Over the last decades excavations, survey and environmental studies have generated a wealth of data on the countryside around Rome north and south of the Tiber. The data pertain to rural settlement from the small farmstead to the large villa and comprise of non-urban burial grounds, production facilities such as pottery kilns, smithies, mines, infrastructure, field systems or give information on crop choice, manuring, land reclamation and land degradation. In combination this wealth of information, often still unconnected, can inform us on the functioning and performance of the Roman economy in a crucial period of Rome's rise to power during the Archaic and mid- Republican periods and investigate its subsequent development during the Late Republican and Early Imperial period within a globalizing context. The geographical scope of the double session will include Etruria and Lazio and its time frame will cover the period from the Archaic to the Imperial. In the first part we will deal specifically with the Archaic to Mid-Republican periods, in the second part the focus will shift to the Late Republican and Imperial periods. Papers covering the total chronological range will be grouped separately. Rather than descriptive single cases, the session aims at data-driven, quantitative and interpretive studies in order to investigate drivers and performance of the Central Italian rural economy during a period of an upscaling economy. Besides the papers mentioned, other research groups have also expressed an interest.

1. Gabriele Cifani (Università degli studi di Roma "Tor Vergata")

The rural economy of early Rome
This paper discusses the evidence of some rural buildings recently investigated in the suburb of Rome as historical documents to reconstruct the economy of Rome and central Tyrrhenian Italy in the archaic phase.
During the sixth centuries BC there was a large population increase in Etruria and Latium, as revealed by the rise in the number of archaeological sites and the beginning of systematic production of wine and olive oil.
Survey data testify to new territorial organisation and, for the first time, the presence on a large scale of scattered open sites. Archaeological evidence suggests an agricultural strategy far beyond one of mere subsistence, and comparable to that seen the contemporary rural landscapes of Etruria and Greece.
Olive and wine cultivation imply the evolution of land property rights, a greater sophistication of the agricultural sector in terms of culture and organisation, the need for a more specialised labour force and the increase in entangled economies.

2. Peter Attema (University of Groningen) / Tymon de Haas (University of Cologne) / Gijs Tol

The Pontine Region from Archaic to Imperial times: settlement, economy, demography
In the Pontine region, south of Rome, the Groningen Institute of Archaeology has carried out regional surveys for over 30 years now. This has resulted in a substantial database holding classified site and ceramic data that we consider representative for the various landscape zones of the region investigated so far. The Pontine database is suited to analyse regional rural settlement patterns in space and time and to reconstruct economic and demographic trends on the local and regional scale between protohistory and Imperial times. So far we have carried out a restricted number of quantified socio-economic case studies of specific landscapes within the Pontine Region as well as one aggregated regional analysis of long-term demographic trends. We now aim at more refined regional analyses and comparison with nearby regions around Rome.
In short our objectives are to:
a) carry out regional socio-economic analyses against which local situations can be measured in order to study internal socio-economic dynamics within the Pontine region
b) to integrate our database with other databases available for the study of the Suburbium of Rome to study supraregional socio-economic dynamics within Rome´s hinterland.
The latter objective is part of a new collaborative initiative to study the Suburbium of Rome north and south of the Tiber.
In this paper we will discuss the progress we have made in working with the Pontine Region database to achieve the objectives described and present new initiatives.

3. Stephen Collins-Elliott (University of Tennessee)

Measuring Rural Economic Development through Categorical Data Analysis in Southern Etruria and Latium (400 BCE – 50 CE)
The comparison of the results of rural surveys and excavations has been a long-standing interest in the study of the ancient economy, seeking above all a way to measure changes in settlement patterns and site hierarchies over time. This paper presents a model that utilizes a flexible semantic concordance to standardize site- and artifact-level features from published surveys and excavations, which can then be used to map the presence and prevalence of different economic activities, namely, the production and use of different commodities, the transport, storage, and consumption of resources, as well as monetized exchange. Then, methods of categorical data analysis, primarily but not solely multiple correspondence analysis, are used to measure variability in the dynamics of production and consumption among multiple microregions within the hinterland of Rome over time. The use of a probabilistic framework of inference, along with resampling and sensitivity tests on the quality of the data observed, further allows for estimates of uncertainty to be incorporated into the model. The method thus yields a picture of long-term change in the rural economy as the population of Rome increased over the last several centuries BCE and first half of the first century CE, a multi-faceted perspective of economic development and integration in the countryside beyond just the intensity of agricultural productivity.

4. Simon Stoddart (University of Cambridge)

Letizia Ceccarelli, Incorporation into the Roman world: rural settlement and production on the frontier between Etruria and Umbria
Recent work with the assistance of Marco Amadei, Jeremy Bennett, Nicholas Whitehead, has studied the potential frontier between Etruscan Perugia and Umbrian Gubbio which lies close to the watershed north of Montelabate (Perugia). Systematic field survey on the Gaslini estate has established an interesting local trajectory for the incorporation of a probable Etruscan enclave on the left bank of the Tiber into the Roman world. Within the immediate area of Montelabate only three sites, Civitella Benazzone, Civitella d’Arna and Col di Marzo appear to have been occupied in the Etruscan period. Excavations at the small naturally defended centre of Col di Marzo suggest an occupation from the fifth century BC until the first half of the third century BC. Incorporation within the Roman political orbit first led to a complete abandonment of the area, but gradually from the late first century BC, small farmsteads began to be inserted, reaching a peak in the early imperial period. The excavation of a kiln complex close to Montelabate itself suggests the economic motive for this demographic shift, that lasted in two distinct phases from the first until the fifth century AD. In the first phase the local landscape was part of a network of wine supply for the major population of Rome and the local market for over two hundred years. This led to the production of flatter bottomed amphorae suitable for shallow draft river craft which could have navigated the Tiber from a point just below the site. The gentle slopes of the low hills of the Apennines were highly suitable for wine and olive production whilst also offering clays of reasonable quality, limestone for temper and plentiful wood supplies for firing the kilns. In a second stage, the kilns we employed for the production of tiles and coarsewares, serving a local economy. From the study of this small region we have an insight into the microeconomics of the Roman empire.

