the meeting held at Roma Tre University (November 8, 2022).
The large province area (ca 2,500 sqkm) of Boeotia (Central Greece) is examined by means of GIS (Geographical Information System), processing data from different archaeological, historical and environmental sources.
The methodology established, dealing jointly with material culture and environment, follows a critical comparative regional approach and opts for both region and micro-regions as the analytical unit. It aims mainly to assess landscape characters and the interface between human and social actions and landscape, by critically assessing, first of all, the available archaeological record constituted by diverse, variegate and often incoherent data sets. Main periods of interest are the historical periods from Archaic to Late Roman, while earlier (Neolithic to Geometric) and later periods are taken into account for the analysis and understanding of diachronical processes which took place at the micro-regional and regional level.
In the first part, the theoretical background and the methodological framework, on which the followed methodology of research is based, is illustrated. Special focus is given first to the research framework, discussing the approach to the regional archaeological landscape and the use of GIS in regional studies. Secondly, is the presentation of the methodology followed in the collection, recording and management of physical and archaeological/cultural data sets in the GIS system created for this work. A relational database has been implemented (in a Microsoft Access 2004 environment) in order to record the archaeological information avalable, and it has then been included into the GIS system, realized in a ArcGIS 8.1 environment.
The main part starts with the description of the Boeotian landscape and its geographical sub-regions followed by an exame of the state of archaeological research as for the region. It follows the presentation of the archaeological record available for the individual chorai/micro-regions of Boeotia, after which aspects of the landscape and settlement of each chora are discussed in details, and micro-region and micro-landscape trends are individuated. The marked territorial character of the ancient Greek polis requires a detailed examination of the different landscape issues each chora may present, and the separate treatment of each chora facilitates the analysis of the lower rank sites, mainly directly related to the city. Moreover, there are differences in intensity and quality of research in the various chorai affecting the available data and the knowledge of landscape and settlement history. A systematic analysis of the archaeological record is performed to produce aggregation into culturally meaningful entities, through info-critique processes and comparison of data sets, lead by the challenge of dealing with a heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data body.
From the examination of the landscape at the micro-regions and settlement chambers level in the chorai chapters, I move in the final chapter to some landscape trajectories at the regional scale under thematic units by means of GIS analysis, concerning the ancient socio-political and cultural landscape within the Boeotia region.
Throughout the entire work, I compare and analyse similarities and differences among micro-regions, as well as diachronical regional trends, using data that include the diverse types of data sets involved, such as physical landscape features, data sets deriving by computer modelling, archaeological information given by the topographical tradition, information from the intensive hovering of the landscape performed by systematic artefact surface survey, epigraphical evidence, and relevant historical sources. Analyses and comments give special focus on the association between landscape zones and activities, resulting in landscape character, on cultural landscape meanings, as well as on the settlement behaviors and community choices over the landscape.
One of the challenges of this work was to make the best use of the data sets available, setting up an environment within which heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data could be integrated in a meaningful way for the study of ancient landscape dynamics.
Different methods of enhancement have been used:
- Careful analysis and critical deconstruction and reconstruction of the archaeological record, as a way of monitoring metadata and constructing meaningful datasets, constituted by the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape.
- Integration with intensive survey results, which offer a more detailed picture of the anthropic use of the landscape through time. Integration primarily helped to provide a meaningful place in the landscape for known activity foci without a specific character, or for the few rural sites/activities discovered in more extensive research traditions. Sites previously floating in the landscape were now given a more meaningful interpretive context.
- Detailed analysis of aspects and levels of settlement and landscape use in the Graeco-Roman period, and comparison with earlier or later periods of landscape occupation (Prehistoric and Ottoman-Modern) in order to detect similarities and differences, and enhance significances.
- The choice to analyse relatively small micro-landscapes, focusing primarily on the micro-region (each polis chora). This primarily helped to perform a more careful reference to the quality of collected data. It also helped the detection of micro-landscape trends within each micro-region, such as the relationship between the main polis and second rank settlements, the meaning of minor activity foci, as well as the evaluation of the use of diverse landscape zones.
