1,721,013 research outputs found
I segni delle trasformazioni del paesaggio antico tra città e campagna
No full textUrban landscapes constitute part of the diverse landscapes of the past. Archaeological elements and past features included in the contemporary urban context (city-scape) have to be read as signs of the past landscape life, and therefore as traces of the environmental and anthropic transformations which constitute the peculiar history of the landscape. Archaeological features, either monuments or documents, are anthropical material signs, which in the past landscapes constituted either alive components or abandoned or reused features. As they represent the material traces useful to reconstruct landscape history, archaeological evidence must be included in the diverse historical contexts and archaeological features must be spatially linked to each other and to other landscape elements.
The area of Rome examined in this paper is constituted by diverse landscapes. The history of its landscape character is marked by physical and cultural features referring alternatively to city and countryside contexts. During time Via Ostiense and its surroundings shifted from a suburban area outside the city wall, marked by a character of open rural countryside crossed by the Tiber river, to an area which within a few decades was more or less urbanised. The available archaeological evidence should be read within this twofold and continuously changing context of fluctuating boundaries between city and countryside
Cicolano Survey 2011. Il paesaggio d’altura attorno alla piana di Corvaro (Rieti)
No full textNel giugno-luglio 2011 si è svolta la quarta campagna di ricognizioni archeologiche nell’area del Cicolano (Corvaro-Borgorose), dopo la positiva esperienza dei lavori condotti nell’estate 2005 e nel settembre 2008 e 2009. Il progetto di ricerca ha come scopo la ricostruzione dell’occupazione diacronica dell’area, con particolare interesse ai processi di interazione uomo-ambiente nel lungo termine, alle eco-dinamiche umane, ed alla mobilità nell’area, legata anche al passaggio di importanti vie di transumanza. Nelle campagne precedenti la ricerca si è basata principalmente su ricognizioni intensivo-sistematiche nella piana, mentre la campagna del 2011 è stata dedicata allo studio delle aree d’altura circostanti la piana di Corvaro, attraverso ricognizioni estensive e di dettaglio sui siti rintracciati. In particolare, sul sito di Monte Frontino, uno degli avamposti difensivi del paesaggio di quest’area. Sono state registrate le presenze ceramiche e quelle strutturali, esaminando il monte versante per versante. Esso, già conosciuto come oppidum fortificato di età arcaica, ha rivelato la presenza di una rocca medievale, e di presenze di età romana, nonché di strutture più recenti legate ad attività pastorali.In the summer 2011 the fourth season of archaeological survey in the Cicolano area (Corvaro-Borgorose) was carried out, following the previous campaigns (2005-2008-2009). The Cicolano Survey research project aims to the reconstruction of the human settling in the area in the long term, with special interest to the diachronic man-environment interaction, to the human eco-dynamics, and to the movement in the area, linked to transhumance routes. In the previous field seasons, artefact surface surveys were carried out in the plain, while in 2011 fieldwork focussed on the mountain areas around the plain, and in particular on Frontino hill, a fortified defensive high spot. Pottery and structures were recorded carefully, on the top and the slopes. The hill, yet known as fortified Archaic oppidum, revealed the presence of a Medieval fort and traces of activities in the Roman period, as long as recent structures linked to pastoralism
The use of new technologies for the documentation and study of the historical landscape: A case study of the island of Therasia
No full textConsiderazioni sull’approccio al paesaggio antico attraverso l’esame delle fotografie aeree: il caso della piana di Corvaro nel Cicolano
No full textThe work presented in this paper constitutes part of a wider research on the historic landscape of the Corvaro plain within the wider Cicolano region (Cicolano Survey project), and aims at offering insights on the diachronical relationship between men and environment through the application of an integrated methodology involving both landscape archaeology and the analysis of aerial photographs. The investigation, still at its initial stage, focuses on the cultural and geomorphological changes in the area and is based on the reconnaissance on air photographs of human and natural marks that past histories left on the landscape. The interpretation of the visible anomalies was carried out following a multi-temporal approach through a comparison of rectified aerial photographs from different periods (mainly 1954 – 1955, 1970, 2000) in a GIS environment. In particular, a critical change in the landscape is marked by the construction of the highway A24 in the 1960s. Anomalies were checked