Settlement and land use in the Tiber Delta and its environs 3000 BC – AD 300

Abstract

The delta and lower valley of the Tiber in central Italy represents a wetland landscape and its environs indicating complexity in its geomorphological formation and pattern of settlement. However, the nature of the area, and the diverse origins of data for the archaeological record of the landscape, means that a comprehensive heuristic study of the pattern of settlement and land use has not been undertaken. This work aims to explore the spatial organisation and change in the pattern of settlement and resource use for the Tiber delta and lower Tiber valley by modelling the landscape of the area and developing a methodology of data integration. Its primary aim is to reassess the patterns and dynamics of settlement continuity and change and the interaction between human activity and the changing landscape from 3000 BC to AD 300, with an emphasis on broader trends in the pattern of settlement and land use for the area. This is achieved by developing a methodology for modelling the past landscape using an integration of different approaches from archaeological and geomorphological methods.

The broad chronological approach represented here provides an opportunity to analyse broad environmental changes and the human interaction and contribution to a landscape of varied and changing resources. The methodology draws on published and archive site datasets, together with published survey and excavation reports, and combines these with geological, land cover and drainage coverages, ASTER and LiDAR toographic datasets, and borehole evidence to model the past topography, land use and settlement pattern for the study area. To these datasets are added the results of geophysical survey, air photographs and satellite imagery to provide greater detail in coverage of parts of the central delta.

This research presents results of the landscape model and the analysis of the settlement pattern for the area, and demonstrates the continuity and change in human settlement and exploitation of resources for the different periods between 3000 BC and AD 300. These results set out the changes in the delta environment and the human interaction and settlement in the wetland area and beyond, and establish an overview of the documented changes to subsistence and forms of agriculture from sites in the study area. These results are compared with evidence from other sites and landscapes in central Italy.

An assessment of the integrated methodology is presented, outlining the contribution of the study, and the areas of the methodology that were successfully applied, or were used with limited success. Possible themes and future directions for research in the study area are also presented.

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ORCID for Fraser Sturt: orcid.org/0000-0002-3010-990X

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