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BEYOND VAGNARI New themes in the Study of Roman South Italy Proceedings of a conference held in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, 26-28 October 2012 edited by Alastair M. Small
o f f p r i n t
Bari 2014
PASquAle FAVIA THe AlTA MuRGIA AND THe BASeNTellO VAlleY BeTWeeN lATe ANTIquITY AND THe eARlY MIDDle AGeS: TRANSFORMATION OF THe COuNTRYSIDe AND CHANGeS IN SeTTleMeNT IN INlAND CeNTRAl APulIA (Translated by Carola Small)
The excavations at Vagnari, combined with the surface survey in the Basentello valley, constitute at present the most up to date archaeological information on the dynamics of settlement in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages in the area of the Alta Murgia and the Basentello valley. 1 This region includes the high karst plateau which rises above the flat plain of the Terra di Bari and extends inland into lucania as far as the Fossa Bradanica while to the N it touches on the course of the Ofanto and to the S, the plain of Brindisi. This geographical district is now predominantly characterised by a steppe type vegetation adapted for pasture and by lands given over to the cultivation of grain. Vagnari, as the archaeological investigations have shown, retained in the late Antique period the characteristics of a vicus which it acquired in the first century AD, at the centre of a large imperial property, a saltus 2 which covered some 25 square km. The administrative and economic conditions of this area were therefore distinctive. Nevertheless it can be used as a term of reference for the general development of the district of the Murge in this period. The surveys in the Basentello valley show that there was a rise in the number of sites occupied in the 4th century compared with the preceding one. 3 This was 1 For the results of this project see A.M. Small (ed.), Vagnari. Il villaggio, l’artigianato, la proprietà imperiale / The village, the industries, the imperial property, Bari 2011. 2 On the saltus and the imperial estate see C.M. Small - A.M. Small, Defining an imperial estate: the environs of Vagnari in South Italy, in Papers in Italian Archaeology VI, Oxford 2005, vol. 2, 894-902; A.M. Small, Introduction, in Vagnari, 11-36, esp. 20-33. 3 For changes in settlement in the Basentello valley see C.M. Small - A.M. Small, Defining an imperial estate; P. Favia - R. Giuliani - A. Small - C. Small, La valle del Basentello e l’insediamento rurale di Vagnari in età tardoantica, in Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali, 193- 222, esp. 196-199.
beyond vagnari. new themes in the Study of Roman South Italy - ISbn 978-88-7228-726-2 - © 2014 edipuglia s.r.l. - www.edipuglia.it
Fig. 1. - Map of the sites referred to in the text.
apparently connected with an increase in agricultural land, particularly for the cultivation of cereals, and a change in the administration of the imperial property with a greater dependence on the colonate, phenomena which in their turn were linked to more widespread economic measures required by the need to provide grain for the annona 4 and the raising of taxes in kind. The area of the Murge nevertheless retained extensive spaces usable for pasture and forest. This tendency for a rise in the number of populated nuclei is echoed elsewhere in the area of Apulia and lucania, for example in the territory of Metaponto 5 and in the 4 On cereal production in the area of the Murge in the Roman and late Antique periods see A.M. Small, Grain from Apulia. The changing fortunes of Apulia as a grain-producing area in the Hellenistic and Roman Period, in M.-O. Jentel - G. Deschénes-Wagner (eds), Tranquillitas. Mélanges en l’honneur de Tran Tam Tinh, québec 1994, 543-555; on trade routes and the commerce in goods from the area of the Murge see A.M. Small, La Basilicata nell’Italia tardo-antica: ricerche archeologiche nella Valle del Basentello e a San Giovanni di Ruoti, in L’Italia meridionale in età tardoantica, Atti Taranto 38, Taranto 1999, I, 331-342 esp. 336-337. 5 In this area the rise in the number of populated sites seems to have begun already in the Middle empire. (J.C. Carter, Risorse agricole della costa ionica (Metaponto e Crotone), in Le ravitaillement en blé de Rome et des centres urbains des débuts de la République jusq’au Haut Empire, Napoli - Roma 1994, 177-196 at 192-193; A. De Siena - l. Giardino, Trasformazioni delle aree urbane e del paesaggio agrario in età romana nella Basilicata sudorientale, in e. lo Cascio - A. Storchi Marino (eds), Modalità insediative e strutture agrarie nell’Italia meridionale in età romana, Bari 2001, 129-167 esp. 160-162.
