Roman Peasant and Rural Organisation in Central Italy: An Archaeological Perspective

Abstract

Roman rural landscapes have long been associated with villas, that generally were regarded as its central feature; studies of Roman landscapes were consequently often limited to a villa and its immediate vicinity. This bias in most historical and archaeological research is now increasingly being redressed, mainly by intensive archaeological surveying. The resulting large numbers of small rural sites in particular point to a much more varied Roman countryside with considerably more complex organisation. Concentrating on the rural landscape outside the villas, therefore, the peasantry and their relations with the rural elite are the central issues in a case study of a small valley in Roman northern Etruria.