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Late Antique Stamped Amphorae as Evidence for Imperial Policy: The Halasarna Workshop, Cos Island is the culmination of over 15 years of research. It suggests the administrative stamping throughout the Late Antique (5th-7th centuries) Mediterranean of amphorae known as LRA 1 at city level and of the type LRA 13 at state level. It also presents new evidence related to the so-far unique stamped amphora workshop at Halasarna in Cos, excavated by the University of Athens. The stamps are presented in a unified catalogue and comparative study with the increasing numbers of similar examples. Special attention is given to the LR 13 stamped amphorae as the Halasarna workshop offers the historical and archaeological frame to study them. The workshop started production at Halasarna in the second half of the 6th century AD and continued for 70-100 years, during which time Cos was administered by the quaestor exercitus or ‘eparch of the islands'who operated under the direct control of the emperor. Precisely this historical situation is reflected in the archaeological evidence of the LRA 13 stamps.

LRCW 6 presents papers deriving from the 6th International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Wares, Cooking Wares and Amphorae in the Mediterranean held at the Parco Archeologico e Paesaggistico della Valle dei Templi, Agrigento, 24-28 May 2017. The volume includes almost 100 papers, subdivided according to the sessions of the conference, which had a particular focus on archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean. Themes comprise sea and land routes, workshops and production centres, and regional contexts (western Mediterranean, eastern Mediterranean, Sicily and the Mediterranean islands).

A new account of the Mediterranean economy in the 10th to 12th centuries, forcing readers to entirely rethink the underlying logic to medieval economic systems. Chris Wickham re-examines documentary and archaeological sources to give a detailed account of both individual economies, and their relationships with each other. Chris Wickham offers a new account of the Mediterranean economy in the tenth to twelfth centuries, based on a completely new look at the sources, documentary and archaeological. Our knowledge of the Mediterranean economy is based on syntheses which are between 50 and 150 years old; they are based on outdated assumptions and restricted data sets, and were written before there was any usable archaeology; and Wickham contends that they have to be properly rethought. This is the first book ever to give a fully detailed comparative account of the regions of the Mediterranean in this period, in their internal economies and in their relationships with each other. It focusses on Egypt, Tunisia, Sicily, the Byzantine empire, Islamic Spain and Portugal, and north-central Italy, and gives the first comprehensive account of the changing economies of each; only Byzantium has a good prior synthesis. It aims to force our rethinking of how economies worked in the medieval Mediterranean. It also offers a rethinking of how we should understand the underlying logic of the medieval economy in general.

TRADE: Transformations of Adriatic Europe presents the proceedings of a 2016 conference held in Zadar (Croatia) which analysed the transformative phenomena of Late Antiquity in an area where research has been comparatively scarce and results less widely known. The contributions span the period between the 2nd and 9th centuries, that is from roughly the establishment of the Severan dynasty to the end of the Carolingian period. The volume collects 45 papers dealing with the Adriatic area that aim to create a new dataset for the historical reconstruction of processes related to forms of settlement, aspects of production, and trade and the movement of pottery and other craft products between its two coasts, here examined either through regional synthesis or the presentation of individual study contexts.

Although household goods are a well-establish topic in Medieval and Early Modern archaeology, more recent research is overcoming simple typological and technological aspects and pointing to broader approaches, which relates to the understanding of goods'production, consumption strategies, other economic activities and structures of social organization. Thus, the understanding of past societies and cultures relies heavily in the study of their household goods to understand people, groups and societies. In this context, the aim of the Ruralia XIV Conference was to emphasize the significance of household archaeology to the study of the European countryside in Medieval and Modern times under a cross-cultural approach. Detailed analysis of single contexts, small parts of sites, faunal, botanical and soil studies enables us to reconstruct common peoples'activities and interactions within their homes. House functions can be detected by means of specific installations but also by inventories and location of goods, evidence for particular activities inside, such as cooking and eating, storage, weaving, refuse disposal, resting, etc. or by a comprehensive overview of outdoor surroundings. All this is evidence of functional purposes but it can also tell us about the rank and wealth of their owners, their daily lives, household compositions, family concepts and even gender statuses. Moreover, structural analysis can give evidence about spheres of interaction and patterned behaviours within a house. In different sections (archaeology and household; temporary households; living conditions; spatial structure; household objects and social and economic status) case studies across Europe are presented.

Arqueología de las sociedades locales en la Alta Edad Media: San Julián de Aistra y las residencias de las élites rurales presents the main results obtained in the archaeological project of San Julián de Aistra (Zalduondo-Araia, Álava) carried out between 2006 and 2020 by University College London and the University of the Basque Country. The remains of a hermitage dedicated to Santa Julián and Santa Basilisa, built in the 10th century and renovated in the Romanesque period and in the 18th century, are preserved in the deserted village of Aistra, which is documented since the 11th century. Excavation has shown that the site was occupied in prehistoric, Roman and medieval times. While prehistoric and Roman materials have been recovered in secondary contexts, four medieval phases of a domestic, productive, and funerary nature have been defined. One of the most important results of the project has been the discovery of residential spaces of elites who exercised territorial dominion throughout the Early Middle Ages. In the 14th century, the place was depopulated and, since then, the Aistra area has been managed and disputed by the nearby villages of Zalduondo and Araia, which created a community aimed at jointly managing the resources and spaces of Aistra. This community, active between the 14th and 20th centuries, broke up from the 19th century onwards, when individual management of resources became accentuated, and the commons were divided up. This collective volume brings together a large number of specialized studies and provides an interpretation of the site of Aistra in terms of socio-political practices that define the main characteristics of early medieval local societies in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

Explores the major political, social, economic, religious and cultural changes impacting what was once the most important region of the Roman worldThe first modern research volume on a core region of Late AntiquityA tight and distinctly chronological focus on the second quarter of the first millennium CE, that allows for a different vision of the many vicissitudes of Late Roman Italy, among other works on Ancient and Late Antique Italy.An emphasis on one of the key features of Late Antiquity: the transformation of the Roman Empire in the West into successor polities.A balanced range of topics, including ones rarely encountered in this type of work (such as gender or environmental history), with a special focus on political transformation and violence.This research volume reassesses one of the most fundamental transformations in Late Antiquity, centered on a pivotal region: the transition from ‘Empire'to ‘Kingdom'in Italy c. 250-500. During the first quarter of the first millennium, Italy was still the heart of the Roman Empire; the only political superstructure ever managing to encompass the entire Mediterranean world and its European hinterland. Yet during the second quarter of this millennium, Italy underwent dramatic evolutions from demotion to a provincialized region (c. 285-395), to a new imperial hub kept afloat by cannibalizing other provinces'resources (c. 395-476), to an autonomous regnum governed by non-Roman rulers as part of an Eastern Roman ‘Commonwealth'(c. 475-535).