on the ground and jointly analysed as much as possible with the archaeological data available and with geomorphological and geoarchaeological investigations, giving interesting insights especially on the paleo-hydrography of the karstic area. In addition, the examination of available historical maps, analysed jointly with the air photographs, gave information on the more recent history of the area and on toponomastic trends. Moreover, the resulting interpretative datasets were analysed jointly with the results from the intensive and systematic artefact surface survey conducted in the area since 2005, offering an heuristic environment for both a critical examination of the archaeological record and a contextualised interpretation of located sites and detected uses of the landscape. INGLESE El trabajo presentado por este articulo es parte de una investigación más amplia sobre el paisaje histórico de la llanura Corvaro dentro de la región de el Cicolano (proyecto Cicolano Survey), y tiene como objetivo ofrecer ideas sobre la relación diacrónica entre el hombre y el ambiente mediante la aplicación de un sistema integrado de metodología que implica tanto la arqueología del paisaje y el análisis de fotografías aéreas. La investigación, todavía en sus etapas iniciales, se centra en los cambios culturales y geomorfológicas de la zona y se basa en el reconocimiento de fotografías aéreas de la pasada historia humana y natural que las marcas dejadas en el paisaje. La interpretación de las anomalías visibles se realizó siguiendo un enfoque multi-temporal a través de una comparación de fotografías aéreas rectificadas de diferentes épocas (sobre todo desde 1954 hasta 1955, 1970, 2000) en un ambiente GIS. En particular, un cambio fundamental en el paisaje está marcado por la construcción de la autopista A24, en la década de 1960. Las anomalías se comprobaron sobre el terreno y analizar conjuntamente la medida de lo posible con los datos arqueológicos disponibles y con las investigaciones geomorfológicas y geoarqueológicas, que ofrecerá una visión interesante sobre todo en la hidrografía paleo-kárstico de la zona. En las adiciones, el examen de las disponibles mapas históricos, fotografías analizadas conjuntamente con el aire, dio información sobre la historia reciente de las moras de la zona y sobre las tendencias toponomástica. Por otra parte, la interpretación que resulta conjuntos de datos fueron analizadas en conjunto con los resultados de la medicion sistemática y intensiva de superficie realizada en el área desde 2005, ofreciendo un ambiente para dos heurística para el examen crítico de los datos arqueológicos y una interpretación contextualizada de los sitios ubicados y detectados y las utilizaciones del paisaje
Challenging marginality: intensive field survey and long-term landscape analysis in an upland inter-mountain basin (Cicolano-Italy)
No full textMarginality 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 Cicolan o r egion, with particu la r inter est in t he diach ronic man-e nvironment 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 overlo oking 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 th ei r strong arc haeological appearance sho wing a disper se d settlement pattern, which follows the less clearly visible lines of the pre-Roman period landscape
The potential of GIS-based integrated analyses of environmental and archaeological data for research and archaeological heritage management purposes. The example of the geo-archaeological digital archive of Rome
No full textΟι ανθρώπινες δράσεις εγγράφονται στο τοπίο. Διαφορετικά είδη δραστηριοτήτων λαμβάνουν χώρα σε μία περιοχή στη διάρκεια του χρόνου, με διαφορετικά επίπεδα σχέσης και με μία σε μικρότερο ή μεγαλύτερο βαθμό ισχυρή σύνδεση με τα περιβαλλοντικά χαρακτηριστικά του τοπίου. Αυτή η αμφίδρομη σχέση πρέπει να εξεταστεί μέσω μιας κριτικής καταγραφής και παρουσίασης της αρχαιολογικής μαρτυρίας και των περιβαλλοντικών χαρακτηριστικών στο πλαίσιο μιας στρωματογραφίας. Στην ανακοίνωση παρουσιάζονται θεωρητικές και μεθοδολογικές αρχές για τη δημιουργία μιας ολοκληρωμένης ανάλυσης που ενσωματώνει διαφορετικά στοιχεία και αποσκοπεί σε μία δυναμική αναπαράσταση των ανθρωπογενών και φυσικών στοιχείων του τοπίου και της διατήρησής τους. Ως παράδειγμα παρουσιάζεται ένα ψηφιακό αρχείο χωρικών δεδομένων που στοχεύει στην καταγραφή, διαχείριση και ανάλυση γεωαρχαιολογικών δεδομένων, ενσωματωμένο σε ένα σύστημα Γεωγραφικών Συστημάτων Πληροφοριών (GIS) με εφαρμογή στην πόλη της Ρώμης.Human activities occur in the landscape. Different kinds of activities can take place in a single place over time with varying levels of association and in lesser or greater correlation with the environmental features in that landscape. This interrelation needs to be examined through a consistent and critical recording and mapping of archaeological evidence and environmental records, stratigraphically interpreted. In this paper, theoretical and methodological guidelines will be outlined for the performing of integrated analyses aiming at a dynamic reconstruction of the human and natural history of landscapes and their preservation. A digital spatial archive dedicated to the recording, management and analysis of geo-archaeological data integrated with a GIS system that was implemented for the city of Rome will be presented as an example
