The Roman Hinterland Project: Integrating Archaeological Field Surveys around Rome and Beyond

Abstract

This article presents the background to and prospects for a new initiative in archaeological field survey and database integration. The Roman Hinterland Project combines data from the Tiber Valley Project, Roman Suburbium Project, and the Pontine Region Project into a single database, which the authors believe to be one of the most complete repositories of data for the hinterland of a major ancient metropolis, covering nearly 2000 years of history. The logic of combining these databases in the context of studying the Roman landscape is explained and illustrated with analyses that show their capacity to contribute to major debates in Roman economy, demography, and the longue durée of the human condition in a globalizing world.

Ports, Cities, and Hinterlands: Historical Investigation of the Economic Relationship between Karachi and the Indus River Basin

“…The role of ports has both positive and negative effects, such as promoting regional economic development through ports. The port has played a driving role in improving the industrial level of the hinterland [9]. The high correlation between ports has promoted the rapid development of regional economy.…”

The Falerii Novi Project

“…Patterson, Witcher and Di Giuseppe, 2020), and Central Italy more broadly, encompassing the entire hinterland of the Roman metropolis (e.g. Attema et al, 2022). The result intends to speak to Falerii Novi's own diachronic development, whilst also providing a significant archaeological case study of a city's evolution in a central part of the Empire across numerous major historical junctures.…”

Survey Archaeology in the Mediterranean World: Regional Traditions and Contributions to Long-Term History

“…We necessarily gloss here much subsequent Anglo-Italian work, including the Tuscania project (Barker and Rasmussen 1988), the Gubbio Survey (Malone and Stoddart 1994), and the Sangro Valley Project (Lloyd et al 1997)-the latter demonstrates the enduring impact of the Biferno Survey in being explicitly modeled on it. Several later surveys were implemented under the auspices of the Tiber Valley Project, a successor to the South Etruria Survey (Attema et al 2021;Patterson 2004;Patterson et al 2020). The northern hinterland of Rome is now one of the most thoroughly investigated areas in all of Italy, whose expansion and long-term history might be examined alongside other global mega-polities, such as Teotihuacan or Tenochtitlán (e.g., Smith 2017Smith , 2020.…”