The Changing Landscapes of Rome’s Northern Hinterland

Front matter

THE CHANGING LANDSCAPES OF ROME'S NORTHERN HINTERLAND

THE BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROMES TIBER VALLEY PROJECT

Helen Patterson, Robert Witcher and Helga Di Giuseppe

Contents

List Of FiguféS$....si iaia aaa M List of Tablesis cov onec iii x List óf Contributofs..;.;.iuui ————————— — xi Preface E —— ÁÁ— P xiii

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Simon Keay, Martin Millett and Christopher Smith

Chapter 2 The middle Tiber valley: history of studies and project methodologies

Figure 2.1a-c. Population change, as percentage growth or decline, from 1881 to 2011 in the provincie of Rome, Viterbo and

Figure 2.2. Agricultural work near the Caere Gate at Veii during the course of the original survey work. OBSR Photographic

Figure 2.3. Location of the South Etruria Survey areas

Figure 2.4. Ftruscan roads (red lines) leading out of the North-west gate of Veii (yellow) visible on a 1944 RAF aerial

Figure 2.5. Cuniculi (blue) and the line of an Etruscan road (red), leading past the tumulus of Monte Tondo to the north of Veii, visible on RAF 1944 photograph. Also shown are the Via Cassia (green) and South Etruria Survey finds spots (red aie E AEAEE go een iaia e enu EE i ote tetto tes ei hi cei e A ce NEAR 18 Figure 2.6. Fieldwalking at Veii during the South Etruria Survey. ©BSR Photographic Archive, Ward-Perkins Collection, MUSEUM —Ó————Ó———————— 19 Figure 2.8. Distribution of sites identified by the Nepi survey of the Gruppo Archeologico Romano (after Camilli et al. 1995) in Figure 2.9. Timespans of all pottery form types in the Tiber valley Project database (n-2715); red line shows mid-point of date Spanisi e €— ———Ó————————Á———————M—ÜÓÓ—Q 28

Figure 2.11. Total numbers of artefacts collected and retained by the South Etruria Survey from each site in the eastern Ager

Figure 2.12. Comparison of pottery vessel parts collected by the South Etruria Survey for select ceramic classes: a) Roman Figure 2.13a-b. Weighted average number of sherds per decade from site TVP-ID00827, grouped by material with date ranges of more (n=58) or less (n=51) than 1000 years; below, the date range and total number (in red) of sherds ofeach form type collected. fromithe 3i m "———————Á———Á 35 Figure 2.14. Examples of original South Etruria Survey record cards; OBSR Photographic Archive, Ward-Perkins Collection,

Soüth Etruria Survey Series uon e tende recede eee Ree ven Pee een eee een rec eed eode RT ee de e eee eee 38 Figure 2.14 continued. Examples of original South Etruria Survey record cards; OBSR Photographic Archive, Ward-Perkins

Collection; South Etruria Survey Series... animata ILL e RN eO Rit RI ii ae 39

Figure 2.16. South Etruria Survey records by month of fieldwork; note, month was not documented for every record (n-2177)47 Figure 2.17. South Etruria Survey records by year of fieldwork, 1955-1974; note, year was not documented for every record

(LZ) ————————————————————————— 47 Figure 2.18. South Etruria Survey records by date (5-year timeblocks) of fieldwork; note, approximate date was not documented for:every record (123539)... e elt II cue eet ettet decore detta eee adeo deut 48

Figure 2.19. Land use categories recorded for each site during the South Etruria Survey; note, information on land use was not:documented for every site (151548); 1... 2: utet teet ee P ERR rte arf e an a Ii 48

Figure 2.20. A reconstruction of South Etruria Survey fieldwork around Monte Quadro in the Eastern Ager Veientanus survey

Figure 2.21. Distribution of all Tiber Valley Project database records. Numbered gaps: surveys published after project data gathering complete: 1) Ager Ciminus Forma Italiae and 2) Ager Foronovanus Forma Italiae; 3) and 4) heavily forested and mountainous areas; 5) Tiber valley floodplain; 6) published surveys restudied by other projects: Latium Vetus volumes. ... 54

Figure 2.22. Ploughing of steep slopes near the defences in the north-west area of Veii OBSR Photographic Archive, Ward-

