Panel 11.2 – New views for old cities: settlement, survey, and legacy data towards a holistic economy of the city and countryside


Organiser/Chair:

  • Andrew Cabaniss (University of Michigan)
  • Troy Samuels (University of Michigan)

Panel abstract

Narratives of the urban and rural economies often focus on a single scale of analysis, trying to answer questions with either regional or site-specific data rather than a synthesis of the two. The divide in archaeological methods between the techniques of surface survey and those of settlement excavation, exacerbated by the administrative separation between many excavation and survey projects, has contributed to a disjunction between regional and site-specific histories in academic scholarship. The challenge of creating complementary narratives of economic development in the city and countryside is intensified by a temporal divide in the collection of the data: urban and rural datasets are rarely produced in unison. The integration of various legacy data, spanning the past century of field work, is often crucial when producing a holistic picture of ancient economic activity on multiple scales.

Constructing narratives about the modes and intensities of production, distribution, and consumption requires controlled methods of multiscalar comparison in order to successfully interpolate coherent conclusions about social and economic processes. The goal of this session is to bring new perspectives to studies of economic activity that place survey and excavation data in dialogue and suggest avenues for the further integration of multiscalar and legacy data into the study of the economic past.

The papers of this session will deploy novel methodologies that integrate multiple scales of data in analyses grounded in a holistic approach to regions and settlements. Rather than perpetuating the disciplinary divide between rural and urban economies through the continued separation of survey and excavation data, this session will propose new avenues for approaching economic questions that allow for the use of all available data: rural or urban, old or new, survey or excavation.

Paper abstracts

1. Maeve McHugh (University of Birmingham)

From farm to fork: Micro-regional agricultural economy in Classical Attica
Farmsteads played a fundamental role in the agricultural industry of individual territories. Their presence in the archaeological record from excavations and landscape surveys, or lack thereof, can lend great insight into how agriculture functioned as an economic entity within specific landscapes. The advancements in the quality of data from landscape survey and its application with excavation data dramatically increase our understanding of the role of farmsteads in agricultural industry.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of farmsteads within Attica using the whole suite of evidence available, with the goal of illustrating how farmsteads related to other urban and rural centres, but also how they along with roads formed a network to ensure economic success. In order to realise this aim, the paper uses case studies of demes and their territories and investigates their potential for connectivity between rural sites and their interconnectivity with the city of Athens. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the infrastructure available to farmers in the form of sites for occupation, storage, and processing of agricultural goods, the available road networks that supported the movement of produce, and the urban and rural markets which provided opportunities for trade and exchange. The ultimate conclusions from this study illustrate how this comprehensive and contextual approach helps draw a fuller picture of the interconnectedness of the agricultural landscape.

 

2. Matthew Mandich (ISAR)

An Interconnected Economy: Urban Expansion and Land Use Succession in Rome and its Environs
Although Rome’s so-called ‘suburbium’ has frequently been viewed as an extension of the City – physically, economically, and demographically – the spatial and economic development of this zone is rarely assessed directly in conjunction with Rome’s urban expansion. Since Rome’s ‘sub-urban’ zone essentially began where the City’s built-up area, or continentia aedificia, ended any outward physical expansion would have had a wider ripple effect, impacting the entire suburban system by causing the successive displacement of people and socio-economic activities (i.e. land uses) surrounding it. To analyze the impacts of this process on a local and regional scale this paper exploits models and theories from economic geography and urban morphology that allow for traceable changes in suburban and rural land use to be understood as a function of the City’s urban growth. By re-examining the available archaeological evidence (both excavation and survey) with the forecasts and predictions of these frameworks in mind, a new model is advanced to chart and analyze land use change on Rome’s urban fringe and in its environs that highlights the interconnected economic activity occurring in and around the City. It is hoped that the methodology presented here will also have value for examining other ancient cities and their surroundings, allowing for further comparative study in the future.

 

3. Laura Surtees (Bryn Mawr College) / Margriet Haagsma (University of Alberta) / Sophia Karapanou (15th Ephorate, Larissa)

Connecting the Sherds: Understanding the urban economy of Kastro Kallithea in Thessaly (Greece) through excavation and survey data
Understanding urban economies requires the extrapolation of information from complex cultural and natural datasets. Primary methodologies used to collect this data -surveys and excavations- are often viewed as producing complimentary yet distinct datasets that are not often integrated in a holistic analysis. Rather than viewing these data as incompatible, we, at the Kastro Kallithea Archaeological Project (KKAP), believe that integrating all archaeological evidence in a sound interpretive framework provides a nuanced diachronic perspective of a site’s history and explores the interplay between physical and cultural landscapes.
KKAP is a collaborative investigation of the Late Classical/Hellenistic site of Kastro Kallithea in Thessaly. Drawing from early 20th century maps and data, our team began an intensive survey to document the urban environment before expanding the scope of the project to include excavations of public and private buildings. This paper focuses on the intersection of these distinct datasets in order to connect all artifacts and ecofacts and draw together a more comprehensive understanding of the site’s sociopolitical and economic history. Coupled with spatial and environmental data from neighbouring projects at Pharsalos, Halos and the Enipeus Valley, we connect localized activity occurring in the city with the region in order to expand the urban-hinterland narrative and situate the city within the greater environmental, economic and geopolitical context.

 

4. Caterina Ingoglia (Università di Messina) / Simon Stoddart - Nicholas Whithead / Gianna Ayala / Caroline Malone / Letizia Ceccarelli / Matthew Fitzjohn / Charles French / Lorenzo Zurla

Archaeology in Central Sicily: The example of Troina (EN), integrating city and territory
The understanding of the ancient human landscape of Central Sicily is still poorly developed, and yet the area holds enormous potential for the study of an upland Mediterranean region. A project, started in the 1970s by the Superintendency of Agrigento and the University of Messina, had a watching and excavation brief in the territories of Troina, Cerami, etc. that led to important results before it was abandoned. The most significant results were achieved in the area of the city and territory of Troina, although they have never been fully published. At the turn of the millennium, the University of Cambridge undertook systematic archaeological and geological survey in the immediate environs of Troina and particularly of the approaches to the city up the Fiume sotto Troina. This was followed by limited geophysical survey and excavation of mainly prehistoric remains. In an important collaboration, both the University of Messina and University of Cambridge are now joining forces to produce an innovative synthesis of methodology, through new fieldwork, public display and fresh academic publications. The University of Messina will continue to focus on the city centre, while the University of Cambridge will concentrate on the surrounding human landscape. It is significant that through this initiative, with innovative methodes of interaction of various disciplines (geology, architecture, sociology, etc.), it was possible a new hypothesis on the urban-rural economic development of the area in the past and an interesting comparison with modern era. The paper will summarize the state of knowledge of the Troinese between 1000 BC and 600 AD, setting a research agenda for future collaborative work.