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lower Ofanto valley, 6 albeit with specific characteristics: in the areas bordering on the Alta Murgia, the population dynamics seem to have varied, oscillating between processes of selection within the pre-existing pattern of habitation 7 and cases of greater resistance by longer established settlements. 8 In every case however, the various options adopted seem to show an effort to organize the population and production and to adapt them to the changed territorial and social conditions. The indications that there was still substantial production in the countryside of the Murge and the surrounding area are reflected in an intentionally more varied organization of the nuclei of habitation, responding to a large number of residential and functional needs. In this respect the case of Vagnari has provided an important example: there, from the late 4th century onwards there is evidence for the expansion of the built areas, especially in the southern part, used particularly for substantial building blocks, intended both for habitation and for work. 9 These buildings were considerably altered in the late 5th century. The rebuilding was probably necessitated by a traumatic and unusual event such as an earthquake, but it still marks, in both construction and function, a new phase in the occupation of the site and a change in the ways in which the district around it was frequented. The constructions found during the excavation were partly brought back into use through a rebuilding which involved putting some parts out of operation, a reduction in the areas occupied and the conversion of some rooms into open spaces or shelters for the animals. Other cases of the reorganization of buildings involving functional changes to the existing plan are found in the other villas and villages known through archaeology in the surrounding area in Apulia and lucania. An example is at Calle di Tricarico where, in the interior of the villa around the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century a furnace was installed for the production of late Roman Painted Ware; 10 later in the first half of the 6th century a lime kiln was built in the neighbouring villa of Masseria Ciccotti within a former ceremonial area. 11 R. Goffredo, Aufidus. Storia, archeologia e paesaggi della valle dell’Ofanto, Bari 2011, 174-175. For the area of Venosa see M.l. Marchi - G. Sabbatini, Forma Italiae. Venusia, Firenze 1996; M.l. Marchi, Ager Venusinus. Ville e villaggi. Il paesaggio rurale in età tardoantica, in Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali, 173-191; M.l. Marchi, Forma Italiae 43. Ager Venusinus, II, Firenze 2010. 8 On the continuity of the villas of the upper Bradano valley and the formation of vici connected with them see. M. Gualtieri Il territorio della Basilicata Nord-Orientale, in L’Italia meridionale in età tardo antica, Atti Taranto 38, Taranto 1999, 368-390. 9 P. Favia - R. Giuliani - A. M. Small - H. vanderleest, Gli edifici nella parte meridionale del sito, in Vagnari, 143-229. 10 e. lattanzi, Tricarico. Necropoli romana di Calle, in D. Adamesteanu et alii, Il Museo Nazionale Ridola, di Matera, Matera 1976, 150; see also H. Di Giuseppe, Insediamenti rurali della Basilicata interna tra la romanizzazione e l’età tardo-antica. Materiali per una tipologia, in Epigrafia e territorio, IV, 189-252 at 221-222. 11 H. Fracchia, Il paesaggio rurale dell’Alto Bradano fra IV e V secolo d.C., in Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali, 133-134 at 142. 6 7
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The phenomenon of the partition and division of originally larger rooms which is found at vagnari is repeated in the interior of lucania at san Giovanni di Ruoti; there a long room adjacent to the apsidal praetorium erected around 460 was subdivided in about the middle of the 6th century into two smaller spaces by the construction of walls and floor surfaces in techniques much inferior in quality to the preceding ones. 12 The lucanian instances (combined with the data from vagnari) make it possible to compare the dynamics of activity on the apulian Murge in the 5th century and the first half of the 6th. The changes which took place undoubtedly indicate a simplification in the use of the spaces 13 and in the building techniques which reflect a reduction in certain standards of settlement: on the other hand, the ability to reformulate ideas of building can be seen as a sign of technical organization, economic potential and willingness to exploit the resources of the area; 14 this presupposes