Perkins Collection, wpset-00557.:. acetic etia etre rese oe Pie ees ge eer tat decree retard ka eic e Gg eene ae ety Egan Eei 55 Figure 2.23. Soil erosion in a ploughed field on the Pietra Pertusa ridge in October 1963 showing movement of soil and

Figure 2.24. Distribution of all Tiber Valley Project records in relation to topography (north-eastern Ager Veientanus/

Figure 2.25. Distribution of all Tiber Valley Project records in the eastern Ager Capenas and Sabina Tiberina/Farfa river valley in relation to unirrigated arable fields (brown), olive groves (green), fruit trees (orange) and vineyards (purple).

Figure 2.26. Distribution of all Tiber Valley Project records in relation to land use (southern Ager Faliscus). Dark grey = urban

Figure 2.27. Numbers of restudied sherds recorded in the Tiber Valley Project database that can be dated precisely to each

Chronological: period. ue aet etate eee Pace e eae Re de DER Ue eae he e ARR e dete ie Gase id 61

Figure 2.29. Diagnosticity of pottery recorded in the Tiber Valley Project database: form types plotted by start date (x-axis) and end date (y-axis). Symbol size is relative to number of sherds for each form type. Where y - x, the start and end date of a form type are the same; the higher the value of x relative to y, the less diagnostic the form type. (NB due to large

Figure 2.30. Tiber Valley Project: the main chronological periods (centre column), with generic (left) and sub-periods (right);

Figure 2.31a-c. Numbers of villas, farms and scatters by period; a) all Tiber Valley Project database records; b) those with

Figure 2.32a-c. Effects of different data quality thresholds (all database records; those with restudied pottery; those with >25

Figure 2.33. Percentage change in the numbers of records between each successive period: all database records, those with restudied pottery, and those with >25 sherds of restudied pottery (Archaic figure is relative to the Orientalizing period;

Figure 2.34. Numbers of Tiber Valley Project database records by period, showing the numbers of settlement sites versus all other types of site (e.g. funerary, infrastructure, CLC.)...ccssesssssesssesssecssessscsssessssssnssssessssssssssnsssscsssesssssssessscssssesscsssessneessesssecsnsessseess 70

Figure 2.35. Numbers of settlement sites for each main period (grey) recorded in the Tiber Valley Project database, alongside

Figure 2.36. Weighted average number of sherds per decade versus number of settlement sites recorded in the Tiber Valley Vigo] [oie Iro ERR IR RIEN ARIANNA RCA ICI TT RARA 71

Figure 2.37. Percentage change in the numbers of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database between conseéutive.chronological:petiods.;... ilaria rai re eed 71

Figure 2.38. Percentages of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database as abandoned at the transition between consecutive chronological periods. iiss iie tte te aaa aaa 72

Figure 2.39. Percentages of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database as continuing in occupation from the previous chronological period... etra ce te trt ge eee ee euet eoe eene eere taedet e peel ee oe 72

Figure 2.40. Percentages of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database as newly founded in each of the main chronological periods: 2 en riter iie toe eie red trae reiecit eie CUR iii 73

Chapter 3 The protohistoric to late Republican landscapes of the middle Tiber valley Figure 3.1. Numbers of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database for the Early Bronze Age to the Classical periods (2300-350 Bc), showing numbers of sites dated to specific and generic periods... sss 74 Figure 3.2. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the Bronze Age (2300-1000 BC). esistente tte ttt nnns 76 Figure 3.4. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

from the Bronze Age tothe Iron Age: Jette eene rettet eia ete oec rii eene ueteri e eb ree ea hein erii 81

Figure 3.5. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition Figure 3.6. Percentages of continuing versus new sites from the Iron Age to the Archaic period (750-580 Bc): South Etruria versis Sabinas etap anaa ana OR RR aora ledio degree edad 82 Figure 3.7. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition from the Early Iron Age to the Late Iron Age... tette tee ene eee retient e me I riali 82 Figure 3.8. Numbers of settlements versus non-settlement (e.g. funerary sites) in the Orientalizing (Farly, Middle, Late),

Figure 3.10. Numbers of sites, from the Orientalizing to the Republican period, identified by the Forma Italiae Cures survey Figure 3.11. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition Figure 3.12. Numbers of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database for the Orientalizing to Archaic periods e

Figure 3.14. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Figure 3.15. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the Classical period (480-350 BC).

