The inner Sabina: settlement pattern and society of a territory in the middle of the Apennines in pre-Roman time.
(2024)
Files
Tesi-DarioMonti.pdf
Embargo Access until 2026-11-26 - Adobe PDF
- 5.43 MB
Details
- Authors
- Supervisors
- Cavalieri, Marco
- Abstract
- This research investigates the patterns of human settlement in the central Apennines from the Early Iron Age to the Roman conquest (290 BCE). Historically, both the region and its ancient communities have been considered peripheral and underdeveloped. Consequently, the Apennines have received limited scholarly attention, primarily due to the scarcity of urban phenomena, which are often viewed as a fundamental stage in human development through an evolutionary-teleological lens. This study challenges such narratives, offering a new interpretive framework that seeks to overcome previous biases. The central Apennines hold particular significance due to the role attributed to the Sabines by Greek and Latin literary sources. These sources describe the Sabines as the ancestors of several Italic peoples of central Italy. Evidence suggests that, around the mid-first millennium BCE, numerous communities in central Italy identified with a shared Sabine heritage, making them a critical subject for Italic studies. The study focuses on the northernmost part of the inner Sabine territory—located at the junction of modern Lazio, Umbria, and Marche—which had an abundance of previously unexamined archaeological data. This research involved the analysis of unpublished archaeological materials alongside data gathered from archaeological surveys, remote sensing (aerial, drone, and satellite imagery), and archival sources. Emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach, the study also incorporated geomorphology, geology, hydrography, and paleoclimatology to understand the factors influencing settlement patterns. The resulting analysis provides a comprehensive framework for understanding Sabine communities' settlement dynamics, including land use, economic exploitation, territorial control, and the organization of funerary and votive spaces.
- Affiliations
Citations
Monti, D. (2024). The inner Sabina: settlement pattern and society of a territory in the middle of the Apennines in pre-Roman time. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/245854