the existence of powerful and high-status figures 15 interested in, and equipped for, maintaining adequate conditions for settlement in many villas and villages and for carrying on structured productive and agro-pastoral activities. The examples of Calle and vagnari also provide evidence for the continuity, although in new forms, of pottery and tile works in the area. The interior of apulia and lucania remained fully part of the wide-reaching transport networks for goods and manufactures, at least throughout the 6th century, as is proved by the discovery of a not inconsiderable quantity of african and Oriental pottery in the Basentello valley. in this regard, the survival of the section of the via appia on the Murge (admittedly in a somewhat run down condition) ensured the continuation of outside contacts and the exchange of agricultural and manufactured goods. 16 another indication that human activity in this area during the 6th century was not lacking in organization is the foundation of certain sacred buildings in the district. The most significant is the building of the church of Belmonte, a complex with nave and 12 a.M. small, Le analisi al radiocarbonio e la fine della villa di S. Giovanni di Ruoti, in Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali, 127-131 esp. 127-128, fig. 3. 13 among these factors may be noted a blurring in the distinction between spaces for human use and spaces for animals (see, for the Middle ages, P. Galetti, Abitare nel Medioevo. Forme e vicende dell’insediamento rurale nell’Italia altomedievale, Firenze 1997, 404). 14 in urban contexts also, at Canosa, venosa and Ordona, the partitioning of spaces in buildings can be seen as a generally controlled practice, not necessarily an abuse of the building tradition (R. Giuliani, Modificazioni dei quadri urbani e formazione di nuovi modelli edilizi nelle città dell’apulia tardo antica. Il contributo delle tecniche costruttive, in Paesaggi e insediamenti urbani, 129-166, esp. 132-135). 15 On the evolution of the imperial saltus in the Basentello valley see a.M. small, Introduction, in Vagnari, 11-36 esp. 32-33. 16 On the pottery at vagnari see the preliminary data in Vagnari, and, in the same volume, for the amphorae in particular, G. Disantarosa, Amphorae, 387-406. For a recent reinterpretation of the course of the via appia near vagnari see a.M. small - C.M. small, The Via Appia and Vagnari, in Vagnari, 383386. although this road may have ensured communications in the area of the Murge (even if mainly through the use of donkeys: small, Introduction, in Vagnari 33), it should be remembered that H. Fracchia’s estimate of inland lucania in the imperial period as “privileged” is based precisely on its marginal nature which would have acted as a deterrent to the spread of epidemics which devastated areas with denser populations (Fracchia, Il paesaggio rurale dell’Alto Bradano, 142-143).
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two aisles and with a baptismal basin, which was apparently built around the middle of the century. 17 The basilica (which does not seem to have been surrounded by an extensive nucleus of population) was located in what was effectively the most distant and least accessible place in the ring of cities and episcopal seats in Apulia and lucania which surrounded the territory of the Alta Murgia. The location of the church and its baptismal connotations seem to indicate a specific desire on the part of the Church to ensure that a population seemingly scattered and fragmented, but still large enough to attract the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities, had access to the sacred offices. 18 Moreover, the religious presence spread to a certain degree through the countryside of the Murge. Some traces, although very fragmentary, suggest that there was a sacred establishment on the eastern lower slope of Monte Irsi, 19 and the discovery, in the locality of Santo Staso, not far from Vagnari, of some terracotta panels, probably intended to furnish a sacred building, may indicate the existence of another chapel. 20 The capacity of the settlements and population of the Murge to adapt to the processes of change in the economic structures and rural landscape brought about by the collapse of forms of production and landholding in late Antiquity, together with the continuing presence of forces capable of actively intervening in the territory seem, as has been said, to exist alongside more disquieting and problematic phenomena not unconnected with the political and military events of the Gothic Wars and the gradual 17 D. Ciminale - P. Favia - R. Giuliani, Nuove ricerche archeologiche nell’insediamento altomedievale di Belmonte (Altamura), in Taras, 14.2 (1994), 339-440, pls. CXlII-ClXXIX; see also G. Volpe - P. Favia - R. Giuliani, Chiese rurali dell’Apulia tardoantica e altomedievale, in Ph. Pergola (ed.), Alle origini della parrocchia rurale, Città del Vaticano 1999, 261-311, esp. 285-293, 304-305, 308-309. 