5. Alessandro Launaro (University of Cambridge)

A view from the margins: Interamna Lirenas and its territory in the long-term
There can hardly be any doubt that goods moved in large quantities and over great distances under the Roman empire. However, uncritically assuming that everything managed to get everywhere and in comparably high volumes might lead to over-emphasise the impact of overseas trade at the expense of (comparably less understood) local production, distribution and consumption patterns. As a result, our understanding of landscapes which were placed at the margins of the Mediterranean trade network might be seriously affected by their reduced archaeological visibility. A case in point is the Roman town of Interamna Lirenas, in Central Italy: although located at the margins of the Mediterranean distribution network, it was very much embedded in a regional system of periodical markets (nundinae). Recent excavations and field-surveys have produced a rich dataset of pottery consumption at this site and across its territory, putting special emphasis on the full range of local/regional commonwares. This makes it possible to contrast and compare the relative incidence of local and imported wares as much as the more general impact their analysis has on the reconstruction of settlement and demographic patterns.

6. Veronika Schreck and Günther Schörner (University Vienna)

Production and trade in Late Republican and Imperial Inland Etruria: Integrating archaeological and archaeometric results of the Val di Pesa and Val Orme-Project
Northern inland Etruria is one of the least studied areas in Italy, especially as far as the Roman period is concerned. The Vienna Orme and Pesa valley Project addresses this situation and covers a microregion defined by the two river valleys of Orme and Pesa, between the surroundings of Empoli in the Arno plain and the more mountainous inland territory to the south. One of the main aims of the project is to investigate the economic relationship between the Roman town of Empoli and the rural sites in the valleys of Pesa and Orme. After a short description of the methods used the focus of the paper will be laid on pottery production and distribution. Pottery is an excellent tool for tracking indications of subsistence production and/or manufacturing for exchange. By determining regional forms, identifying the raw materials by archaeometrical analyses and studying wasters the production centres of pottery can be determined. This led, in a second step, to new possibilities for tracing trading routes along the main and secondary itinerary roads in the Arno valley, facilitated by the pottery. In conclusion issues of identity could be addressed asking if people in the Etrurian valleys want to copy an urban life-style or if they attempt to preserve or establish a distinctly rural identity.

7. Anna Maria Mercuri (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia) / Emanuele Vaccaro (Università di Trento)

Peasants, agriculture and the local economies of Roman central Italy (1st BC-5th AD)
This presentation wants to give a contribution to the understanding of agriculture development during Roman times as it was obtained by the study of pollen and plant parts trapped in the archaeological layers of small farmhouses in central Italy. The archaeobotanical perspective of rural Roman economy is introduced. In general, the study of macroremains is known to help ethnobotanical investigations and palynological analyses allow the reconstruction of land-use and transformations at local and regional scale.
A multi-disciplinary archaeological project – the Roman Peasant Project, directed by Kimberly Bowes – has focused on lower-class rural dwellers of southern Tuscany. The small sites were probably only occupied for seasonal agricultural works during the 1st BC-5th century AD. Plant remains – pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal particles, and seeds and fruits – reveal site function and environmental conditions of rural dwellers.
Pollen was quite common with variable concentrations depending on the preservation and organic matter in the sediments. They showed a relatively high plant diversity mirroring crop cultivation of cereals and legumes. The floristic composition of pollen spectra well describe the different uses of the sites. In fact, the sites studied represent a whole range of functions – temporary work or stabling point, drain, agro-processing point, permanent habitation – that show great human control over productive landscapes.

8. José Ernesto Moura Knust (Instituto Federal Fluminense)

Far from the walls. Explaining rural settlement dispersal within Roman, Mediterranean and Global frameworks
One of the most outstanding findings of field surveys in South Etruria and Lazio was the identification of an expansive pattern of rural settlement dispersion along the Roman conquest of these regions (fifth to third century BCE). Since the sixties, these findings have reshaped our images of the Roman countryside. Although the Roman pacification of the region has been initially pointed as the crucial factor, soon the discovery of coeval similar patterns in other regions of the Mediterranean outside of the Roman conquest area urged other ways of explaining it. The purpose of this paper is to survey and evaluate the ways in which different scholars have tried to explain this dispersion of the rural settlement in a Mediterranean scale. I will analyse and compare the theoretical and methodological bases of these explanations to identify the general outlines of the current state of the debate. Then, I will consider this current state of the debate in a broader framework. I intend to reframe the dispersion of the Mediterranean settlement within a great narrative of a global history of the development of complex agrarian societies, and of the specific way in which the Mediterranean countryside developed one.