- Application of theoretical approaches, in particular the settlement chamber model, the community area theory and further implications, as a meaningful framework for the analysis of the available data sets and the long-term investigation of locational choices and physical and cultural characteristics of landscape zones and settlement chambers.
- Application of a land evaluation method for the definition of land capability. The results, together with the examination of other environmental variables, were used to evaluate the physical landscape characters of each chora landscape and therefore the agro-pastoral potential available for the polis territory, as well as to evaluate the character of less determined archaeological components (activity foci). This analytical framework also allowed qualitative evaluation of clearly defined and potential settlement chambers, and assisted in the process of their detection.
- Management of data within a GIS environment. The use of GIS helped the structured collection and management of the archaeological data, allowing for the integration of cultural and environmental landscape factors, acting as a useful tool for the analysis and assessment of micro-regional and regional landscape trends.
This methodology of assessing, evaluating and analysing the available data proved to be useful in the analysis of Boeotian landscape trends. First of all, it helped in detecting micro-landscape dynamics and specific use of landscape areas, better evaluating the presence of known activity foci of more-or-less defined character within certain landscape zones.
Secondly, it proved useful in making the second rank settlements more visible, projecting windows in the landscape which would allow the second rank settlements to make their appearance. The second rank settlement level is otherwise somewhat neglected in regional studies in the area, as less clear and visible in comparison to first rank settlements (city centres/poleis) and to sites with a specific function (such as a cult place or necropolis).
Thirdly, a local level of analysis, resulting in landscape biographies of the various chorai, was integrated into a broad regional perspective. This allowed evaluation of historical patterns in terms of landscape settling in the region of Boeotia, detecting foci in the landscape around which settlement chambers would form, and exploring cultural choices over the regional landscape.
The volume is completed by some appendices: the analytical description of the archaeological evidence known for the region structured according to the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape; a qualitative geographical description of Boeotian landscape sub-regions.
Papers by Emeri Farinetti
In order to achieve this, we will trace a history of European actions to preserve historic landscapes. By identifying the specific character of Mediterranean rural landscapes, we will illustrate possible strategies for virtuous community engagement with the historical environment and trace the interface forms between landscape archaeology and contemporary society, providing examples from case studies in Italy and Greece. The strategies proposed here focus in particular on the significance of the community scale, the traditional rural past and ethnoarchaeological paths of co-production of knowledge, as well as the assignment of cultural meanings to environmental features.
northeast of Tivoli (Latium, Italy), included in the Monti Lucretili Regional Natural Park. One of the main aims of the research
project is to look at the changing patterns of economic activity that have affected the landscape over time, such as agricultural
exploitation, pastoralism, and transhumance practices, and their effects on the environment and on the settlement pattern.
The first archaeological survey campaigns between 2020 and 2022 focused on the Montefalco castle, one of several deserted
medieval castles in the area, and the surrounding landscape, and were conducted by the Department of Humanities of the
University of Roma Tre. The fortified villages formed a network of highly nucleated fortified centres, each controlling and
exploiting a well-defined micro-region within the wider area, which are selected as optimal sample research units to be
investigated in the long-term.
carried out at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens, with the main aim to explore the Athens of Pausanias,
by reconstructing the urban pathways which the ancient traveller chose to walk and to describe, the monuments
that he saw standing and the built environment he crossed over. The project applies the GIS platform used for the
reconstruction and analyses of the urban context of Rome (implemented by a La Sapienza University team to
analyse the development of the city from the 9th C BC to the 6th C AD), modifying it according to the peculiar
urban characteristics of Athens. It is part of the wider attempt to build up a GIS platform devoted to Roman
Athens, aiming at the reconstruction of the ancient city layout and at the analyses on spatial and social
relationships within it. The specific goal of the project presented here (led by Emeri Farinetti and Maria Chiara
Monaco) is to explore Pausanias’ Athens through the traveler’s eyes, approaching this way a twofold research
perspective: the reconstruction of the urban plan and the layout of the monuments of the city in the Hadrian
period, as well as the ideal approaching to the ancient traveler’s mental map, employing both the legacy data he
left us and the archaeological record available.