This book constitutes refereed proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Research and Education in Urban History in the Age of Digital Libraries, UHDL 2023, held in Munich, Germany, during March 27-28, 2023.The 15 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: theory, methods, and systematization; data handling and data schemes; machine Learning and artificial Intelligence; visualization and presentation and education.

Varied approaches to an overlooked time period in the history and archaeology of the Mediterranean This book presents multidisciplinary perspectives on Greece, Corsica, Malta, and Sicily from the fourth to the thirteenth centuries, an often-overlooked time in the history of the central Mediterranean. The research approaches and areas of specialization collected here range from material culture to landscape settlement patterns, from epigraphy to architecture and architectural decoration, and from funerary archaeology to urban fabric and cityscapes. Topics covered in these chapters include late Roman villas; the formation of Byzantine and Islamic settlements in western Sicily; reuse of protohistoric sites in late antiquity and the middle ages in eastern Sicily; early Christian landscapes and settlements in Corsica; the transition from late antiquity through Byzantine rule to Muslim conquest in Malta; trade network trajectories of the Aegean islands and Crete; and crosscultural interactions in medieval Greece. Together, these essays show the potential of post-Ancient and post-Classical archaeology, highlighting missing links between the Roman world and medieval Byzantium and broadening the horizons of new generations of archaeologists.Contributors: Carla Aleo Nero | Effie F. Athanassopoulos | Giuseppe Bazan | Amelia R. Brown | Gabriele Castiglia | Angelo Castrorao Barba | David Cardona | Santino Alessandro Cugno | Michael J. Decker | Franco Dell'Aquila | Scott Gallimore | Matt King | Rosa Lanteri | Pasquale Marino | Roberto Miccichè | Philippe Pergola | Filippo Pisciotta | Natalia Poulou | Grant Schrama | Claudia Speciale | Davide Tanasi

Roman Ceramic and Glass Manufactures: Production and trade in the Adriatic region and beyond presents thirty-one papers read at the 4th International Archaeological Colloquium held in Crikvenica, Croatia, 8–9 November 2017. The papers deal with issues of pottery production in relation to landscape and communication features, ceramic building materials, as well as general studies on ceramic production, pottery and glass finds. Additionally, an invited contribution explores finds relating to clothing from the Roman pottery workshop at Crikvenica. Several papers are devoted to restoration and archaeological experimentation. Although the majority of papers tackle research conducted in the wider Adriatic area, several contributions deal with other provinces of the Roman world.

The broad valley of the Bradano river and its tributary the Basentello separates the Apennine mountains in Lucania from the limestone plateau of the Murge in Apulia in South East Italy. For millennia the valley has functioned both as a cultural and political divide between the two regions, and as a channel for new ideas transmitted from South to North or vice versa depending on the political and economic conditions of the time. Archaeology on the Apulian – Lucanian Border aims to explain how the pattern of settlement and land use changed in the valley over the whole period from Neolithic to Late Medieval, taking account of changing environmental conditions, and setting the changes in a broader political, social and cultural context. There are three levels of focus. The first is on the results of a field survey (1996-2006) in the Basentello valley by teams from the Universities of Alberta, Edinburgh, and Bari, directed by the authors. The second concerns the discoveries of earlier field surveys in the late 1960s and early 1970s undertaken in connection with excavations on Botromagno near Gravina in Puglia. The third is a much broader synthesis of the results of recent scholarship using archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources to reconstruct an archaeological history of the valley and the surrounding area. The creation of a vast imperial estate at Vagnari around the end of the 1st century BC and its long-lasting impact on the pattern of settlement in the area is a significant theme in the later chapters of the book.

Il libro raccoglie i risultati delle campagne di scavo 2009-2015 a Santa Cristina in Caio (Buonconvento, Siena) e contestualizza il sito nel più ampio fenomeno delle mansiones, dei vici romani e dei riusi tra tarda antichità ed alto medioevo. In generale sono affrontati i temi riguardanti le trasformazioni delle campagne toscane durante la fine dei paesaggi antichi e l'eredità delle terre pubbliche nella lunga durata tra l'impero romano e quello carolingio. Santa Cristina in Caio infatti viene probabilmente fondato nel corso del I secolo come luogo di sosta lungo la Via Cassia che univa Chiusi con Siena; l'impianto termale, tra fine IV e inizi V secolo, viene completamente spoliato e l'area viene occupata da capanne fino agli inizi dell'VIII secolo. Agli inizi del IX secolo viene citata per la prima volta la chiesa di Santa Cristina e Ludovico il Pio conferma le sue pertinenze all'abbazia di Sant'Antimo.

The present volume collects most of the contributions to the plenary sessions held at the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, and incisively reflects the ever increasing broadening of the very concept of ‘Byzantine Studies'. Indeed, a particularly salient characteristic of the papers presented here is their strong focus on interdisciplinarity and their breadth of scope, both in terms of methodology and content. The cross-pollination between different fields of Byzantine Studies is also a major point of the volume. Archaeology and art history have pride of place; it is especially in archaeological papers that one can grasp the vital importance of the interaction with the so-called hard sciences and with new technologies for contemporary research. This relevance of science and technology for archaeology, however, also applies to, and have significant repercussions in, historical studies, where – for example – the study of climate change or the application of specific software to network studies are producing a major renewal of knowledge. In more traditional subject fields, like literary, political, and intellectual history, the contributions to the present volume offer some important reflections on the connection between Byzantium and other cultures and peoples through the intermediary of texts, stories, diplomacy, trade, and war.

Traffici commerciali e approdi portuali nella Sardegna meridionale riguarda lo studio dei flussi commerciali della costa meridionale della Sardegna nella tarda antichità, attraverso i ritrovamenti subacquei, le analisi dei contenitori anforici e gli ipotetici luoghi d'attracco. Le indagini subacquee condotte lungo le coste meridionali negli ultimi anni stanno consentendo di ampliare il registro informativo, evidenziando molteplici situazioni di possibili carichi di relitti, di tipo soprattutto eterogeneo, come a Cagliari, Nora (Pula) e nei mari del Sulcis. In particolare, il porto di Cagliari era coinvolto nei percorsi commerciali e forse nelle attività di trasbordo. Lo studio delle anfore è indissolubilmente legato agli aspetti economici e sociali. I materiali e i contesti inclusi in questo lavoro sono originari di tutta l'area mediterranea (Sud Italia-Sicilia, Gallia, Betica, Lusitania, Nord Africa, Mediterraneo orientale). Un altro aspetto del lavoro riguarda l'analisi dei contesti archeologici subacquei dei reperti anforici studiati, con l'obiettivo di comprendere il grado di sfruttamento di ciascuna area costiera, attraverso un approccio subacqueo, geomorfologico e storiografico. Questo studio può contribuire ad una maggiore conoscenza del ruolo della Sardegna meridionale nel commercio mediterraneo e le sue risorse ne hanno indubbiamente influenzato, direttamente e indirettamente, il coinvolgimento negli antichi traffici marittimi e negli scambi commerciali.