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Figure 3.16. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition from, the:Archaic tothe Classical period. «.. utere ae RI 93 Figure 3.18. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the Republican period (350-50/1 BC)... eee 95

Figure 3.19. Numbers of settlement sites recorded in Tiber Valley Project database for the Classical to the early imperial period, showing numbers of sites dated to specific and generic periods .96 Figure 3.21. Percentages of material of Republican date at Veii and in the Ager Veientanus survey area... 100 Figure 3.23. Weighted average numbers of black-gloss sherds per decade collected by the South Etruria Survey and select

Figure 3.25. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Figure 3.27. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Figure 3.29. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Chapter 4 The early and mid-imperial landscapes of the middle Tiber valley (c. 50 BC—AD 250)

Figure 4.3. Weighted average numbers of sherds per decade (100 Bc-AD 250) collected by the South Etruria Survey: all pottery, plus select classes

Figure 4.4. Numbers of early and mid-imperial period settlement sites, in relation i to sites of earlier and generic periods

Figure 4.5a-c. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition from a) the Republican (350-50/1 Bc) to the early imperial period; b) the late Republican (250-50/1 BC) to the early

Figure 4.6a-d. Numbers of sites from the late Republican to the mid-imperial period (250 Bc-AD 250) based on database

Figure 4.7. Numbers of early and mid-imperial-period settlement sites, with Republican sites divided into mid- and late Ironie igerzole sc air III ARIA FAZI cei el iii 132

Figure 4.8. Distribution of newly founded early imperial (50 Bc-AD 100) settlement sites in relation to late Republican (250-

Figure 4.9. Distribution of early imperial (50 Bc-AD 100) settlement sites around Eretum and Nomentum: villas (red circles) and farms (blue circles); plus settlement sites of generic imperial (50 BC-AD 250) date (black circles with no red or blue uil 136 Figure 4.10. Distribution of early imperial-period farms and villas around Sutrium and Vicus Matrini in relation to the South

Etruria arid: Forma Italiae survey:areas.... iiie titel erster eet cii eec eee ree ec eue n eek decente eee eed 137

Figure 4.12. Weighted average numbers of sherds per decade collected by the South Etruria Survey, 350 Bc to AD 350: quantities of material from Veii, the Ager Veientanus, and the remainder of the South Etruria Survey material (log scale).

Figure 4.13. Distance from early imperial-period towns in the middle Tiber valley (darker ‘ed indicates areas that are more distant from towns) and the location of road stations. wisccsscssescssessssessssesssvssscscsesscssssssesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssvsessssessesessessssesscsesscsees 143 Figure 4.16. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the early imperial period (50 BC-AD 100)... 153 Figure 4.17. Early imperial-period sites in the eastern Ager Veientanus, Ager Capenas and southern Ager Faliscus (50 BC-AD

TO EEEE A E eni LL ks xL El s rail iii ME 155 Figure 4.18. Early imperial-period sites in western Ager Veientanus, Ager Sutrinus and southern Ager Faliscus (50 BC-AD

Figure 4.21. Early imperial-period sites in the area between Valle Lunga via Il Pascolaro to Valle Ciaca and Ponte Altieri, in thé eastern: Ager Veientanus (50 BC-AD 100)... lette cte eria aee e e ree e eus a ii 169 vii

