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Title: Investigating the Impact of Roman Urbanisation on the Landscape of the Potenza Valley
Subtitle: A Report on Fieldwork in 2007
Author(s): VERMEULEN, F. , DE DAPPER, M. , MUŠIČ, B. , MONSIEUR, P. , VERREYKE, H. , CARBONI, F. , DRALANS, S. , VERHOEVEN, G. , VERDONCK, L. , HAY, S. , STERRY, M. , DE PAEPE, P. , DE SERANNO, S.
Journal: BABESCH
Volume: 84    Date: 2009   
Pages: 85-110
DOI: 10.2143/BAB.84.0.2041638

Abstract :
This paper reports on a set of intensive interdisciplinary field operations by a Belgian team of Ghent University in 2007 in the Marche region of central Adriatic Italy. Most of the interventions, comprising geophysical prospections, geomorphologic observations, aerial photography, surface artifact surveys, excavations, topographic surveys and pottery studies, aim at a better understanding of the developing Romanisation of this part of Picenum and the rapid urbanization of the area from the late Republic onwards. Quite spectacular are the results of combined remote sensing work on such towns as the coastal colony Potentia and the interior municipium Trea, with unusually detailed mapping of the majority of public and private town structures. In Potentia these intrasite and peri-urban surveys are now also being checked in the field with focused excavations on a town gate and an amphora workshop. Also important are original contributions towards a better comprehension of the town-landscape nexus, involving the discovery of roads, cemeteries, aqueducts and quarries discovered near the four Roman cities. Finally new observations concerning the pre-Roman situation of centrally organized settlement and its links with the establishment of more Roman style towns, add much to the debate about the relatively late urbanization of this Adriatic region.

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