Attraverso casi di studio che vedono l’applicazione delle diverse metodologie proprie di ciascuna disciplina, il volume vuole stimolare un dibattito sulle metodologie di ricerca ma soprattutto sui maggiori temi storiografici che hanno toccato quest’area dei dintorni di Roma, legati alla trasformazione del paesaggio e ai cambiamenti delle forme insediative nelle diverse epoche, con un focus particolare sul periodo medievale. Inoltre, il libro propone ai ricercatori che si occupano di archeologia montana e rurale un caso di studio confrontabile con altri contesti mediterranei indagati nella prospettiva della longue durée.
The volume collects the first results of the “Monti Lucretili Landscape Project”, as presented during the meeting held at Roma Tre University (November 8, 2022).
The large province area (ca 2,500 sqkm) of Boeotia (Central Greece) is examined by means of GIS (Geographical Information System), processing data from different archaeological, historical and environmental sources.
The methodology established, dealing jointly with material culture and environment, follows a critical comparative regional approach and opts for both region and micro-regions as the analytical unit. It aims mainly to assess landscape characters and the interface between human and social actions and landscape, by critically assessing, first of all, the available archaeological record constituted by diverse, variegate and often incoherent data sets. Main periods of interest are the historical periods from Archaic to Late Roman, while earlier (Neolithic to Geometric) and later periods are taken into account for the analysis and understanding of diachronical processes which took place at the micro-regional and regional level.
In the first part, the theoretical background and the methodological framework, on which the followed methodology of research is based, is illustrated. Special focus is given first to the research framework, discussing the approach to the regional archaeological landscape and the use of GIS in regional studies. Secondly, is the presentation of the methodology followed in the collection, recording and management of physical and archaeological/cultural data sets in the GIS system created for this work. A relational database has been implemented (in a Microsoft Access 2004 environment) in order to record the archaeological information avalable, and it has then been included into the GIS system, realized in a ArcGIS 8.1 environment.
The main part starts with the description of the Boeotian landscape and its geographical sub-regions followed by an exame of the state of archaeological research as for the region. It follows the presentation of the archaeological record available for the individual chorai/micro-regions of Boeotia, after which aspects of the landscape and settlement of each chora are discussed in details, and micro-region and micro-landscape trends are individuated. The marked territorial character of the ancient Greek polis requires a detailed examination of the different landscape issues each chora may present, and the separate treatment of each chora facilitates the analysis of the lower rank sites, mainly directly related to the city. Moreover, there are differences in intensity and quality of research in the various chorai affecting the available data and the knowledge of landscape and settlement history. A systematic analysis of the archaeological record is performed to produce aggregation into culturally meaningful entities, through info-critique processes and comparison of data sets, lead by the challenge of dealing with a heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data body.
From the examination of the landscape at the micro-regions and settlement chambers level in the chorai chapters, I move in the final chapter to some landscape trajectories at the regional scale under thematic units by means of GIS analysis, concerning the ancient socio-political and cultural landscape within the Boeotia region.
Throughout the entire work, I compare and analyse similarities and differences among micro-regions, as well as diachronical regional trends, using data that include the diverse types of data sets involved, such as physical landscape features, data sets deriving by computer modelling, archaeological information given by the topographical tradition, information from the intensive hovering of the landscape performed by systematic artefact surface survey, epigraphical evidence, and relevant historical sources. Analyses and comments give special focus on the association between landscape zones and activities, resulting in landscape character, on cultural landscape meanings, as well as on the settlement behaviors and community choices over the landscape.
One of the challenges of this work was to make the best use of the data sets available, setting up an environment within which heterogeneous, poor, incoherent and spatio-temporally incomplete data could be integrated in a meaningful way for the study of ancient landscape dynamics.