18 It must be remembered, however, that in both Apulia and Lucania during the pontificate of Pelagius in the second half of the 6th century there were churchmen specifically appointed to deal with the policies and problems of the Church: for Puglia the defensor Dulcius/Dulcitius is recorded and for lucania the subdeacon Melleus (Pelag., Epist. 12, 24, 29, 31, 64, 88). On the question of the attention paid by the Church to the area of the Murge, which was perhaps linked to the attempt of the Byzantine administration to take back control of the Apulian economy see P. Favia, Forme di occupazione nelle aree interne dalla conquista bizantina all’avvento dei Longobardi: il confine appulo-lucano fra tardo VI e VII secolo, in C. Varaldo (ed.), Ai confini dell’Impero. Insediamenti e fortificazioni bizantine nel Mediterraneo occidentale (VI - VIII sec.), Bordighera 2011, 429-466, esp. 437, 441-446. 19 A.M. Small, La Basilicata nell’Italia tardo-antica: ricerche archeologiche nella Valle del Basentello e a San Giovanni di Ruoti, in L’Italia meridionale in età tardoantica, 331-342, esp. 336 (Site 134). On the site of Monte Irsi see also A. M. Small, Monte Irsi, Southern Italy. The Canadian Excavations in the Iron Age and Roman Sites, 1971-1972, Oxford 1977. 20 For the typology of the plaques from Santo Staso see G. Bertelli (ed.), Le diocesi della Puglia centro-settentrionale. Aecae, Bari, Bovino, Canosa, egnathia, Herdonia, Lucera, Siponto, Trani, Vieste. Corpus della scultura altomedievale XV, Spoleto 2002, 167, 170-173, pl. XlVIII-1); on their discovery and the territorial setting see Favia, Forme di occupazione, 443-446, with bibliography. These slabs can be compared with finds from San Pietro di Canosa (G. Volpe et alii, Il complesso episcopale paleocristiano di San Pietro a Canosa, AMed, 30 (2003), 107-164, esp. 138-139. See also the instances of ecclesiastical establishments in the late Antique and early Medieval periods in lucania: P. Favia, L’insediamento religioso rurale in Basilicata dal IV all’VIII secolo, in Ph. Pergola (ed.), Alle origini della parrocchia rurale, 312-349.
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movement of lombards into the area. 21 For some rural establishments in Apulia and lucania the building operations wthin the pre-existing structures in the course of the 6th century appear to be decidedly more modest in tone and character than those earlier referred to, while in other cases it is not possible to attest with certainty the same continuity in occupation. 22 The case of Vagnari also supplies significant evidence for the moment of transition and discontinuity in settlement affecting the economic basis and pattern of production, the organization of the rural landscape and the infrastructure of landholding and architectural forms which had developed in the late 4th and 5th centuries. The excavations have produced evidence for the 6th and 7th centuries of a hut-type dwelling and, in addition, the digging of a funerary pit outside the necropolis of the Roman period. To these data can be added those arising from the discovery of traces of occupation at the beginning of the Middle Ages on the neighbouring site of San Felice. The combination and co-existence of these features of settlement open up new lines of research on the forms of occupation in inland Central Apulia during the 6th and 7th centuries. The remains of the hut at Vagnari bear witness to the will to retain a topographical location which went back to the Roman period and late Antiquity while at the same time accepting the obliteration of the structures. They provide evidence for the adoption of a type of hut with stone foundation and superstructure in perishable materials which is well attested throughout the peninsula, including Apulia, in both urban and rural contexts. 23 The example at Vagnari is an indication that the use of huts, for which there has not until now been much archaeological evidence in the hinterland of Apulia and lucania, was becoming accepted. 