Statio amoena: sostare e vivere lungo le strade romane tra antichit e alto medioevo, Convegno internazionale di studi (Verona,

4-5/12/2014)

Some statistics on the chronological dynamics

of secondary settlements in Italy between
Roman times and the Middle ages
Angelo Castrorao Barba (University of Siena)

Some statistical calculations concerning the long

duration of the secondary settlements are
processed through the analysis of a sample of
published contexts.
The sample
The sample is composed of 219 published sites
that were interpreted in various manner: stations,
villages or secondary agglomerates. This sample is
distributed among the Italian regions as following:
Abruzzo (10); Apulia (19); Aosta Valley (3);
Basilicata (7); Calabria (11); Campania (7); EmiliaRomagna (10); Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (2); Lazio (34);
Liguria (5); Lombardy (12); Marche (7); Molise (3);
Piedmont (6); Sardinia (9); Sicily (31); Tuscany
(25); Trentino-Alto Adige (10); Umbria (1); Veneto
(7). The documentation of these sites comes from
reports of excavation (151 cases) or surface survey
(68 cases)
The long-term chronology of the sites
Using the initial and final dates of sites occupations
it was possible to calculate the frequency of the
sites with phases of use in individual centuries
inside a wide chronological range between the 3rd
c. BC and the 13th c. AD. The most high frequency
of sites with phases of occupation is attested in 4th
c. AD (83.6%) and in the 1st c. AD (81.7%) and the
period between 1st and 4th c. AD contains, on
average, the 80.6% of the sample.

The reuses of the secondary settlements between

3rd and 13th centuries AD
Another phenomenon analyzed is the presence of
re-uses/re-occupations of the Roman settlements.
In particular, it are considered 151 excavated sites
for a comparison with the data on 768 excavated
Roman villas. In the graph we can see an higher
percentage of cases of reusing in the group of
secondary settlements (59.6% of 151 sites)
compared to the data of the villas (49.2% of 768
villas).

The curve concerning the chronological start of the

reuses shows an increasing trend up to the peak
reached in the 5th-6th c. AD where there are
included the 50% of cases with evidence of reoccupations.

A last comparison with the Roman villas show a

higher percentage (44.2% versus 34.6%) of reuses
characterized by the presence of a church built on
a secondary settlement.

Further data are obtained from the frequency of the

number of centuries during which a site has
continued to be used: the highest values are found
for the interval 4-7 centuries.

The possibility to realize such statistics is an useful

tool in defining the peculiarities of the secondary
settlements in relation to the other types of contexts
that characterized the landscapes between the
Roman times and the Middle Ages.