Figure 4.22. Early imperial-period sites around Monte Caminetto in the eastern Ager Veientanus, adjacent to the Via Flaminia, which was previously very thinly unoccupied (50 BC-AD 100). |... esistente tentent tette tton tetto attt tton 170 Figure 4.23. Early imperial-period sites in the Grottarossa and Via Veientana survey areas, between Veii and the Tiber (50 BESAD TOO) SEEMS 171 Figure 4.28. Distribution of early and mid-imperial-period sites with travertine construction materials in relation to the main sources of travertine in the middle Tiber Valley (50 BC-AD 250)....sssssssssssssssessneessesssncsssesssessnsssssssnsesssessnccssessnecsnsssscsnsessees 189 Figure 4.29. Distribution of early and mid-imperial-period sites with selce or basalt materials in relation to main sources of leucitic lavas in the middle Tiber Valley (50 BC-AD 250). ..ssssssssesssssssesssssssesssesssssssnsessessnscssssssuccnsesssecsasssssssusessssssnccsstssnecsnsssssesnsessees 191 Figure 4.30. Distribution of vessel glass and window glass collected by the South Etruria Survey from early and mid-imperial-period sites in the middle Tiber Valley (50 BC-AD 250). wussscssssssesssssssecssssssessssessssssnssssessnsessssssncsnsesssessasesssssnscssssssncenstssnecsnessssssnsessees 194 Figure 4.31. Distribution of stone and pasta vitrea mosaic tesserae from early and mid-imperial-period sites in the middle Tiber Valley(S0.BE-AD 250)... nali Re dateien eet dele SR i A a 195

Figure 4.33. Weighted average numbers of amphora sherds per decade collected by the South Etruria Survey (350 BC-AD 700).

Figure 4.34. Early imperial-period funerary sites in the middle Tiber valley (50 BC-AD 100)...

Figure 4.36. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Figure 4.37. Ratios of continuing and abandoned early imperial-period settlement sites at the transition to the mid-imperial

Figure 4.38. Distributions of abandoned early imperial (50 Bc-AD 100) and newly founded mid-imperial (AD 100-250) settlement: Sites POTETE ETT TTL ——————————————— 204

Figure 4.39. Mid-imperial-period sites in the eastern Ager Veientanus, Ager Capenas and southern Ager Faliscus (Ap 100- 2) —————————————————— — —— 205

Chapter 5 The late antique landscapes of the middle Tiber valley: the mid-third to mid-sixth centuries AD

Figure 5.1. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the late antique period (AD 250-550). ..sssssssssscssessesssssssessseecsessssessssssneessteeneess 211 Figure 5.2. Comparison of Tiber Valley Project settlement numbers and weighted average numbers of sherds per decade from Figure 5.3. Tiber Valley Project settlement sites in the late antique 1 period (AD 250-450), .sessssssssssessesssesssessneecssessesessessneesstesseess 217 Figure 5.4, Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition Figure 5.5. Numbers of abandoned or continuing at the transition from the mid-imperial to late antique 1 period: farms versus villas; AS 218 Figure 5.6. Weighted average numbers of late antique (AD 200-600) pottery sherds per decade collected by the South Etruria kiwi gia ii aL CNR RIO GTI ATI RT LR sxsboes 219 Figure 5.8. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition Figure 5.11. Weighted average numbers of sherds per decade from the South Etruria Survey, AD 200 to 800: quantities of Figure 5.13. Numbers of imported Roman amphora sherds collected by the South Etruria Survey: African, East Mediterranean aiid«Siciliai/calabriam(AD 3502650); reir tei ener t a ae 247 Figure 5.14. Weighted average numbers of African red slip ware sherds per decade (AD 100-700) collected by the South IERI ORRORE RA A AIA 248

Chapter 6 The end of the Roman unity: the Tiber valley in the late sixth to seventh centuries AD

Figure 6.2. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition viii

Chapter 7 The middle Tiber valley in the eighth and ninth centuries AD

Figure 7.2. Numbers of settlement sites abandoned (pink), continuing (grey) and newly founded (green) at the transition

Figure 7.5. Weighted average numbers of ceramica a vetrina pesante sherds per decade collected by the South Etruria Survey.. 298

All maps produced with QGIS (3.6 Noosa) using data extracted from the Tiber Valley Project database and visualized with cartographic layers from the Regione Lazio (dati.lazio.it) under CC BY 4.0 licences, and SRTM data courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

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List of Tables

Chapter 2 The middle Tiber valley: history of studies and project methodologies

Table 2.2. Other surveys incorporated into the Tiber Valley Project database Table 2.3. Numbers of restudied sherds by pottery class, with more than 100 examples in the Tiber Valley Project database