Climate change over the past thousands of years is undeniable, but debate has arisen about its impact on past human societies. This book explores the link between climate and society in ancient worlds, focusing on the ancient economies of western Eurasia and northern Africa from the fourth millennium BCE up to the end of the first millennium CE. This book contributes to the multi-disciplinary debate between scholars working on climate and society from various backgrounds. The chronological boundaries of the book are set by the emergence of complex societies in the Neolithic on the one end and the rise of early-modern states in global political and economic exchange on the other. In order to stimulate comparison across the boundaries of modern periodization, this book ends with demography and climate change in early-modern and modern Italy, a society whose empirical data allows the kind of statistical analysis that is impossible for ancient societies. The book highlights the role of human agency, and the complex interactions between the natural environment and the socio-cultural, political, demographic, and economic infrastructure of any given society. It is intended for a wide audience of scholars and students in ancient economic history, specifically Rome and Late Antiquity.

The cult of relics, encouraged by, among others, the emperor Constantine, Pope Damasus and the bishops Ambrose of Milan and Paulinus of Nola, led to the transformation of the Late Antique Italian landscape, and of suburban areas in particular. The process of gradual enhancement of the martyrs'tombs led to the creation of extensive sanctuaries, generally composed of funerary and cultic buildings, as well as service structures, pilgrims'lodgings and monasteries. The most important sanctuaries, such as those of Saints Peter in the Vatican, Paul on the Ostiense, Erasmus in Formia, Alexander in Nomentum, Felix in Cimitile, Gennaro in Naples, Felix in Venosa, Marcianus in Syracuse, and the Apostles in Concordia Sagittaria, became so popular that they justified Jerome's phrase: movetur urbs sedibus suis et currit ad martyrum tumulos. Between the 5th and 6th century, sanctuaries spread also in rural areas, usually along important roads, as documented by the site of San Canzian d'Isonzo. Analysing hypogeal and subdial contexts, Santuari e spazi confessionali nell'Italia tardoantica outlines the evolution of loca sancta, in a process that led the venerated tombs to become first memoriae, then places of worship and finally articulated sanctuaries. For the first time, the contexts of Rome are organically compared with those of the rest of Italy.

The Adriatic has long occupied a liminal position between different cultures, languages and faiths. This book offers the first synthesis of its history between the seventh and the mid-fifteenth century, a period coinciding with the existence of the Byzantine Empire which, as heir to the Roman Empire, lay claim to the region. The period also saw the rise of Venice and it is important to understand the conditions which would lead to her dominance in the late Middle Ages. An international team of historians and archaeologists examines trade, administration and cultural exchange between the Adriatic and Byzantium but also within the region itself, and makes more widely known much previously scattered and localised research and the results of archaeological excavations in both Italy and Croatia. Their bold interpretations offer many stimulating ideas for rethinking the entire history of the Mediterranean during the period.

This book explores the Byzantine city and the changes it went through from 610 to 1204. Throughout this period, cities were always the centers of political and social life for both secular and religious authorities, and, furthermore, the focus of the economic interests of local landowning elites. This book therefore examines the regional and subregional trajectories in the urban function, landscape, structure and fabric of Byzantium's cities, synthesizing the most cutting-edge archaeological excavations, the results of analyses of material culture (including ceramics, coins, and seals) and a reassessment of the documentary and hagiographical sources. The transformation the Byzantine urban landscape underwent from the seventh to thirteenth centuries can afford us a better grasp of changes to the Byzantine central and provincial administrative apparatus; their fiscal machinery, military institutions, socio-economic structures and religious organization. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of the history, archaeology and architecture of Byzantium.

Ancona, Ariminum e Ravenna, tre città portuali romane affacciate su un comune orizzonte adriatico: tra strategie politiche e commerciali, stili di vita e traffici, l'analisi della loro dimensione marittima attraverso cinque secoli di storia, dal III secolo a.C. al II secolo d.C. La monografia fornisce una lettura degli indirizzi in termini di portualità attuati da Roma sul Medioadriatico. Essa si basa sull'analisi delle fonti nonché su un confronto serrato, a più livelli, condotto tra i tre impianti, le tre città e tra questi e altri comprensori portuali coevi della Penisola. Efficienza, funzionalità, rapporto con ambiente e infrastrutture sono solo alcuni dei parametri utilizzati per il confronto, mentre alla città portuale si guarda come a un luogo capace di recepire la dimensione marittima - nelle caratteristiche urbanistiche, nella sfera di culti attestati, in peculiarità che possano rivelarsi segno di un legame degli abitanti con il mare, nella mobilità di individui e nelle attività da essi praticate -, al fine di delineare una lettura'contestuale'del network costiero medioadriatico di cinque secoli che concorra a una ricostruzione storica globale. Ancona, Ariminum and Ravenna, three Roman port cities overlooking a common Adriatic horizon: between political and commercial strategies, lifestyles and traffic, the analysis of their maritime dimension through five centuries of history, from the third century BC to the second century AD. The monograph provides a reading of the directions taken by Rome on the Middle-Adriatic in terms of ports. It is based on the analysis of the sources as well as on a close comparison, at several levels, conducted between the three facilities, the three cities and between these and other contemporary port areas of the Peninsula. Efficiency, functionality, relationship with the environment and infrastructures are only some of the parameters used for the comparison, while the port city is looked at as a place capable of incorporating the maritime dimension - in the urban characteristics, in the sphere of cults attested, in peculiarities that may prove to be a sign of a link between the inhabitants and the sea, in the mobility of individuals and in the activities practiced by them - in order to delineate a'contextual'reading of the coastal network of the Middle-Adriatic five centuries that contributes to a global historical reconstruction.

This book offers a collection of essays on Byzantine Italy, the area from which we have inherited the richest and best-preserved historical evidence among all of the regions of the former Eastern Roman Empire up to the 11th century. The collection aims to provide readers with a critical overview of current research as well as new insights concerning political, institutional, economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects of the Italian regions under Byzantine rule. The methodological approach of the volume combines history with archaeology and art history, while remaining focused on the general framework of the early medieval Mediterranean. The result is a fresh and up-to-date synthesis that can be useful both for specialists and students. Contributors are: Lucia Arcifa, Paul Arthur, Isabella Baldini, Massimo Bernabò, Brunella Bruno, Salvatore Cosentino, Nathaniel Cutajar, Francesco D'Aiuto, Paola Degni, Deborah Deliyannis, Vera von Falkenhausen, Sauro Gelichi, Federico Marazzi, Jean-Marie Martin, Alessandra Molinari, Enrico Morini, Annliese Nef, Ghislaine Noye, Annick Peters-Custot, Vivien Prigent, Mario Re, Denis Sami, Pier Giorgio Spanu, and Enrico Zanini. See inside the book.

