WORLDVIL

A world of villages: dispersed settlement and colonial expansion in Central-Southern Italy under the Roman Republic (c. 4th-2nd centuries BC)

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'This project explores the role of non-urban settlements in Roman colonial expansion in the formative phase of the Roman empire (4th-2nd centuries BC). It challenges the traditional, urban model of Roman colonies by proposing instead a distinctive, non-urban settlement organization, within which clustered sites such as villages played key-roles. Detection and analysis of such settlements have until now been minimal due to scholarly biases. Investigating the non-urban nature of colonial settlement organization is therefore a major challenge for current scholarship, and constitutes a key step for advancing the field. With an innovative approach and applying state-of-the-art science-based methods, this project investigates the non-urban settlement organization of colonies and its alleged distinctiveness in comparison to native society. This is done by 1) analyzing existing archaeological datasets of early colonial territories and comparing them to contingent non-colonial areas and 2) targeted fieldwork in selected key-sites in Central-Southern Italy. To this end, use will be made of the non-intrusive techniques of intensive field-survey, remote sensing and geophysical prospection. The project has the potential to change current thinking on colonial contacts and the underlying power relations profoundly: it not only breaks down the present dichotomy between ‘Roman-urban’ and ‘native-non-urban’ models, but may ultimately lead us to rethink the common association of imperial success with urbanism. Embedding the project in the Department of Archaeology of the University of Glasgow enables the researcher to receive high-quality training in the application of the science-based prospection techniques. Moreover, the world-leading position of the Department in theoretical research on colonisation and colonialism in antiquity allows the researcher to position his research effectively in the current international debate on the origins of Western colonisation and colonialism.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Decentring urban centres of ancient Rome as the only place of societal and cultural development sheds new light on the traditional notion of Roman colonies.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Non-urban settlements during the time of Roman colonial expansion, namely the 4th to 2nd centuries BC, have until now not been widely identified and studied due to scholarly bias. Therefore, a major challenge presents itself for scholarship in this field today.

An innovative approach has been applied by the EU-funded WORLDVIL project to compare colonial settlement organisation with contemporary non-colonial control areas of the Roman Republic in central and southern Italy. Special emphasis was placed on non-urban settlements.

Through an intensive archaeological field survey and geophysical analysis, the project set out to examine a new concept of early Roman colonisation not based on an urban model. The team reviewed archaeological data of two colonial territories to systematically compare settlement patterns in two similar landscapes that were not colonised. The field surveys have led to the discovery of numerous previously unknown sites.

Based on promising results, an expansion of the project is planned for the future. A research group was created to target a much larger scope that expands to the regions of Molise and Basilicata. Results have been disseminated in Europe and the United States via presentations, reports and publications.