Late-antique Roman Villas in Central Italy. Compared Settlement Patterns: the Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi Case

Cavalieri, Marco [UCL] et al.

The poster we are presenting is centered on Late-antique Roman villas and their environmental context in Central Italy, between the IV and the VII century A.D. The aim of our work is to provide tools of analysis and to offer a setting in which the archaeological site located in Aiano – Torraccia di Chiusi (mid-northern Tuscany) could be included. The present-day regions included in our study are Tuscany, Marches, Lazio, Umbria and Abruzzi. In some cases, the spectrum will be broadened to also enclose the territories on the northern boundaries of the present-day regions of Campania, Basilicata and Puglia (southern Italy), in order to establish a more precise comparison with other sites of relevance. Our insight starts from an attempt to define the relevant features in modes of settlement and the population patterns in rural Central Italy; on one hand our attention will be driven to case-studies which are particularly relevant as functional and architectural types; on the other hand, we will point out the diverging scenarios we encounter. We will then try to analyze the transformations in villas sites in Central Italy. We will use as a basis the tendencies and phenomena observed and described by many recent studies, which deal with the end of Late Antique villas in western provinces (i.e. “subdivision”, “squatter occupation”, functional conversion of residential areas into manufacturing sectors, cultic and funerary use, etc.). In addition to this, we will search for constant features and differences, in mode and time, of these processes within the territory under analysis. Eventually, our survey will consider in greater depth the case of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi, which, by describing its significant features, will be defined as a Late Roman Villa. We understand that, according to previous studies on the area, the finding of Aiano may appear unexpected in this particular chronological and geographical context. In fact the interpretation of the remains and the definition of the site’s development phases remain difficult. Nonetheless, we are still inclined to consider this complex as born as a “villa”, intended as structure that is functional to rural property management and to the definition of the owner’s status, together with all the implied structural features.