24 Geophysical investigations at 21 See the documentary sources referring to the problems in the economy of lucania in the second quarter of the 6th century: the references by Cassiodorus to the crises in the cities of lucania (Cassiod. Variae, VIIII, 31; XI, 39,5; XII, 5), and the fiscal assistance conceded to the province of Lucania et Bruttii (l. Ruggini, Economia e società nell’«Italia annonaria», Milano 1961 (reprinted Bari 1995), 315-319; V.A. Sirago, La Lucania nelle «Variae» di Cassiodoro, Studi Storici Meridionali, V.2 (maggio – agosto 1985), 143-161 at 152-157. See also J.P.S. Barnish, Pigs, plebeians and potentes: Rome’s economic hinterland c. 350-600 AD, PBSR, 55 (1987), 157-185). equally well known is the concern of Gregory the Great, some decades later, relating to the situation of the Church in Canosa (Greg. Mag., Ep. 1.51). 22 In the villa of San Gilio near Oppido lucano, the final phase, during the 6th century, is attested solely by the presence of very simply made walls (Di Giuseppe, Insediamenti rurali della Basilicata, 217218); a substantially similar situation is found at Bagnara di Venosa (Marchi, Ager Venusinus. Ville e villaggi: 184-185). 23 The plan of the hut cannot be fully reconstructed but it must have had a curved wall at least at one end. For a general summary of the typology of huts with stone foundations in Italy, see M. Valenti, Poggio Imperiale a Poggibonsi: dal villaggio di capanne al castello di Pietra, I, Diagnostica archeologica e campagne di scavo 1993-1994, Firenze 1996, 202-207. For the urban examples in Apulia see Favia - Giuliani - Small - Vanderleest, Gli edifici nella parte meridionale, 223-225, notes 124, 130. 24 Two “fondi di capanna” identified in the area of Boico at the gates of the borgo of Maschito in the territory of Venosa have been attributed broadly to the late Antique period (M. Salvatore (ed.): Venosa: un parco archeologico. Come e perché, Taranto 1984, 28. See also Marchi, Ager Venusinus. Ville e villaggi, 188.
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Vagnari suggest that there were further features in perishable material, thus opening up the possibility that there was a group of buildings, fairly reduced in size, made up of small residential buildings in stone, earth and wood. 25 This restricted nucleus of population could, therefore have represented one of the forms of settlement used in the inland area of Apulia for the organization of agricultural and pastoral activities at the dawn of the Middle Ages. 26 Nevertheless this form of settlement at Vagnari, as on other sites in the region between Apulia and lucania was not so firmly established as to guarantee its continuance beyond the 7th - 8th centuries. This trend was perhaps linked to, and gradually replaced by, the phenomenon of the movement of the population to higher locations, or at least to sites which were naturally protected. Although it has still to be fully proved by excavation, the theory that a new centre of population was established on the plateau of San Felice overlooking Vagnari, which had been abandoned for centuries, 27 gives us reason to believe that in the area of the Murge also such sites were chosen for habitation. The site on the e slope of Monte Irsi is conceivably another, though less clear, example and there are perhaps one or two other cases. 28 The only burial from the 6th - 7th centuries so far found at Vagnari 29 adds a new element to our knowledge of burials of that period in inland Central Apulia which are admittedly not numerous. These are sometimes located near churches but also on sites on the plains or the heights in the general vicinity of the Via Appia. 30 From the investigations so far undertaken, however, no clear connection has been established between the funerary areas and the settlements to which they were attached, nor indeed has the possibility of a link with hut settlements still in the same place as, or not far removed from, earlier villas or villages, or even with temporary or short term shelters for shepherds. K. Strutt - J. Hunt - A.M. Small, The geophysical surveys, in Vagnari, 73-86, esp. 82. For the data on the importance of caprines and more especially pigs in this phase at Vagnari, see M. MacKinnon, The faunal remains, in Vagnari, 305-328, esp. 319-321. 27 C.M. Small - A.M. Small, Archaeological field survey at San Felice in Apulia, Mouseion, 7.2 (2007), 101-122, esp. 117-118, fig. 11. 28 It is hard to find evidence for occupation in the late Antique and early Medieval periods on hill tops where settlement in the late Middle Ages can be clearly identified as, for example at Gaudiano Posta Scioscia (a brief notice in Salvatore (ed.) Venosa: un parco, 26), Cervarezza di Banzi and Monteserico at the foot of which are remains from the Roman period (see McCallum and Hyatt, this volume). 