On the orientation of Roman towns in Italy

As is well known, several Roman sources report on the existence of a town foundation ritual, inherited from the Etruscans, which allegedly included astronomical references. However, the possible existence of astronomical orientations in the layout of Roman towns has never been tackled in a systematic way. As a first step in this direction, the orientation of virtually all Roman towns in Italy (38 cities) is studied here. Non-random orientation patterns emerge from these data, aiming at further research in this field.Comment: Archaeoastronomy/History of astronomy; 11 pages, 3 figure

Adhuc Tacfarinas: the causes of the Tiberian war in North Africa (AD ca. 15-24) and the impact of the conflict on Roman imperial policy

During the reign of Tiberius successive governors of Africa Proconsularis struggled to suppress a serious revolt by a number of semi-nomadic tribes led by Tacfarinas. The conflict can only be explained convincingly as an indigenous act of negative negotiation of the Roman administrative encroachment on tribal territory. An in-depth analysis of the literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence, as well as modern migration patterns, indicates that the rebellion should be perceived as the outcome of cadastral activities, which entailed taxation and confiscations. The actual causes of this rebellion do not support the traditional view of antagonism between agriculturalist and pastoralist communities in North Africa

Flooding in Northern Italy during the Early Middle Ages: resilience and adaptation

open1Alluvial phenomena are well documented by archaeologists all over Northern Italy, and have been often linked to events reported by literary sources (e.g. the flooding of 589 described by Paul the Deacon). This paper will discuss, on the basis of the archaeological documentation of several case studies, flooding in the Middle Ages, considering it both as a periodical threat in certain regions and as resilience, or rather as the capacity of the local people to bring the land back to its original appearance. The paper also discusses the economic and social impact of alluvial phenomena. They were a hazard for populations forced to change settlement distribution, but also offered new economic opportunities, through the exploitation of wetlands and forests.openBrogiolo, GIAN PIETROBrogiolo, GIAN PIETR

Methodological insights into the study of centuriated field systems: a landscape archaeology perspective

The morphological identification of centuriated field systems has been characterised from its beginnings by methodological approaches mainly sustained on actus-based modular relationships and orientations. Many researchers dedicated to the identification of centuriations have only performed archaemorphological analyses based on interpretation of aerial photographs and maps without field verification or any other proof of the validity of their hypothsis. Their restitutions consisted of a set of lines over a map or an aerial photograph which often lacked precision and spatial resolution. This article argues that the study of centuriations should transform its aims, scope and methodologies to be converged with those presented by diachronic transdisciplinary landscape archaeology. In order to do so a series of integrated methodological approaches are exposed and their applicability discussed

Cadastres et Espace Rural dans le Nord-Ouest du Péloponnèse

Journal URL: http://ista.univ-fcomte.fr/DHA_Sommaires_Resumes.htmlJournal URL: http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/revue/dh

The Alcobaça Abbey hydraulic landscape

Introduction: This paper concerns the main domain (“coutos”) of Alcobaça Abbey (central Portugal), founded in 1153. It shows the involvement of the Cistercian monks in shaping hydraulic landscapes along time. This monastic territory is limited westwards by the Atlantic ocean with a cliff coast indented by two large gulfs, the Pederneira lagoon, north , totally sanded up nowadays, and the Alfeizerão lagoon, south, of which only the São Martinho bay still exists. These landscapes have been consolidated along with the monks’ intervention in the hydrographic plan, particularly through a network of canals, the types of which can be summarized as follows: - canals for water conveyance and evacuation, to and from the abbey buildings; - canals related with water-powered engines as grain-, oil-, saw- and fulling-mills, forges and other industrial devices; - canals consequent to the diversion of rivers and streams with two main purposes: . to drain the fields in order to improve the marshes for agricultural use; . to irrigate cultures. Method: The hydraulic landscape planning has been identified and characterized through documentary research, stereoscopic interpretation of panchromatic and infrared “false colour” vertical aerial photographs, and land surveys. Findings / discussion: Flood control seems to have been one of the main hydro technical concern of the Cistercians. Their strategy was to subdivide some hydrographic basins, so that the fields would not be flooded. This was observed in the fields of the ancient Pederneira lagoon, for which an important cartography is available. But the same strategy was probably applied in the Alfeizerão fields. Besides the canals which were analyzed, other canal networks existed but it has not been possible to identify them till now because of the soil erosion or the topographic transformations together with the documental lack of knowledge. The more blatant situation concerns the old Valdeventos monastic farm, at the eastern limit of the “coutos”, where was found a large water storage structure, a tank, presumably to supply an irrigation canal network. Conclusion: Between the early 12th century and the mid 18th century, the Cistercian monks of the Alcobaça Abbey conceived and set in their “coutos” a hydraulic landscape composed by a network of canals with different purposes, and other water devices. This waterscape presents a high heritage value and deserves to be protected and developed.UID/HIS/00057/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007702

Les marqueurs de limites dans les Étymologies d’Isidore de Séville (XV, 14)

El final del libro XV de las Etimologías de Isidoro de Sevilla contiene indicaciones sobre la forma en la que el autor percibe y trata de transmitir las enseñanzas de los agrimensores de época imperialque se ocuparon de la organización del terreno. Isidoro define todo un conjunto de datos y entre éstos aquellos concernientes a las marcas limítrofes de forma particular (sobre todo el cap. 14). Las fuentes del obispo de Sevilla son, principalmente, Frontino e Higinio el Gromático (que se encuadran cronológicamente hacia los años 75-80). A estas fuentes las dota, inteligentemente, de un desarrollo enciclopédico, marcado por un deseo de sistematización y generalización al tiempo que de simplificación: trata, por ejemplo, de generalizar el empleo de la palabra limes a todas las cuadriculas de la centuración; por otro lado, propone de forma original una etimología de decumanus a través del signo X = decem. Intenta, asimismo, actualizar los textos de referencia para remarcar la perduración de la impronte romana sobre los territorios: de este modo, sustituye el imperfecto distabant de Frontino 3, 6, Isidoro (15, 14, 5) por el presente distant. En la medida de sus posibilidades, trató de contribuir a la fijación y a la perduración de la romanización. También alude a la importancia de los hitos señalizadores (sabemos que una de las peores acciones que podía hacer un propietario de tierra era mover o desplazar uno de estos hitoa), pero, con el objeto de ser más exhaustivo, no se contentó con hablar mediante termini clásicos (desarrolló una etimología fundamentada en terra y mensura e hizo del hito señalizador el elemento en que se apoyó toda la señalización de la agrimensura de una zona romanizada): hace alusión, también, a las arcae de época tardía. En torno a los términos clave para universalizar sus razonamientos, este enciclopedista desarrolla también todo el sistema romano de organización del territorio y subraya una última cuestión; la necesidad de garantizar siempre la aequalitas y la aequitas. Podríamos decir, pues, que Isidoro aportó, de una forma consciente y deliberada, su sello propio, en lo concerniente a la supervivencia de la romanización de los territorios