(imorder:of stàrt-date), 22.2 2e cotta a eoo pec n e Bee ol deese Roi a eroe desi beta 30 Table 2.4. Numbers of restudied sherds by published pottery form type, with more than 50 examples in the Tiber Valley

Project database (in order.of start date): senes rct reete Pert bre indenni 31 Table 2.5. Date ranges of select ceramic form types in relation to chronological periods used in the Tiber Valley Project

Table 2.6. South Etruria Survey site classification (based on Potter 1979: 122-3). .esssssssssssssesssessnesssessnsessssssnesssessssssnsssssnsesssessnessees 41 Table 2.7. Tiber Valley Project; site classification. uttter tr Ie Pent ee scabs dddendsacidnenacdeeaascsatedcagcadesentadé 42

Chapter 3 The protohistoric to late Republican landscapes of the middle Tiber valley

Table 3.2. Bronze Age sites in the Sabina Tiberina (based on data from Pacciarelli 2000: 88, fig. 46)... 77

Table 3.4. Earlier occupation histories of sites recorded in the Tiber Valley Project database as late Republican-period villas... 91 Table 3.5. Chronological divisions of the Republican period based on the South Etruria Survey pottery and used by the Tiber

Valley Project PER tali Ila ARENA ILARIA Li 96

Chapter 4 The early and mid-imperial landscapes of the middle Tiber valley (c. 50 BC-AD 250) Table 4.1. Numbers and percentages of late Republican and early imperial-period settlement sites and rates of abandonment, continuity and foundation, «53d eine eia It RAR 133 Table 4.3. Roman site types (based on Potter 1979: 122-23; Potter unpub: 11-12; Kahane, Murray-Threipland and Ward-

Perkins:1968;.15426). erecto dae A AA L et te bene e ivo eee siae 151 Table 4.8. Quantities of selected classes of pottery in the middle Tiber valley from the imperial (50 BC-AD 250), early imperial

Helga Di Giuseppe Simon Keay Martin Millett Helen Patterson

Christopher Smith

Robert Witcher

List of Contributors

Independent scholar, Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica, Italy. Professor of Roman Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK.

Laurence Professor of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge University, UK.

Independent scholar and former Assistant Director of the British School at Rome, Italy.

Professor of Ancient History, St Andrews University, UK, and former Director of the British School at Rome, Italy.

Associate Professor of Archaeology, Durham University, UK.

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Preface

John Ward-Perkins's South Etruria Survey was pioneering in many senses. It was the first project of the British School at Rome (BSR), at least in Italy rather than North Africa, to involve a large team of collaborators; it was the first project which realised the sort of ambitions an institute with a permanent base in the country studied can aspire to, of sustained activity over many years, as opposed to the sort of three- to five-year projects that funding schemes in the UK otherwise permitted. And it left an important legacy: not just of material still to be studied (despite a stream of articles and Tim Potter's synthetic account), but of links with archaeologists active both in Britain and Italy who saw the value of pursuing the project further. When, in 1995, I found myself with the responsibility of developing an archaeology research strategy for the British School, despite the impressively ambitious project of my predecessor, Richard Hodges, at San Vincenzo al Volturno, the institution seemed to have lost the Ward-Perkins vision of a flagship project that might pull together the efforts of colleagues both in the UK and in Italy. Following the advice of a review commissioned by Tim Potter and led by Gillian Andrewes, the School agreed to divert the resource used for supporting various projects in Italy with small grants, and to set up a new position of Director of Archaeology, with the aim of developing a new ambitious project.

It was the winning vision of Helen Patterson, strongly encouraged by Tim Potter, not only to return to the unexploited potential of the South Etruria archive (fieldnotes, records, photographs, and enough pottery fragments collected from surface survey to fill two garages), but also to give the geographical boundaries of the South Etruria Project a new spin by treating the Tiber not as a boundary, but as the centre of the project, so bringing the left bank, the Sabina, into the picture. Taking a river valley as the definition of a survey project was a strategy which had been deployed successfully elsewhere, not least in Graeme Barker's Biferno valley project. But unlike most valleys, the Tiber valley offers significant contrasts between its two banks. Geologically, the volcanic landscape of Etruria contrasted with the limestone hills of the Sabina; in terms of settlement, Etruria from antiquity to the present has been relatively densely settled, with numerous independent centres, whereas the settlement of the Sabina has been thinner, and the clusters less notable. But different though the two banks might be, on both the impact of a great megalopolis in Rome made itself felt. The other strategic advantage was the possibility of confronting the more familiar results of the South Etruria Survey with new surveys: in the event, work at Forum Novum/Vescovio and Ocriculum/Otricoli proved fascinating and in various ways unexpected case studies.