This volume offers the first comprehensive overview of the urbanisation processes that took place south and north of the Alps during the early first millennium BC, highlighting the interactions between the different geographical areas. The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age. In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and non­linear pathways towards urbanisation.

This book looks at how archaeologists in the early 21st century are dealing with the challenges and opportunities presented by development in archaeologically sensitive urban centres. Based on a session held at the 2017 EAA conference in Maastricht, the volume features case studies from across Europe and beyond – including Norway, Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy and Israel. The chapters look both at individual projects and larger thematic issues. How has urban archaeology changed the ways in which archaeologists work? Is it possible to predict (and avoid or protect) sensitive archaeology in dynamic urban centres? Do technical solutions to preservation in situ actually work? How are the public involved and how do archaeologists promote public engagement? What are some of the issues and problems for the future? This book is the first publication of the EAA Urban Archaeology Community, and its editors hope that it will provoke debate, and inform future developments in urban archaeology in Europe and beyond.

The richest and most politically complex regions in Italy in the earliest middle ages were the Byzantine sections of the peninsula, thanks to their links with the most coherent early medieval state, the Byzantine empire. This comparative study of the histories of Rome, Ravenna, and Venice examines their common Byzantine past, since all three escaped incorporation into the Lombard kingdom in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. By 750, however, Rome and Ravenna's political links with the Byzantine Empire had been irrevocably severed. Thus, did these cities remain socially and culturally heirs of Byzantium? How did their political structures, social organisation, material culture, and identities change? Did they become part of the Western political and ideological framework of Italy? This study identifies and analyses the ways in which each of these cities preserved the structures of the Late Antique social and cultural world; or in which they adapted each and every element available to them to their own needs, at various times and in various ways, to create a new identity based partly on their Roman heritage and partly on their growing integration with the rest of medieval Italy. It tells a story which encompasses the main contemporary narratives, documentary evidence, recent archaeological discoveries, and discussions on art history; it follows the markers of status and identity through titles, names, ethnic groups, liturgy and ritual, foundation myths, representations, symbols, and topographies of power to shed light on a relatively little known area of early medieval Italian history.

Un libro rigorosamente documentato e aggiornato che delinea i grandi temi e le possibilità di sviluppo dell'archeologia medievale.

Fifteen centuries ago, the island of Saint Andrew (Isola di Sant'Andrea), located in the basin of Lake Loppio, drained in 1956, was the seat of a fortified settlement, and in the Middle Ages a church dedicated to St. Andrew was built on its top. After sporadic discoveries beginning in the 19th century, in 1998 the Archaeology Department of the Rovereto Civic Museum began a research and study project on the site, comprising a series of summer excavation campaigns. The archaeological investigations, completed in 2017, have brought to light a multi-layered archaeological site with finds ranging from the prehistoric age to Late Antiquity, medieval times and even until the First World War. While the first volume (published in 2016) was about the results of the research concerning the 5th-7th century castrum, this second work takes into consideration the results of the archaeological research in the area of the church (Sectors C and C1). Contains contributions by Milena Anesi, Maurizio Battisti, Cinzia Borchia, Roberto Cabella, Florence Caillaud, Sabrina Calzà, Claudio Capelli, Simone Cavalieri, Anna Maria Fioretti, Luca Gardumi, Stefano Marconi, Marco Morghen, Michele Piazza, Alberta Silvestri, Eleonora Tomasini, Fabiana Zandonai.

In this book Sadi Maréchal examines the survival, transformation and eventual decline of Roman public baths and bathing habits in Italy, North Africa and Palestine during Late Antiquity. Through the analysis of archaeological remains, ancient literature, inscriptions and papyri, the continued importance of bathhouses as social hubs within the urban fabric is demonstrated, thus radically altering common misconceptions of their decline through the rise of Christianity and elite seclusion. Persistent ideas about health and hygiene, as well as perpetuating ideas of civic self-esteem, drove people to build, restore and praise these focal points of daily life when other classical buildings were left to crumble.

Butrint 6 describes the excavations carried out on the Vrina Plain by the Butrint Foundation from 2002–2007. Lying just to the south of the ancient port city of Butrint, these excavations have revealed a 1,300 year long story of a changing community that began in the 1st century AD, one which not only played its part in shaping the city of Butrint but also in how the city interacted and at times reacted to the changing political, economic and cultural situations occurring across the Mediterranean World over this period. Volume III discusses the Roman and Late Antique pottery from the Vrina Plain excavations. This detailed study of the ceramics follows the archaeological sequence recovered from the excavations in chronological order and provides a comprehensive and in depth review of the pottery, context by context, offering an important insight into the supply, as well as typology, of local and imported pottery available to the inhabitants of the Vrina Plain during this period. This is followed by a discussion on how the pottery trends found on the Vrina Plain relate to that of other sites in Butrint, both within the town (Triconch Palace; the Forum) and outside (Vrina Plain training school villa excavations; the villa of Diaporit). The volume also presents an overview of some of the principal typological developments found across Butrint so as to allow the reader to place the Vrina finds in context, including a discussion of a number of key contexts from the Forum, as well as the findings from thin-section petrology of some of the ceramics.

Aïn Wassel is the only rural site of Africa Proconsularis which has been excavated using the stratigraphic method and the detailed results are published in this volume thanks to an archaeological field survey of the surrounding rural region. The interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence of the excavated area was able to determine a precise chrono-typology of pottery and amphoras, and to outline the importance of the Vandal and Byzantine period, which was confirmed by additional data from the survey. The excavation provided evidence of sustainable intensive mixed farming: an oil mill and press, a grain hand mill, a sundial, bones of cattle and dromedaries raised for labour, transport, milk, meat, skins, wool. Remains of fowl, such as a partridge and fragments of ash tree, pine and olive stones were found and analyzed. Local imitations of African Red Slip (ARS) wares were identified for the first time, and three new types of amphoras of large dimensions were discovered and classified as Aïn Wassel 1, 2 and 3. The excavation proved that in the 7th c. AD North Africa was still very active and dynamic, where regional trade used both fluvial and ground transportation. Until recently, this was considered a period of crisis, abandonment of the countryside and ruralization of cities; it was not so.

