The archaic roman economy (8th – 4th centuries bc) settlement patterns, production and trade in an early mediterranean state
The economic history of early Rome has been mainly investigated as a local phenomenon and often only on the
basis of literary evidence. We propose a long-term and regional approach: the early Roman economy as part of the
economic history of central Tyrrhenian Italy from the 8th to the 4th century BC, and its interactions with the wider
Mediterranean networks of exchange.
This aim will be achieved by means of the following objectives and methods.
Objective 1: Systematic and critical review of the literary sources and of the scientific literature on the
archaeological evidence of settlements, land use, production and importation in the Low Tiber Valley between the
10th and the 4th century BC.
Objective 2: Intensive surveys in the Roman hinterland of three productive extra-urban Archaic settlements within
their natural context: a farmhouse, a rural village and a coastal settlement.
Objective 3: Archaeometric analysis of amphoras dating back to the 8th – 6th centuries BC and of Greek Geometric
(or Greek Geometric style) pottery dating back to the 8th century BC found in Ancient Latium.
Objective 5: Historical reconstruction of production, trade and consumption in Rome between the 8th and the 4th
century BC; theorisation of new models for Iron Age and pre-monetary economies.