One of the main characteristics of Roman settlement consists in the implementation of a series of interventions aiming at preparing specific areas for cultivation and making land divisions and distributions. The most important and characteristic feature of these operations is the realization of centuriation systems, that have often radically modified the landscape and agrarian morphology of the countryside. The aim of this conference is to define a methodological protocol of common lines of research on this subject, in order to assign specific roles to the different sources and research tools. The conference will also provide opportunities to deepen a number of themes concerning historical aspects of this phenomenon, particularly that of the continuity or discontinuity of the centuriation systems.

International Conference

Centuriation systems and methods of agrarian organisation from the roman period to the early middle age.

Methodological and interpretative issues

Borgoricco (Padova) – Lugo (Ravenna)

10-12 September 2009

First Circular – Call for Papers

One of the main characteristics of Roman settlement consists in the implementation of a series of interventions aiming at preparing specific areas for cultivation and making land divisions and distributions.

Archaeological researches carried out in recent years have evidenced a number of ancient interventions, dating from well before the Roman period. They consisted in the drainage of damp or humid areas and the control of surface water, including that immediately under the topsoil. However, these initiatives were carried out locally and they were not included in an overall plan for the control and administration of a specific territory. With the dawn of the Roman age, we discern conversely a process of acquisition of vast areas potentially dedicated to agriculture. This process had a substantial impact on the environment and its effects can often be discerned even today.

The most important and characteristic feature of these operations is undoubtedly the realization of centuriation systems, that have often radically modified the landscape and agrarian morphology of the countryside. This model continues to have significant influence on the present-day agrarian organisation.

Because of both the historical importance of the centuriation systems and the impact which they had on the landscape, the study of this particular mode of land division has led to an important tradition of research, even though it has often been carried out with different methodologies and approaches following different schools in different countries.

This conference thus aims at bringing the centuriation systems to the attention of academics and other experts. More generally, reference will be made to the agrarian organisation of the Roman period, so as to compare the experiences recently matured in various countries. The aim is to define a methodological protocol of common lines of research in order to assign specific roles to the different sources and research tools. The conference will also provide opportunities to deepen a number of themes concerning historical aspects of this phenomenon, particularly that of the continuity or discontinuity of the centuriation systems.

The conference will focus on four main topics:

Session 1. Methods and instruments (Methodological issues)

The need to define a common methodological protocol can no longer be ignored. We thus need to consider the role and importance of the various typological “sources”, both at a general level and by means of examples. Particular reference should be made to the analysis of the various methods of representing the territory (cartography, aerial photography, etc.) as well as to archaeological data derived from both surveys and excavations. With regard to archaeology, we should pay careful attention to relating local data to the regional framework and to the informative “cataloguing” methods of information concerning the centuriation and land division systems.

Session 2. Legal and textual aspects

Knowledge of Roman centuriation and, more generally, of the ways of measuring and dividing territory during the Roman period depends upon a series of literary texts which, as is well known, present various interpretative and chronological problems. Within the last few years, there has been a renewal of interest in these studies, with increasing attention paid to strictly legal aspects. It has thus been included this session, in which the latest research in this field can be presented and a summary of the current “state of the art” drawn up. It is also hoped that future lines of interdisciplinary research will be identified and discussed.

Session 3. Centuriation and environmental modifications

Centuriation is a systematic means of measurement and division of a specific area of land. Yet, at the same time, it has had an enormous influence on land reclamation. Putting the system into effect involves governance of the course of rivers and the drainage of surface water, with significant effects on the environment. The need for an interdisciplinary approach to Roman centuriation and, more generally, to the various processes necessary to create a territorial layout thus arises. Its physical geography should also be taken into account, not only to enable identification of its influence on land surveyors, but also to recognise the modifications encouraged by these very processes within the overall evolution of the hydrographical network. Moreover, the problems concerning the influence and differing importance that might have been due to climatic variations must also be taken into consideration, regarding both the territorial layouts of Roman and subsequent periods.

Session 4. Towards a closer study of agrarian planning: realization, evolution and transformation

Roman centuriation is often at the very heart of much of the present-day structure of our plains. However, even in instances where the conservation of Roman layouts seems to be at its strongest, the reality is that we are facing a diachronic process, one which is particularly accentuated in cases where it is more difficult to recognise the persistence of the limits and boundaries that had been established in Roman times. We therefore need to be able to “read” and observe today’s landscapes from a perspective that goes back a very long way, analysing the reasons which have led to the persistence or cancellation of ancient boundaries. Interventions dealing with medieval agrarian planning, in a perspective of continuity with, or deviation from, agrarian layouts of Roman age, are solicited.

Conference organizers

The Conference is organized within the activities of the Centro Interuniversitario di Studi sulla Centuriazione “Nereo Alfieri e Luciano Bosio”, by the Departments of Archaeology of the Universities of Bologna and Padova, in collaboration with the CHEC - Centre d’Histoire “Espaces et Cultures” at the University of Clermont-Ferrand.

Organizing Committee

• Pier Luigi Dall'Aglio (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Bologna)
• Guido Rosada (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Padova)
• Carlotta Franceschelli (CHEC, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand)
• Enrico Giorgi (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Bologna)
• Maria Teresa Lachin (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Padova)
• Antonio Marchiori (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Padova)

Scientific Committee

• Enrique Ariño Gil (Dep. de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca)
• Brian Campbell (School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s University, Belfast)
• Pier Luigi Dall'Aglio (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Bologna)
• Philippe Leveau (Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille I)
• Guido Rosada (Dipartimento di Archeologia, Università di Padova)
• Giovanni Uggeri (Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Università La Sapienza, Roma)
• Elisabeth Zadora-Rio (CNRS - UMR 6173 CITERES, Tours)

Sponsors and Partners

Foundation of Cassa di Risparmio and Banca del Monte of Lugo, Regione Veneto, Municipalities of Borgoricco and Lugo.

Provisional calendar

10 September 2009, Borgoricco: official opening and first day of the Conference

11 September 2009: excursion and transfer to Lugo, with the inauguration of Poster Session

12 September 2009, Lugo: second day of the Conference and official closure

Proposals guidelines

All proposals for oral or poster presentations must be sent, as soon as possible, and no later than 28 February 2009:

§  by e-mail to: crossi@fondazioneflaminia.it,

§  by post to: Carla Rossi – Fondazione Flaminia – via Baccarini 27 – 48100 Ravenna

Proposals should clearly indicate the session, the name of the author (or authors), the affiliation, the title, the type of contribution being proposed (oral or poster), and an abstract (max. 400 words), in one of the official languages of the Conference: Italian, English, French, Spanish and German.

All accepted contributions will be published in the next issue of “Agri Centuriati. An International Journal of Ancient Landscapes”. 

 Deadlines

• 28 February 2009: submission of abstracts
• 31 March 2009: notification of acceptance
• 15 May 2009: registration

All registration formalities will be communicated in the second circular. Provisional registration fees are fixed at 50 € for all participants and 30 € for students before May 15, 2009, and at 80 € and 50 € after May 15. Full registration includes all Conference sessions, lunches (10 and 12 September), coffee breaks and transfers from Padova to Borgoricco and from Padova to Lugo.

Contacts

Organizational Secretary: Fondazione Flaminia (RA), crossi@fondazioneflaminia.it

 If you need further information about scientific aspects, please contact:

• Pier Luigi Dall’Aglio: pierluigi.dallaglio@unibo.it
• Carlotta Franceschelli: carlotta.franceschelli@univ-bpclermont.fr
• Maria Teresa Lachin: mariateresa.lachin@unipd.it
• Guido Rosada: guido.rosada@unipd.it