In the Imperial Age, many ports in Italy had been built in opus coementicium. The most important ones were in Latium (eg. Portus Romae, Antium and Centumcellae), in the Phlegrean Fields (portus Iulius, Misenum, Puteoli and Baiae) and along the northern-Adriatic coast (Classis-Ravenna, Aquileia and Altino). The military fleets of Augustus, in particular, were quartered in the ports of Classis and Misenum. Most Roman ports were located at river mouths and/or in lagoon areas and were connected with inland areas by rivers or artificial canals. For this reason, port structures (piers and warehouses) were set at some distance from the sea, as in Rome (Emporium of Testaccio along the Tiber), in Pisa-San Rossore and in the Po valley. In Late Antiquity many of the Roman ports gradually fell into disuse while others continued until the 7th century. In Ravenna, however, a new port settlement, known as Civitas Classis, came into being in the 5th century, after the creation of the suburb of Portus Romae. In the Early Middle Ages, the northern-Adriatic coast became very important in connection with trade with Constantinople. New settlements equipped with timber port structures were created at Comacchio, Cittanova and in the Venetian lagoon. If maritime trade in the Tyrrhenian Sea decreased (although to a lesser extent in Byzantine towns like Naples), river-borne traade was still dynamic and often managed by abbeys and other ecclesiastical institutions. According to historical sources, many river wharves were located along the Po while San Vincenzo abbey managed the Volturno river. The Carolingian river wharves of San Vincenzo were composed of timber, stone and, according to the Roman tradition, concrete structures. A slow recovery of maritime trades is already evident in the Carolingian Age. This book analyses the Roman and early medieval ports of Italy and the building techniques used in their structures; it displays the elements of continuity and discontinuity revealed during these centuries.

'I nostri, incalzandoli senza sosta, li uccisero tutti; si salvarono solo pochissimi, di tanta moltitudine; e in tal modo, con l'aiuto e la misericordia di Dio, furono completamente eliminati da questa regione, nell'anno dell'Incarnazione del Signore 915, terza indizione, mese di agosto. Per tutto sia benedetto Dio'. Chronica Monasterii Casinensis Della tentata conquista islamica dell'Italia, che interessò tutto il corso del IX secolo, sappiamo davvero poco. Per far luce su quelle vicende, il libro prende le mosse dal racconto della grande battaglia avvenuta nel 915 non lontano dal fiume Garigliano, fra il Lazio e la Campania. Le truppe di una lega cristiana di Bizantini, Napoletani, Gaetani, Capuani e Amalfitani si scontrarono – sconfiggendoli – con i guerriglieri musulmani che trent'anni prima avevano fondato, su una collina prospiciente il fiume, un importante insediamento militare. Sono poi ricostruite le tappe principali dell'espansione musulmana nell'Italia continentale, con un occhio attento ai profili biografici e alle rappresentazioni ideologiche dei suoi protagonisti, ai luoghi, ai complessi e inaspettati rapporti politico-diplomatici intercorsi fra occupanti ed élites locali.

Testimone silente dello scorrere di civiltà, l'Adriatico è stato lo sfondo di storie in sé straordinarie, come la storia di Venezia, la stessa storia d'Italia, la storia dei Balcani. In pochi contesti, perfino su scala mondiale, troviamo affastellati nel tempo e nello spazio tanti aspetti contrastanti eppure connotativi, tanti richiami a civiltà diverse Un mare chiuso, un mare di passaggio, una frontiera tra Oriente e Occidente; un mare che ad un tempo unisce e divide; nell'Adriatico si sono intrecciate e sovrapposte molteplici vicende di natura politica, culturale, religiosa, nazionale. Anche i mari hanno una storia, come ci ha insegnato Braudel con il suo grande Mediterraneo. Questo libro ci racconta la storia dell'Adriatico dall'antichità a oggi: storia dei popoli che vi si sono affacciati, che da sponda a sponda hanno commerciato e navigato, hanno imposto il loro dominio, come Bisanzio e poi Venezia e gli Ottomani; e volta a volta hanno convissuto o si sono scontrati, come l'Impero asburgico e l'Italia, il mondo occidentale e il mondo comunista, i paesi generati dalla ex Jugoslavia. Una storia millenaria di rotte e traffici, guerre e convivenze, che compone il ritratto di una civiltà che si è fatta sul mare, grazie al mare.

Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity: New frontiers and new perspectives highlights the fact that the study of landscape has in recent years been a field for considerable analytical archaeological experimentation. This new situation has made it possible to rethink the orientation of some theoretical approaches to the subject; equally these methods have been profitably used for the formation of a new theoretical and conceptual framework. These analytical trends have also featured in the Mediterranean area. Although the Mediterranean is the home of classicism (which also defines a particular archaeological methodology), it has seen the implementation of projects of this new kind, and in regions of Spain and Italy, after some delay, the proliferation of landscape archaeology studies. There are examples of more-or-less sophisticated postcolonial archaeological work, albeit conducted at the same time as examples of unreconstructed colonial archaeology. It is not easy to resolve a situation like this which requires the full integration of the different national archaeological cultures into a truly global forum. But some reflection on the cultural differences between the various landscape archaeologies, at least in the West is required. These considerations have given rise to the idea of this book which examines these themes in the framework of the Mediterranean area.

Das vorliegende Werk eröffnet durch die Beschreibung von umfangreichem und bisher unveröffentlichtem Fundmaterial von der Inselgruppe Brijuni einen einzigartigen Einblick in die römische Nahrungsmittelproduktion und den damit stattfindenden Handel. Bei Tamás Bezeczkys ursprünglicher Forschung in den 1980er Jahren war eine Untersuchung der tausenden Amphoren, Dachziegel, Feinkeramiken und Glasfunde noch nicht möglich; sie wurden fortan unzugänglich in einem Depot aufbewahrt, bis Bezeczky deren Erforschung beschloss. Im Jahr 2011 begann eine zweite Phase in der Erforschung der Laecanius-Villen und Amphoren auf der Inselgruppe. Unter Bezeczkys Leitung formierte sich ein internationales Team, das den zugänglichen Bestand der wichtigsten Amphoren von Villa Castrum anhand der Merkmale an Rand, Sockel, Hals, Henkel und Griffelementen untersuchte. Die Mitglieder seines Teams (Piero Berni Millet, Michel Bonifay, Claudio Capelli, Horacio González Cesteros, Sándor Józsa, Alexander Schobert, Martino La Torre und György Szakmány) stehen für die Blickwinkel und Disziplinen, von denen aus sich Produktion und Handel von Nahrungsmitteln im Römischen Reich studieren lassen. Ihre Beiträge bilden die verschiedenen Kapitel der vorliegenden Publikation.