29 P. Favia - T. Prowse, La sepoltura nella parte settentrionale del sito, in Vagnari, 287-289. 30 In addition to the tombs grouped round the churches of Belmonte and Monte Irsi, burial remains have been found at Casa San Paolo (S.P. Vinson, Excavations at Casa S. Paolo: 1971-1972, AJA, 79-1 (1975), 49-66; pls. 12-13, esp. 52, note 5), Montedoro (D. Venturo, Altamura (Bari). Montedoro, Taras, 14-1 (1994), 37-38; eadem, Montedoro, Taras, 15-1 (1995), 29-30, pl. V.), la Calcara (P. Favia, Le aree interne appulo-lucane nel Tardoantico e nell’Altomedioevo. Tesi di dottorato, università di Roma la Sapienza, 2000, 153-154), all between Gravina and Altamura, and at Contrada legna near Toritto, toward the Terra di Bari (A. Riccardi, Toritto (Bari), Legna, Taras, 14-1 (1994), 96-97; eadem, Toritto (Bari), Legna, Taras, 16-1 (1996), 53-54. 25 26
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The regions on the borders of the Materano and in the Bradano valley, 31 in addition to producing a more substantial number of cemetery remains, suggest a further possibility of a connection between necropolis and settlement: it may be that some of these funerary agglomerations were connected with cave settlements. The historical time frame for settlement in the caves of Apulia and lucania is, however, a problem which is not easily solved, and which would require more systematic archaeological investigation. Some cases have been highlighted which suggest that the caves were in use very early but apparently as places of refuge or temporary shelters rather than as dwellings. Others may imply their use as residences or for burials in the early Middle Ages 32 and others again reveal a more consistent use in the 10th and 11th centuries. 33 In every case the area of Gravina and Altamura contains numerous rupestrian habitats which came into full use in the High Middle Ages. 34 Furthermore, and once again, the data from Vagnari can be significant for the understanding of the landscape of the Murge, even for the 7th and 8th centuries: the geomorphological sampling undertaken in the deposits in the ravine which traverses the village would suggest that once the complete depopulation of the site had occurred, it was then not used for agriculture, and thus the territory round Vagnari in the early Middle Ages emerges as having been in large part covered by woods, scrub land and meadows. 35 This picture is reflected in the documentary evidence: in a charter of 774 a tenement (gaio) Matere in Affle, in fact a princely property in the region of Matera largely, made up of uncultivated land and forest, was mentioned. The lombard duke Arichis gave to the monastery of Santa Sophia at Benevento two churches situated within this tenement which were supplied with vines, cultivable land and pasture: 36 the landscape of the area of the Murge in the 8th century appears then to be characterized by large spaces sparsely populated, consisting of meadows 31 For a summary of the funerary finds in this area see Favia, Il confine appulo lucano, 448-452, with bibliography. 32 F. D’Andria, La documentazione archeologica negli insediamenti del Materano fra Tardoantico e Altomedioevo, in C.D. Fonseca (ed.), Habitat - Strutture - Territorio, Atti del III Convegno Internazionale di Studio sulla Civiltà Rupestre Medioevale nel Mezzogiorno d’Italia, Galatina 1978, 157-164, pls. lXII-lXVIII; F. dell’Aquila, Note su alcuni ipogei sepolcrali del Materano, VetChrist, 14-2 (1977), 331-338., A.M. Small, Late Roman rural settlement in Basilicata and Western Apulia, in G. Barker - J. lloyd (eds), Roman Landscapes. Archaeological survey in the Mediterranean region, london 1991, 205-222, at 221. See also Marchi, Ager Venusinus. Ville e villaggi, 184. 33 e. lapadula, Indagine archeologica nell’insediamento del vallone Madonna della Loe (Matera). Risultati preliminari, Siris, 3 (2002), 205-229, esp. 222-223. 34 For example Iesce and Fornello. 35 I. Campbell - A. Bickett - D.C.V. Sanderson - l. Whitelaw, Geomorphology, in Vagnari, 37-51 at 48-50. 36 Chronicon Sanctae Sophiae, I, 1 (9, 69). See J.-M. Martin, Le culte de Saint Michel en Italie méridionale d’après les actes de la pratique (VIe - XIIe siècles), in C. Carletti - G. Otranto, Culto e insediamenti micaelici nell’Italia meridionale fra Tarda Antichità e Medioevo, Bari 1994, 375-403 at 381; J.-M. Martin, La Pouille du Ve au XIIe siecle, Roma - Paris 1993, 198. Martin draws attention to the circumstances of the assassination in 839 of Prince Sicard, surprised while he was hunting in the predio Labellaniensi, another habitat which was apparently heavily wooded.
