Research Article

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

Mariaelena Ghisleni ^c3, Emanuele Vaccaro ^c6, Kim Bowes ^c2, Antonia Arnoldus ^c1, Michael MacKinnon ^c4 and Flavia Marani ^c5

Abstract

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.

Abstract

Iniziato nel 2009, il ‘Roman Peasant Project’ ha lo scopo di scavare i più 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 più complessa di quanto le attuali interpretazioni abbiano anticipato, come il surplus produttivo, un alto grado di monetarizzazione e legami con i mercati urbani.

Correspondence:

^c1 Addresses for correspondence: Antonia Arnoldus, DIGITER, Inc., Via della Fortezza 58, 00040 Rocca di Papa, Italy. digiter@libero.it.

^c2 Dr Kim Bowes, Department of Classical Studies, 201 Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. kimberlybowes@yahoo.com

^c3 Dr Mariaelena Ghisleni, Università degli Studi di Siena, Dipartimento di Archeologia e Storia delle Arti, Area di Archeologia Medievale, Polo Universitario Grossetano, Grosseto LAB, Via Vinzaglio 28, 58100 Grosseto, Italy. ghisleni@lapetlab.it

^c4 Dr Michael MacKinnon, Department of Anthropology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2E9, Canada. m.mackinnon@uwinnipeg.ca

^c5 Flavia Marani, Via San Camillo de Lellis s.n.c., 01100 Viterbo, Italy. flaviamarani@yahoo.it

^c6 Emanuele Vaccaro, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, Great Britain. ev259@hermes.cam.ac.uk

Footnotes

¹ Funding for this project was provided by Cornell University (Classics Department, Midas/Croesus Fund, Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Society for the Humanities). Emanuele Vaccaro's contribution was funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 236093. The team is grateful to Mr Stavros Tsoukas, to the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Toscana, to Stefano Campana (Director of LAP&T), to the anonymous readers at Papers of the British School at Rome, and to all the Cornell and Grosseto students who made the project possible.