Uno de los grandes temas históricos, el de las revoluciones burguesas en la Edad Media, fue abordado con singular fecundidad por los historiadores liberales, para quienes tales insurrecciones marcaron el lejano inicio de las revoluciones burguesas de Inglaterra en el siglo XVII y de Francia entre 1789 y 1830, o contribuyeron a la formación del capitalismo al impulsar el comercio y los burgos. La historiografía posterior orilló, sin embargo, el tema, al demostrarse que el capitalismo no se originó en los grandes centros urbanos sino en el ámbito rural, con lo que las luchas comunales no serían el lejano inicio de las revoluciones burguesas de los siglos XVII y XVIII, como propugnaban historiadores clásicos como Thierry o Pirenne; pero no es menos cierto que influyeron decisivamente en la génesis de la sociedad civil y del moderno Estado occidental, y proporcionaron un cúmulo de experiencias para la lucha de clases que llevó al capitalismo. Partiendo de los nuevos conocimientos desarrollados en las últimas décadas, el prestigioso historiador Carlos Astarita reactualiza y ofrece en esta magna obra renovadas perspectivas acerca de unos episodios fundamentales en la génesis del capitalismo moderno y los estados europeos.

The Archaeology of Death: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, April 16-18, 2016 includes more than 60 papers, with contributors from the British Isles, Italy and other parts of continental Europe, and North and South America, which consider recent developments in Italian archaeology from the Neolithic to the modern period. Each region of Italy is represented, with specific sections of the volume devoted to Etruria, South Italy, and Sicily. Other sections have a chronological focus, including Italian Prehistory, the Roman period, and Post Antiquity. Following the primary theme of the meeting, the majority of papers revolve around the archaeology of death; numerous contributions analyse the cultural significance of death through examinations of funerary rituals and mortuary practices, while others analyse burial data for evidence of wider social and political change. Various papers consider new and recent discoveries in Italian archaeology, while others ask fresh questions of older datasets. In addition, a number of contributions showcase their employment of new methodologies deriving from technological innovations. The volume opens with a dedicatory section to mark the achievements of the Accordia Research Institute, and to celebrate the careers of two of its founders, Ruth Whitehouse and John Wilkins. The following paper(s) are available to download in Open Access: Cremation structures and funerary dynamics in Roman Veneto. New perspectives from Padua/Patavium – Cecilia Rossi and Irene Marini: Download

The collection Migration, Integration and Connectivity on the Southeastern Frontier of the Carolingian Empire offers insights into the Carolingian southeastern frontier-zone from historical, art-historical and archaeological perspectives.Chapters in this volume discuss the significance of the early medieval period for scholarly and public discourses in the Western Balkans and Central Europe, and the transfer of knowledge between local scholarship and macro-narratives of Mediterranean and Western history. Other essays explore the ways local communities around the Adriatic (Istria, Dalmatia, Dalmatian hinterland, southern Pannonia) established and maintained social networks and integrated foreign cultural templates into their existing cultural habitus. Contributors are Mladen Ančić, Ivan Basić, Goran Bilogrivić, Neven Budak, Florin Curta, Danijel Dzino, Krešimir Filipec, Richard Hodges, Nikola Jakšić, Miljenko Jurković, Ante Milošević, Marko Petrak, Peter Štih, Trpimir Vedriš.

Il mondo dell'archeologia cristiana: in un tempo in cui i titoli editoriali fanno a gara nell'essere allusivi o ammiccanti, singolari o stravaganti, attraenti per orpelli imposti dagli accorgimenti del marketing, questo volume si propone invece con una denominazione piana, forse persino ovvia, ma ambiziosa e modesta in uno: che non e un ossimoro, ma la ragionevole coincidenza cooperante di due realta. Gesto di ambizione il riferirsi ad un tutto universale e totale come ilmondo? Ma non e di tutto un mondo che si vuol trattare, perché esso qui appare mitigato dalla modestia del tratteggiarlo di fatto sullo sfondo, a far da cornice al tema che dovrebbe essere il principale, l'archeologia cristiana: la quale, a sua volta, ogni sua ambizione di protagonismo deve misurarla e ridimensionarla a fronte della vastita di tutto quel mondo, in cui pure si e manifestata ed evoluta ed ha lasciato traccia nella misura e con le risonanze le piu varie; e nel quale e ambientata e con il quale si confronta in corrette proporzioni. Perché, senza troppe forzature, questo titolo e il suo giro logico lo si puo interpretare in due modi correlati: che il mondo sia un tutto entro il quale si presenta l'archeologia cristiana; o che di essa si voglia presentare tutta la sua complessa realta, latinamente il suo mundus appunto, l'insieme di tutto cio che la costituisce, ma anche con cui essa e posta in relazione, si confronta e si incontra e in cui trova ospitalita. Insomma, o larcheologia cristiana nel mondo oppure un mondo come linsieme delle caratteristiche e degli aspetti dell'archeologia cristiana. Questo semplice lavoro di geografia storica si propone di ordinare assieme le varie componenti che giocarono un ruolo nell'evangelizzazione nel mondo tardoantico, sia nelle campagne sia nelle città. Molta parte ebbero in questo processo i centri urbani, sotto la guida di grandi figure di vescovi, ma anche di santi, anacoreti e di coloro che lavorarono al fine di stabilire e regolare il monachesimo. All'Italia e a Roma si affiancavano le molte province dell'Impero nonché le terre influenzate dalla romanità, come l'Irlanda. Inoltre bisogna citare i popoli che siamo soliti chiamare genericamente gentes externae, i cosiddetti'barbari'. Quando l'Impero cominciò il suo inarrestabile declino nell'Occidente di lingua latina, i popoli del nord presero il timone dei nuovi stati e mostrarono non poco genio organizzativo, spesso coadiuvati dalle vecchie classi dirigenti. In Oriente l'imperatore Costantino pensò di creare un nuovo e più vitale faro di civiltà di matrice greca: progetto che alla fine fallirà. Questo scritto ha come intento quello di fornire suggerimenti e linee guida agli studiosi, con oltre diecimila voci bibliografiche. Ci si è attenuti strettamente alla geografia dell'antico mondo mediterraneo, con alcuni cenni all'evangelizzazione delle terre a sud dell'Egitto e soprattutto ad est della Siria, mentre per Roma si è deciso di inserire, dopo una breve introduzione, esclusivamente indicazioni bibliografiche. Verranno qui menzionati, più o meno brevemente, molte figure, molti edifici di culto, molti eventi del nostro passato, ma saranno ricordati anche coloro che si sono impegnati sino al giorno d'oggi per la valorizzazione delle nostre radici cristiane. Maria Giuseppina Cerulli Irelli (Roma 1935) si è laureata presso'La Sapienza'di Roma sotto l'egida dei professori Giuseppe Lugli e Pietro Romanelli. Seguono due anni di specializzazione, interrotti dalla nomina a funzionario archeologo presso la Soprintendenza di Napoli e Pompei. Lasciata la Campania è stata nominata Soprintendente della Lombardia. Ha seguito poi l'organizzazione della prima mostra in Giappone dedicata al Mondo Pompeiano. È stata quindi nominata codirettrice dell'Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tokyo nonché addetto culturale della suddetta ambasciata. Durante questi incarichi ha tenuto corsi di Storia e Archeologia Romana presso le Università di Tokyo Waseda e delle F