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and woods used for stock raising and as a source for timber, dotted with small clusters of dwellings, some of them perhaps rupestrian or monastic and with small cleared areas for agriculture. This early Medieval phase manifests the decline in the number of late Antique settlements in an inland and peripheral area like this, in contrast to the principal centres and economic networks of Apulia and lucania. Between the 5th and the 7th centuries this territory displays, among its characteristics, some elements which are not unlike those already existing in Roman times: a contained population, a lack of urban centres, and a countryside much of which was given over to wood and pasture. On the other hand, in the transition to a new institutional and social organization and new forms of landholding there was some continuity and recovery of what had been transmitted from earlier times (through partial continuity in the use of past locations and buildings, of the previous network of villas, villages and roads, and of agricultural and artisanal activities already tried and tested); but there were also considerable transformations in the settlement of the population, the rural landscape and social organization which became intensified in later centuries.
beyond vagnari. new themes in the Study of Roman South Italy - ISbn 978-88-7228-726-2 - © 2014 edipuglia s.r.l. - www.edipuglia.it
TABLE OF CONTENTS Ulrike Roth, Beyond Vagnari: a small achievement
text: amphorae from the site of Vagnari and from the Basentello valley
Alastair M. Small, Introduction
Myles McCallum and Adam Hyatt, A view of Vagnari from across the Basentello: initial results from the BVARP survey, 2012
Douwe Yntema, Romanization and south-east Italy Edward Herring, “The ties that bind”: ethnicity and social cohesion in Hellenistic Central Puglia Bice Peruzzi, The (d)evolution of grave good assemblages in Peucetia in the 3rd century BCE Saskia T. Roselaar, Economic developments and the integration of southern Italy in the Roman Republic Alastair M. Small, From Silvium to Vagnari: sheep, wool and weaving on the saltus Carola M. Small, Vagnari and the Basentello Survey. A brief summary Alastair M. Small, Tile stamps of privati from the Basentello valley field survey Maureen Carroll, Vagnari 2012: New work in the vicus by the University of Sheffield Alan Dalton, The excavation of the cistern at Vagnari: an update Liana Brent and Tracy Prowse, Grave goods, burial practices and patterns of distribution in the Vagnari cemetery Tracy Prowse, Chrystal Nause and Marissa Ledger, Growing up and growing old on an imperial estate: preliminary palaeopathological analysis of skeletal remains from Vagnari Myles McCallum and Hans vanderLeest, Research at San Felice: the villa on the imperial estate Philip Kenrick, Domestic pottery at Vagnari: regional character and Adriatic connections
Maria Luisa Marchi, The landscape of Daunia: Ager Venusinus Helena Fracchia, Rural agglomerations in the Upper Bradano Valley Maurizio Gualtieri, The villa at Masseria Ciccotti in the 3rd century AD Helga Di Giuseppe, Imperial estates in inland Lucania Edward Bispham and Susan Kane, The Middle Sangro Valley under the Empire: a productive landscape? Darian Marie Totten, Building regional connections in Late Antique southern Italy Marcella Chelotti, The development of imperial properties in the Second Augustan Region from the 1st to the 3 rd century AD Marcella Chelotti and Alastair M. Small, APPENDIX. An updated location map of inscriptions relating to imperial slaves and freedmen in Regiones II and III Nicholas Purcell, ‘No two characters seem more inconsistent than those of trader and sovereign’ (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, V, 2, I). The problem of Roman imperial estates Pasquale Rosafio, Vagnari, an outline of the imperial estate Domenico Vera, Imperial estates in Late Roman southern Italy: land concentration and rent distribution
Alessandra De Stefano, The presence and circulation of lamps at Vagnari and in the valley of the Basentello 143
Pasquale Favia, The Alta Murgia and the Basentello valley between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: transformation of the countryside and changes in settlement in inland Central Apulia
Giacomo Disantarosa, Contextualizing the con-
Bibliography
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