Roman landscapes of Greece. Issues on archaeological visibility and inter-regional variability
No full textThe quest for features of inter-regional variability, within a landscape with striking characters of uniformity, as the Greek landscape in the Roman period has been defined, in comparison to the variegated Italian landscape in the same period, was already one of the goals of S.Alcock’s research on Roman Greece (Graecia Capta 1993). The comment on landscape uniformity, as for Greece, was due mainly to the general persisting of the highest levels of nucleated settlements, and also to the general impression of a rural abandonment which would characterise the landscape of the early Empire, in comparison with earlier periods. In fact, while the initial shrinking in the rural landscape seems similar everywhere, explanation for this empty countryside may vary from region to region. It can be seen not absolute, but relative to the behaviour of the city sites, to the characteristics of the environment, to the extension and function of the sites themselves, to the property system.
Following those lines, it should be put an effort on establishing micro-regional and regional models aiming at separating the effects of local and regional factors from trends at the larger scale of the imperial economy.
The paper aims to set up a feasible research framework aiming at a critical revisit of the existing research, with the help of the most recent and updated data coming from the latest landscape research projects carried out in Greece, according to the newest methodologies and interdisciplinary research standards which would allow for a fruitful comparison of the results, such as surface density of potsherds, visibility issues, site classification, geomorphological mapping, land evaluation maps
Modelling Regional Landscape Through the Predictive and Postdictive Exploration of Settlement Choices: a Theoretical Framework
No full textThe paper illustrates the theoretical approaches to the regional landscape, which can interact, aiming at the modelling
and exploration of past landscape dynamics, in particular the settlement chamber model, the community area theory, and further implications, as well as the taskscape approach. The main goal is to set up a meaningful framework for both predictive modelling and postdictive analysis of the available datasets, aiming at the long-term investigation of location choices and physical and cultural characteristics of landscape zones and settlement chambers. The settlement dynamic approach applied for the definition of settlement chambers over the ancient Greek Boeotian landscape will be used for illustration purposes. It allows the detection of different areas with settlement potential in the long term, mainly by analysing the presence and location of known settlements in different periods
Investigating a vulcanic landscape: the archaeological surface survey in Therasia Island (2007-2011) and the preliminary results
No full textTHE EARLY AND MIDDLE BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT AT KOIMISIS, THERASIA: PERIODS OF HABITATION AND ARCHITECTURE
No full textThe study of the history of the first excavations on prehistoric Therasia in the nineteenth century, which were carried out in the
context of contemporary scientific interest in the volcanic eruptions of Santorini, has led to the systematic archaeological
investigation of the island from onwards. The intensive archaeological surface survey, the geological survey of the
geological structure and palaeotopography of Therasia, and geophysical investigations, undertaken in conjunction with the
ongoing excavation of the prehistoric settlement at the site of Panaghia Koimisis at the southern end of modern Therasia,
have created the conditions for a more comprehensive approach to the archaeological landscape of the island. Based on the
results from the excavation trenches in the south and south-east terraces of the Koimisis hill, which have been excavated
down to the virgin soil, we present findings on the organisation, architecture and habitation phases of the Koimisis
settlement. The site emerges as an important settlement located on the imposing hilltop rising on the west side of the preeruption
Santorini caldera in the Early Bronze Age, with a long period of habitation to the end of the Middle Cycladic
period, when it was definitively abandoned. The excavation of the settlement provides new information on its architecture
and spatial organisation during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, completing the picture from Akrotiri, whose early
phases are preserved in a piecemeal fashion under the buildings of the Late Cycladic town
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