This volume brings together scholars of Mediterranean archaeology, ancient history, and complexity science to advance theoretical approaches and analytical tools for studying maritime connectivity. For the coast-hugging populations of the ancient Mediterranean, mobility and exchange depended on a distinct environment and technological parameters that created diverse challenges and opportunities, making the modeling of maritime interaction a paramount concern for understanding cultural interaction more generally. Network-inspired metaphors have long been employed in discussions of this interaction, but increasing theoretical sophistication and advances in formal network analysis now offer opportunities to refine and test the dominant paradigm of connectivity. Extending from prehistory into the Byzantine period, the case studies here reveal the potential of such network approaches. Collectively they explore the social, economic, religious, and political structures that guided Mediterranean interaction across maritime space.

»Bei weitem die beste einbändige Gesamtdarstellung des Mittelalters.« Paul Freedman, Yale University 1000 Jahre europäisches Mittelalter: Souverän schildert und deutet Chris Wickham eine der bedeutendsten weltgeschichtlichen Epochen neu. Eine ebenso präzise wie grandiose Darstellung eines Jahrtausends, das uns bis heute prägt. Zwischen dem Zusammenbruch des weströmischen Reichs und der Reformation liegt eine 1000-jährige Periode gewaltiger Umwälzungen. In einer elegant geschriebenen, umfassenden Darstellung präsentiert Chris Wickham das europäische Mittelalter als eine Epoche gewaltigen Tatendrangs und tiefgreifenden Wandels. Stilsicher und klar erklärt er die wichtigsten Veränderungen in den einzelnen Jahrhunderten, zu denen so zentrale Krisen und Ereignisse wie der Untergang des weströmischen Reichs, die Reformen Karls des Großen, die feudale Revolution, die Zerstörung des byzantinischen Reich und das entsetzliche Wüten der Pest gehören. Mit erhellenden Momentaufnahmen unterstreicht Wickham, wie sich die verändernden sozialen, ökonomischen und politischen Umstände auf das Alltagsleben der Menschen und auf internationale Ereignisse auswirkten. Der Autor bietet sowohl eine neue Interpretation des europäischen Mittelalters als auch eine provokative neue These, inwiefern und warum das Mittelalter bis in unsere Gegenwart hineinwirkt. Eine der fesselndsten Darstellungen des mittelalterlichen Europa seit Jahrzehnten und ein intellektuelles Abenteuer. »Das ist genau das Mittelalter, das wir im 21. Jahrhundert kennenlernen müssen.« John Arnold, University of Cambridge

The departure point of the study is the project “The Economic Hinterland of a Centre, or Mere Settlements in the Vicinity of a Centre's Hinterland?” supported by the Grant Agency of the CR that explored the immediate surroundings and hinterland of the Great Moravian fortified centre of Pohansko, near Břeclav. The settlement structure in the vicinity of a densely populated centre and its development from the Early Hillfort period until the Late Hillfort period (8th – 12th centuries) were investigated by means of surface prospection, microprobes and archaeological research. Apart from defining the settlement structure, the number of inhabitants of the early medieval centre was estimated and the subsistence strategy of the population was examined. Earlier conceptions about a network of farming communities supplying the inhabitants of Great Moravian Pohansko were revised and a new model was introduced, based on the absence of chronologically parallel settlement (if this is at all possible to identify in the archaeological material), the revision of the construction elements of the traditional model and new or hitherto marginalized evidence of the active involvement of the centre's inhabitants in farming.

This volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Society for Medieval Archaeology (established in 1957), presenting reflections on the history, development and future prospects of the discipline. The papers are drawn from a series of conferences and workshops that took place in 2007-08, in addition to a number of contributions that were commissioned especially for the volume. They range from personal commentaries on the history of the Society and the growth of the subject (see papers by David Wilson and Rosemary Cramp), to historiographical, regional and thematic overviews of major trends in the evolution and current practice of medieval archaeology. All the publications are fully refereed with the aim of publishing at the highest academic level reports on sites of national and international importance, and of encouraging the widest debate. The series'objectives are to cover the broadest chronological and geographical range and to assemble a series of volumes which reflect the changing intellectual and technical scope of the discipline.

The 18th annual meeting of the Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology (SOMA) was held in Wrocław-Poland, 24th to 26th April 2014. Since prehistoric times the Mediterranean has acted as a stage for intense interactions between groups inhabiting regions that are now studied mainly within various sub-fields of ancient studies. In recent years, however, the development of research techniques and analytical models of archaeological evidence have identified similar historical paths that are similar, if not, in some cases, common to these disparate areas of the ancient world from West (Iberian peninsula) to East (Anatolia and Levant), from North (Europe, Black Sea Coast) to South (Maghreb and Egypt). The 18th SOMA provided a forum for presentations related to the above-mentioned topics, as well as general themes such as the role of the sea, trade, colonization, even piracy, using archaeological data collected within contexts associated with the Mediterranean Basin and the area referred to as the Ancient Near East, ranging chronologically from the Prehistoric to Medieval periods. This current volume contains 22 papers selected from the 90 presented.

Byzantium was one of the longest-lasting empires in history. Throughout the millennium of its existence, the empire showed its capability to change and develop under very different historical circumstances. This remarkable resilience would have been impossible to achieve without the formation of a lasting imperial culture and a strong imperial ideological infrastructure. Imperial culture and ideology required, among other things, to sort out who was ʻinsiderʼ and who was ʻoutsiderʼ and develop ways to define and describe ones neighbours and interact with them.There is an indefinite number of possibilities for the exploration of relationships between Byzantium and its neighbours. The essays in this collection focus on several interconnected clusters of topics and shared research interests, such as the place of neighbours in the context of the empire and imperial ideology, the transfer of knowledge with neighbours, the Byzantine perception of their neighbours and the political relationship and/or the conflict with neighbours.

