Urbanism in Archaic Rome: The Archaeological Evidence

Abstract

The ancient literary tradition, together with piecemeal archaeological evidence, has conventionally served as a basis for investigating the origin of the city of Rome. This study aims to counterbalance earlier studies by using archaeological evidence as the main data of the examination, particularly new archaeological discoveries and scientific studies. The archaeological record from early Rome shows that urbanization was a gradual process taking place over several centuries. However, from the wide range of archaeological material studied in this article, it is evident that an intense wave of urbanization emerged in Rome in the archaic period. Certain features conventionally attributed to cities, such as population growth, monumental architecture, urban planning, networks, public inscriptions, and craft specialization, are visible in the archaeological material from the sixth and early fifth centuries bc.