Emanuele Vaccaro

Excavating the Roman peasant II: excavations at Case Nuove, Cinigiano (GR)

This report details the survey, excavations and materials analysis carried out at Case Nuove (GR) in Tuscany, a site identified by surface survey as a possible rural house, but which excavation and materials analysis suggest was a small-scale agro-processing point of late Republican date. Through accompanying analysis of pollen and land-use data, the article considers the problems this type of site — the stand-alone agro-processing point — presents for interpretations of the Roman landscape.

EXCAVATING THE ROMAN PEASANT I: EXCAVATIONS AT PIEVINA (GR) 1

Begun in 2009, the Roman Peasant Project was designed to excavate the smallest sites found in field survey and to analyse the diet, economies, land use and landscapes of the Roman peasant. The Project’s excavations at the site of Pievina are presented here, and suggest a more complex image of Roman peasant life in the late Republic and late antiquity than current assumptions would anticipate, including surplus production, a high degree of monetization and ties to urban markets. Iniziato nel 2009, il ‘Roman Peasant Project’ ha lo scopo di scavare i piu piccoli siti trovati in ricognizione e di analizzare la dieta, l’economia, l’uso del terreno e i paesaggi del contadino romano. In questa sede vengono presentati gli scavi del progetto sul sito di Pievina che suggeriscono un’immagine della vita del contadino romano tra il periodo tardo-repubblicano e quello tardo-antico piu complessa di quanto le attuali interpretazioni abbiano anticipato, come il surplus produttivo, un alto grado di monetarizzazione e legami con i mercati urbani.