Targeting advanced students of astronomy and physics, as well as astronomers and physicists contemplating research on supernovae or related fields, David Branch and J. Craig Wheeler offer a modern account of the nature, causes and consequences of supernovae, as well as of issues that remain to be resolved.Owing especially to (1) the appearance of supernova 1987A in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, (2) the spectacularly successful use of supernovae as distance indicators for cosmology, (3) the association of some supernovae with the enigmatic cosmic gamma-ray bursts, and (4) the discovery of a class of superluminous supernovae, the pace of supernova research has been increasing sharply. This monograph serves as a broad survey of modern supernova research and a guide to the current literature.The book's emphasis is on the explosive phases of supernovae. Part 1 is devoted to a survey of the kinds of observations that inform us about supernovae, some basic interpretations of such data, and an overview of the evolution of stars that brings them to an explosive endpoint. Part 2 goes into more detail on core-collapse and superluminous events: which kinds of stars produce them, and how do they do it? Part 3 is concerned with the stellar progenitors and explosion mechanisms of thermonuclear (Type Ia) supernovae. Part 4 is about consequences of supernovae and some applications to astrophysics and cosmology. References are provided in sufficient number to help the reader enter the literature.

Il volume raccoglie gli Atti del III Convegno dell'Istituto di Ricerche e Documentazione sugli Antichi Umbri (IRDAU), che nel 2011 ha riunito oltre cinquanta Studiosi a Perugia e Gubbio attorno al fulcro della tematica religiosa antico-italica, affrontata nei vari aspetti delle manifestazioni cultuali, degli assetti teologici, e delle implicazioni in termini di ricostruzione storica e socio-culturale. I vari contributi offrono una messa a punto critica e metodologica sulla religione nell'Italia antica e insieme una revisione di molti nodi cruciali, e danno vita ad un'opera coesa nella pluralità di approcci e prospettive e di notevole impatto sulla materia delle antichità italiche, che si unisce ora agli Atti dei due precedenti Convegni IRDAU (2001, 2003), pubblicati in altra sede. Augusto Ancillotti, già Professore ordinario di Glottologia presso l'Università degli Studi di Perugia e Direttore dell'IRDAU, è studioso delle Tavole Iguvine e promotore di progetti di divulgazione collegati. Alberto Calderini è Ricercatore di Glottologia presso l'Università degli Studi di Perugia, autore di pubblicazioni prevalentemente sull'ambito linguistico latino-sabellico. Riccardo Massarelli è Dottore di Ricerca in Linguistica e Professore a contratto presso l'Università degli Studi di Perugia, autore di pubblicazioni principalmente sull'etrusco.

A spirited and thought-provoking history of the vast changes that transformed Europe during the 1,000-year span of the Middle Ages The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period—one not easily chronicled within the scope of a few hundred pages. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation. Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne's reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events. Wickham offers both a new conception of Europe's medieval period and a provocative revision of exactly how and why the Middle Ages matter.

Core tourist sites for the classical world are the ruins of those many and scattered examples of'lost'and abandoned towns - from Pompeii to Timgad to Ephesus and Petra. Usually studied for their peaks and growth, rarely are their ends explored in detail, to consider the processes of loss and also to trace their'afterlives', when they were often robbed for materials even if still hosting remnant populations.This volume breaks new ground by examining the phenomenon of urban loss and abandonment from Roman to medieval times across the former Roman Empire. Through a series of case studies two main aspects are examined: firstly, the sequences and chronologies of loss of sites, roles, structures, people, identity; and secondly the methodologies of study of these sites - from early discoveries and exploitation of such sites to current archaeological and scientific approaches (notably excavation, urban survey, georadar and geophysics) to studying these crucial centres and their fates. How can we determine the causes of urban failure - whether economic, military, environmental, political or even religious? How drawn out was the process of urban decay and abandonment? What were the natures of the afterlives of these sites which archaeology is beginning to trace? How far does scrutiny of these'extinct'sites help in discussion of archaeological trajectories of sites that persisted? The fourteen core chapters in this collection consider specific examples and case studies of such'lost'classical cities from across the many Roman provinces in order to address these questions. Bringing together an array of archaeological and historical voices to share views on and findings from excavations and surveys of'failed'towns, this volume offers much to scholars of Roman, late antique and early medieval and medieval archaeology and history.

The VIII Workshop ArcheoFOSS, Free, Libre and Open Source Software e Open Format for archeological research, was held in Catania, at The Department of Mathematics and Informatics of Catania University, on June 18-19, 2013. The workshop was attended by about 60 Italian scientists and specialists of open source technology for cultural heritage and archaeology. During the workshop, several original contributions were presented in well attended talks, followed by lively Q&A and open discussion among the attenders. The Workshop sessions were organized around general themes: Usage and application of Geographical Information Systems; 3D modeling; Data Management. The papers related to oral contribution have been expanded, revised, peer reviewed and collected here according to the same themes. The contributed talks have been also complemented by 3D modeling and digital visual effects tutorials. A lively barcamp covering the main issues related with the main topics of the conference concluded the meeting. It is hoped that the present collection of papers will provide readers and experts useful ideas and research perspectives beyond the people attending the workshop.

Twenty-three contributions by leading archaeologists from across Europe explore the varied forms, functions and significances of fortified settlements in the 8th to 10th centuries AD. These could be sites of strongly martial nature, upland retreats, monastic enclosures, rural seats, island bases, or urban nuclei. But they were all expressions of control - of states, frontiers, lands, materials, communities - and ones defined by walls, ramparts or enclosing banks. Papers run from Irish cashels to Welsh and Pictish strongholds, Saxon burhs, Viking fortresses, Byzantine castra, Carolingian creations, Venetian barricades, Slavic strongholds, and Bulgarian central places, and coverage extends fully from northwest Europe, to central Europe, the northern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Strongly informed by recent fieldwork and excavations, but drawing also where available on the documentary record, this important collection provides fully up-to-date reviews and analyses of the archaeology of the distinctive settlement forms that characterized Europe in the Early Middle Ages.

A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy is a concise yet comprehensive cutting edge survey of the rise and fall of Italy's first barbarian kingdom, the Ostrogothic state (ca. 489-554 CE). The volume's 18 essays provide readers with probing syntheses of recent scholarship on key topics, from the Ostrogothic army and administration to religious diversity and ecclesiastical development, ethnicity, cultural achievements, urbanism, and the rural economy. Significantly, the volume also presents innovative studies of hitherto under-examined topics, including the Ostrogothic provinces beyond the Italian lands, gender and the Ostrogothic court, and Ostrogothic Italy's environmental history. Featuring work by an international panel of scholars, the volume is designed for both new students and specialists in the field.Contributors are Jonathan Arnold, Shane Bjornlie, Samuel Cohen, Kate Cooper, Deborah Deliyannis, Cam Grey, Guy Halsall, Gerda Heydemann, Mark Johnson, Sean Lafferty, Natalia Lozovsky, Federico Marazzi, Christine Radtki, Kristina Sessa, Paolo Squatriti, Brian Swain, and Rita Lizzi Testa.