It was one thing to set up a new post at the BSR to take responsibility for a major archaeological project (and one free from the increasing burdens of running the institution itself), but another to find the resources to bring together the necessary players to undertake such an ambitious project. A major boost was provided by the Leverhulme Trust, which provided funding for two three-year postdoctoral research positions, filled by Helga Di Giuseppe and Robert Witcher. It is the work of this trio, with Helen Patterson as principal investigator that forms the basis of the present volume. But the design of the project always foresaw the involvement of other players and institutions. The danger of withdrawing small grant funding for projects by UK Universities in Italy was to lose contact with those old allies (though in truth, because BSR funding was usually a small part of the funding of any individual project, the sense of ownership was rarely very strong). Invitations were issued to colleagues in the UK to participate in an initial workshop, and to join in the broader project. The response was enthusiastic, and there rapidly emerged a constellation of projects around the central re-examination of the South Etruria archive. One of the most fruitful was from Simon Keay and Martin Millett, who wished to apply the techniques of geophysical survey to the towns of the Tiber valley (and eventually beyond). Falerii Novi was only a starting point: the spectacular result, in the form of a remarkably complete city plan, was swiftly published. Other sites followed, including Ocriculum on the left bank, at a critical junction point between Lazio, Etruria and Umbria; a site of irresistible beauty, enhanced by the warm hospitality of Enrico and Benedetta Floridi, in whose back garden the town's Roman amphitheatre lay.

But no less important was the project close to the mouth of the Tiber at the maritime port of Rome, Portus. Here the sense of urgency to understand a neglected Roman landscape better was shared by Anna Gallina Zevi, the Soprintendente of Ostia, and Duke Ascanio Sforza Cesarini, who owned those parts of the landscape not expropriated by the Soprintendenza on the one hand, and the airport of Fiumicino on the other (he too was a generous host). This was a project that could only grow, and take on a life of its own. Simultaneously the collaboration between Southampton University and the BSR spawned a spin-off enterprise, meeting the growing market for geophysical surveys. The Archaeological Prospection Service of Southampton (APSS), in the shape of Kris Strutt, Sophie Hay, and a revolving crew of assistants, not only paid its way, but cast important light on a series of Roman sites, including Teanum Sidicinum (Teano) in Campania, Tibur (Tivoli) in Lazio, as well as Amara in Sudan and Utica in Tunisia.

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A second major collaboration involved the British Museum, through Paul Roberts, together with the University of Birmingham, through Vince Gaffney (now at Bradford). The site of Vescovio in the Sabina, well-known to Helen Patterson, had clear potential, its attractive tenth-century church marking a centre important enough to have had a bishop, and the surrounding green fields covering whatever was left of the Roman settlement. Its Roman name identified it as a market centre, rather than a major town; and earlier excavations had largely exposed its forum and a small centre. Here it was possible to combine geophysics with excavation, with rich results: a well laid-out villa of early imperial date, a set of elite burials, including the sort of worked-bone funerary bed typical of central Italy, and even an unexpected amphitheatre.

While some of the projects originally associated with the Tiber Valley Project gained a life of their own, there were many other researchers who offered specialist contributions: Ray Laurence (then of Reading) studying the roads (with scientific techniques that could pin down the origin of basalt road-paving slabs); John Patterson of Cambridge working on inscriptions; Simon Stoddart working on Nepi, and with Ulla Rajala at Crustumerium and many others. Equally significant as researchers from the UK were Italian collaborators: the 20 chapters of Bridging the Tiber (British School at Rome, 2004), the outcome of the project's first major conference, include some 23 Italian scholars, all more or less closely associated with the project. The most enduring collaboration, however, was to be that of Filippo Coarelli, already working in the upper Tiber Valley at the site of Pliny's villa at Tifernum Tiberinum. The joint forces of Coarelli and Patterson resulted in another conference, published as Mercator placidissimus: the Tiber Valley in antiquity. New research in the upper and middle river valley (Quasar, 2008), but also in survey and excavation of the birthplace of the emperor Vespasian at the north-eastern edge of Sabine hill-country at Falacrina.

