Rusticana Amoenitas. Insediamenti rurali e strutture agrarie nella Regio III Lucania et Bruttii dalla conquista romana al tardoantico

The work is made up of seven chapters, of varying complexity and extension, divided as follows: Chapter 1 concerns the geographical and environmental framework because, when approaching the archaeological study of a territory, whatever it may be, the topographic and environmental aspects are of utmost importance. Starting from the discussion on the historical borders of Regio III Lucania et Bruttii, we are able to draw a geomorphological picture of the macroregion, with particular attention to the geolocic description, the nature of the soils, the morphology of the relief, the climate, the hydrography, the vegetation and the local fauna, to subsequently develop a view of modern and historical cartography regarding the southern regions of Italy affected by this study. Chapter 2 examines Roman agriculture, starting from the major agronomic sources of Latin literature, such as Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladio, but also Virgil and Pliny the Elder, the fortune they had in antiquity and the difficult feedback from the advice included in their treatises within the archaeological phenomenology available to us. The second part of the chapter focuses, however, on modern botanical literature, on the phytological characteristics of the species cultivated in antiquity (especially cereals, vines and olive trees, the cornerstones of the so-called “Mediterranean triad”, but also vegetables), on their habitat and on climatic and soil particularities, followed by notions and historical references extrapolated from ancient agronomic treatises and historical works of ancient Rome. Furthermore, particular attention was paid to the data returned from the archaeobotanical evidence of the individual cultivated species, as well as of the spontaneous species, and of their introduction on the soil of the Italian peninsula and of Magna Graecia in particular. A separate exhibition is dedicated to livestock breeding, both small and larger breeds. The breeding of domestic animals played a decisive role in the economy of those groups of rustic populations settled in the harshest and most internal territories of the peninsula, where the implementation of agriculture presented many practical difficulties. Not only that, but the breeding of livestock was practiced not only by shepherds for the production of skins, meat, milk and its derivatives, but above all by farmers for their use in field work. A particular group of farm animals is made up of fish species, particularly sought after at banquets as a luxury category, on a par with exotic bird species. Both of these animals had their own places for growth, protection and maintenance, as is the case of the cetariae in the villae maritimae of the Tyrrhenian coast intended for saltwater fish bred within them. The last section is dedicated to the relationship between archeology and nutrition, i.e. the transformation of food products for their consumption and storage, therefore the different uses that could be obtained from food in Roman antiquity, the tools and laboratories that were needed for their manipulation, transformation and conservation. This is followed by research, in the literary works of Roman antiquity, of references to agricultural production, breeding, trade and circulation of food goods, of the passages of Latin authors ranging from the Middle Republican Age to Late Antiquity, which help to better understand the economic activities carried out in the countryside, coasts and mountainous landscapes of the Regio III Lucania et Bruttii. These introductory chapters, but methodologically necessary for the purposes of research, on the anthropized environment and on the agricultural and zootechnical practices of Magna Graecia in Roman times are followed by Chapter 3, of historical-topographic synthesis, on the appearance and development of the Roman agricultural firm which it goes by the generic name of ‘villa’. Starting from the history of studies on villas in Italy and in the southern regions, from an introductory study on the villa in the Roman world according to the vision of the ancient rei rusticae writers, we focus as an example on two case studies of rural villas excavated and published in Italy in relatively recent times, which have had great importance and widespread echo for the development of research: they are the sites of Settefinestre in Etruria and Villa Regina in Boscoreale in Campania. Within the chapter, the various units according to which the Roman villa was modulated are clarified, with particular attention to the pars fructuaria (where the production activities connected to the transformation and conservation of food products derived from work in the fields took place). The collection of data on agricultural settlements is associated with the toponymic analysis of the Regio III Lucania et Bruttii and the identification of the predial toponyms of Latin origin which have in a certain way, and according to different modalities, survived the collapse of the ancient world and its economic system in the regions of southern Campania, Basilicata and Calabria. The examination of the rural landscape in Roman times concludes with the final paragraph on the appearance and diffusion in Regio III of the slave-type production model in the Late Republic, the development of the settlements of the “villa system” in the Imperial age, the enrichment of the senatorial class and of the local landowners during the first centuries of the Empire, to subsequently delve into the developments of the economic model based on the villa in the period of Late Antiquity thanks to the examples witnessed by the excavations offered by the major localities of Lucania and Bruttium. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the widespread road and infrastructure network (land routes, river crossings, road axes in the river valleys, sheep tracks, ports and sea landings) from the Roman age of Regio III, with the identification of ancient production sites and the drafting of the catalog of villas and farms. Within the chapter, a general catalog has been developed of the villas identified in the three areas of Cilento, Lucania and Calabria of which Regio III is made up, grouped following the well-established criterion in topographical research of accompanying the archaeological evidence to the layout of the ancient routes of communication. In this regard, we know the villas and rural settlements (vici, pagi, etc.) which overlook: 1) the consular way ab Rhegio ad Capuam (the so-called via Annia/Popilia); 2) on via Herculia; 3) on the Tyrrhenian coastal road; 4) on the Ionian coastal road. These main routes are complemented by the multitude of second-level mountain roads and sheep tracks. The catalog of villas includes short descriptions on each individual site and a greater focus – where they have been identified by excavations or surface reconnaissance – on production structures such as millstones, presses, oil mills, warehouses, mills, barns, farmyards, etc., which allow us to recognize with greater certainty the ‘fruit-bearing’ activities carried out within the production area of the villa-farm itself. Chapter 5 begins the analytical description of the archaeological evidence concerning the production plants and the premises for the transformation of agricultural products, as well as for their short and long-term storage: the wine and oil presses (torcularia), oil settling tanks, wine presses and must collection tanks (calcatoria and lacus), oil mills (mola), storage rooms (horrea), both indoors and outdoors, the warehouses for the amphorae found along the Ionian coast, the systems and rooms for the conservation and processing of cereals, such as the threshing floors and granaries (areae and nubilaria), the mills and ovens (pistrina). Chapter 6, dedicated to the production plants and premises for the transformation of forest and sea products, closes the analytical description of the production laboratories of the rural settlements by addressing, first of all, the plants for the production of pitch in the mountain areas of Bruttium , then the breeding of livestock and the structures connected to the maintenance of domestic animals (stables), the manufacturing process of the materials obtained from them (fullonicae and textrinae), up to the maritime plants of the coastal villas for the breeding of species sought-after fish and for fish processing and the production of sauce (piscinae, cetariae, salting tanks). In Chapter 7, after the discussion on the “central” and “peripheral” villa-system, an attempt was made to insert the Roman evidence and the rustic settlements of the Regio III within their broader landscape framework, analyzing the environment and the conditions of the phytoclimatic areas of the Italian peninsula and relating these with the archaeological evidence relating to the production of food goods, divided into main geographical areas (western Lucania, eastern Lucania, northern Bruttium, southern Bruttium), taking into account the type and quality of the soils, their capacity for agricultural and forestry purposes, as well as the seasonality and intensity of the winds in the choice of the location of the warehouses with respect to the structure of the villa and their exposure with respect to the cardinal points based on the possible stored material. The conclusions of the work trace a general historical-topographic picture of the rustic settlement of the Roman era, of the peculiar architecture, of the interior decoration and, above all, of the role it played in the social and economic development of the Regio III.