Different methods of enhancement have been used:
- Careful analysis and critical deconstruction and reconstruction of the archaeological record, as a way of monitoring metadata and constructing meaningful datasets, constituted by the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape.
- Integration with intensive survey results, which offer a more detailed picture of the anthropic use of the landscape through time. Integration primarily helped to provide a meaningful place in the landscape for known activity foci without a specific character, or for the few rural sites/activities discovered in more extensive research traditions. Sites previously floating in the landscape were now given a more meaningful interpretive context.
- Detailed analysis of aspects and levels of settlement and landscape use in the Graeco-Roman period, and comparison with earlier or later periods of landscape occupation (Prehistoric and Ottoman-Modern) in order to detect similarities and differences, and enhance significances.
- The choice to analyse relatively small micro-landscapes, focusing primarily on the micro-region (each polis chora). This primarily helped to perform a more careful reference to the quality of collected data. It also helped the detection of micro-landscape trends within each micro-region, such as the relationship between the main polis and second rank settlements, the meaning of minor activity foci, as well as the evaluation of the use of diverse landscape zones.
- Application of theoretical approaches, in particular the settlement chamber model, the community area theory and further implications, as a meaningful framework for the analysis of the available data sets and the long-term investigation of locational choices and physical and cultural characteristics of landscape zones and settlement chambers.
- Application of a land evaluation method for the definition of land capability. The results, together with the examination of other environmental variables, were used to evaluate the physical landscape characters of each chora landscape and therefore the agro-pastoral potential available for the polis territory, as well as to evaluate the character of less determined archaeological components (activity foci). This analytical framework also allowed qualitative evaluation of clearly defined and potential settlement chambers, and assisted in the process of their detection.
- Management of data within a GIS environment. The use of GIS helped the structured collection and management of the archaeological data, allowing for the integration of cultural and environmental landscape factors, acting as a useful tool for the analysis and assessment of micro-regional and regional landscape trends.
This methodology of assessing, evaluating and analysing the available data proved to be useful in the analysis of Boeotian landscape trends. First of all, it helped in detecting micro-landscape dynamics and specific use of landscape areas, better evaluating the presence of known activity foci of more-or-less defined character within certain landscape zones.
Secondly, it proved useful in making the second rank settlements more visible, projecting windows in the landscape which would allow the second rank settlements to make their appearance. The second rank settlement level is otherwise somewhat neglected in regional studies in the area, as less clear and visible in comparison to first rank settlements (city centres/poleis) and to sites with a specific function (such as a cult place or necropolis).
Thirdly, a local level of analysis, resulting in landscape biographies of the various chorai, was integrated into a broad regional perspective. This allowed evaluation of historical patterns in terms of landscape settling in the region of Boeotia, detecting foci in the landscape around which settlement chambers would form, and exploring cultural choices over the regional landscape.
The volume is completed by some appendices: the analytical description of the archaeological evidence known for the region structured according to the enucleated components of the archaeological landscape; a qualitative geographical description of Boeotian landscape sub-regions.
In order to achieve this, we will trace a history of European actions to preserve historic landscapes. By identifying the specific character of Mediterranean rural landscapes, we will illustrate possible strategies for virtuous community engagement with the historical environment and trace the interface forms between landscape archaeology and contemporary society, providing examples from case studies in Italy and Greece. The strategies proposed here focus in particular on the significance of the community scale, the traditional rural past and ethnoarchaeological paths of co-production of knowledge, as well as the assignment of cultural meanings to environmental features.
northeast of Tivoli (Latium, Italy), included in the Monti Lucretili Regional Natural Park. One of the main aims of the research
project is to look at the changing patterns of economic activity that have affected the landscape over time, such as agricultural
exploitation, pastoralism, and transhumance practices, and their effects on the environment and on the settlement pattern.