It is entirely to the credit of Helen Patterson's inspired and sympathetic project leadership that so much grew out of it, with a host of collaborators (see Appendix 1) and a rich crop of publications (see Appendix 2). If the original core project has taken longer to finalize than some of its spin-offs (though many of these are still ongoing), that is a measure of the sheer complexity of what has been involved. To cover an extensive territory over a wide historical period, from the prehistoric to the medieval, required the inputting of tens of thousands of items of information into a database (and that database has been consigned to the Archaeology Data Service and can be consulted there), and the patient extrapolation of pattern from a haze of data points. Had the task of publishing the South Etruria material alone been a simple one, Ward-Perkins, who was nothing if not energetic in publishing, would have done so himself. Now two decades have passed since the Tiber Valley Project was first conceived; but in the interim it has generated ripples of debate, and their consequent publication. The full results of the core Tiber Valley Project presented here are well worth the wait.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Director of the British School at Rome (1995-2009) Cambridge, January 2019 xiv

Chapter 1 The Tiber Valley Project: an introduction

Simon Keay, Martin Millett and Christopher Smith

The Tiber Valley Project was a major and multi-faceted research programme undertaken by the British School at Rome (BSR) between 1997 and 2004. Following his appointment as Director of the BSR in 1995, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill worked with Tim Potter, then chairman ofthe Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Letters to develop a new research focus for the School. With the selection of Helen Patterson as Assistant Director (Archaeology) in 1996, it was agreed that this project should involve a programme of research on the Tiber valley. This was designed both to contribute to the understanding of this important area to the north of Rome and to act as a focus to attract a new generation of scholars to work on the archaeology of Italy, thereby giving a boost to Italian archaeology in UK universities.

From the outset, the programme was designed to be multi-focal, encouraging the development of a series of externally funded projects as well as enabling PhD students and others to work collaboratively on distinct but related themes. At its core was a project to reevaluate the British School at Rome's own South Etruria Survey, conceived by its Director John Ward-Perkins in the 1950s to 1970s, focusing not only on the evidence gathered by that project, but also on the broader archaeological and interpretative models which had developed subsequently. This strand of work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the basis of a project design (see Millett and Patterson 1998), and ran from 1998 to 2002. Led by Helen Patterson, this core part of the project employed two postdoctoral researchers, Helga Di Giuseppe and Robert Witcher. Financial support from the BSR enabled this work to be continued from 2002 to 2004.

The Leverhulme project was complemented by a series of other pieces of research (discussed below). These varied in scale and ambition from thematic studies by individual scholars to substantial new field projects

! [n her role as BSR Assistant Director, Helen Patterson led the project and developed research on the late antique and early medieval periods (see Chapters 5-7). Helga Di Giuseppe undertook extensive library research to gather data on published sources for surveys and excavations of all periods and also undertook research on the black-gloss pottery and the Republican period (see Chapter 3). Robert Witcher developed the project databases and GIS, working in particular with the South Etruria Survey archive, and conducted research focused on the project methodologies and data integration, and on the archaeology of the imperial period (see Chapters 2 and 4).

with additional funding. The two larger endeavours both complemented the Leverhulme project by focusing on urban sites. The first, run by Simon Keay and Martin Millett and funded by the then Arts and Humanities Research Board, was called Roman Towns in the Middle Tiber Valley Project. It involved the Universities of Durham, Southampton and later Cambridge, and deployed surface survey methods to look at a variety of sites across the region. The second, run by Helen Patterson, Paul Roberts and Vince Gaffney involved the British Museum and the University of Birmingham together with the BSR. This focused on the survey and excavation of the town of Forum Novum (Vescovio). The work on a range of smaller sites is well represented in the two publications that grew from the Tiber Valley workshops and seminars held between 1997 and 2004 (Patterson 2004; Coarelli and Patterson 2008).