The first archaeological survey campaigns between 2020 and 2022 focused on the Montefalco castle, one of several deserted
medieval castles in the area, and the surrounding landscape, and were conducted by the Department of Humanities of the
University of Roma Tre. The fortified villages formed a network of highly nucleated fortified centres, each controlling and
exploiting a well-defined micro-region within the wider area, which are selected as optimal sample research units to be
investigated in the long-term.
carried out at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens, with the main aim to explore the Athens of Pausanias,
by reconstructing the urban pathways which the ancient traveller chose to walk and to describe, the monuments
that he saw standing and the built environment he crossed over. The project applies the GIS platform used for the
reconstruction and analyses of the urban context of Rome (implemented by a La Sapienza University team to
analyse the development of the city from the 9th C BC to the 6th C AD), modifying it according to the peculiar
urban characteristics of Athens. It is part of the wider attempt to build up a GIS platform devoted to Roman
Athens, aiming at the reconstruction of the ancient city layout and at the analyses on spatial and social
relationships within it. The specific goal of the project presented here (led by Emeri Farinetti and Maria Chiara
Monaco) is to explore Pausanias’ Athens through the traveler’s eyes, approaching this way a twofold research
perspective: the reconstruction of the urban plan and the layout of the monuments of the city in the Hadrian
period, as well as the ideal approaching to the ancient traveler’s mental map, employing both the legacy data he
left us and the archaeological record available.
Paesaggi dell'Etruria romana
29 - 30 Giugno 2018
Comitato scientifico
Richard Hodges - American University of Rome
Daniele Manacorda - Università Roma Tre
Carolina Megale - Università di Firenze
Riccardo Rao - Università di Bergamo
Alessandro Sebastiani - University at Buffalo (SUNY)
MediTo è organizzato in collaborazione con l’Associazione culturale Past in Progress e con il patrocinio di:
Comune di Civitella Paganico
Centro Studi Città e Territorio
Ass. Cult. Past in Progress
Department of Classics - University at Buffalo (SUNY)
IEMA Institute of European and Mediterranean Archaeology (University at Buffalo)
American University of Rome
"Local responses to the Roman impact on the Greek landscape Italian Archaeological School at Athens"
11.10.2019, 'Doro Levi Lecture Hall', odos Parthenonos 14, 11742
9:30 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.
The workshop is organised by the Italian Archaeological School at Athens in the framework of the research project “Roman landscapes of Greece” conducted at the University of RomaTre (P.I. Dr. Emeri FARINETTI) and funded by the Rita Levi Montalcini Programme - MIUR (Italian Ministry of University and Research).
PROGRAMME
10:00-10:20 Workshop opening. Emeri Farinetti
10:30-10:50 Vasilis Evaggelidis. The impact of Rome on the landscape of Aegean Thrace: an archaeological approach
11:00-11:20 Francesco Gioacchino La Torre, Sophia Karapanou, Vassiliki Noula. Skotoussa after the battle of Kynoskephales (197 BC)
11:30-11:50 Philip Bes. A rising tide lifts all boats? Late Republican and Early Imperial Italian pottery from Boeotia in the Central Greek Landscape
12:00-12:20 Coffee break
12:20-12:40 Amedeo Rossi. The city and the chora of Festos in the Early Roman period
12:50-13:10 Michalis Karambinis. The cities of Roman Greece: a quan- tification
13:20-13:40 Kyriakos Loulakoudis. Archeological Evidence of wine and oil production in agricultural complexes of South Roman Greece
13:40-14:45 Lunch break
14:45-15:05 Anton Bonnier. Human-environment dynamics and (micro)regional landscape trajectories in the Hellenistic and Roman Peloponnese
15:15-16:05 Yannis Lolos. Sikyon during the ‘interim period’: literary tradition and material record
16:15-16:30 Coffee break
16:30-16:50 David Gilman Romano. Some considerations of the land between Corinth and Sikyon during the II and I centuries B.C.E.
17:00-17:45 Round-table. Coordinated by Athanasios Rizakis