ABSTRACT (en)
The analysis of power dynamics and how they interact with landscape organization and environmental factors is a topic of major interest in archaeology. More recently, there has been growing research into nonélite and middling groups, and their interactions with/within landscapes affected by environmental shifts. We outline two case studies from very different ecosystems in 1st¬ millennium BC Italy: riverine, flood¬ prone Veneto in a phase of potential climate cooling, ca. 800/750–625/500 BC; and drought¬ prone northern Puglia (Daunia) in a phase of potential warming, ca. 325–200 BC. In Veneto, a well¬ off/middling burial group acted upon flooding to potentially ameliorate their social standing in a phase of growing inequality. In Puglia, non¬ élite communities occupied two arid¬ prone plateaus with small farms, concomitantly with Rome’s ris ing hegemony. By looking at the way in which these different social groups interacted in such challenging environments, we explore how social dynamics moulded the landscape and how the environment affected inequalities in return. Ultimately, our work contributes to exploring the interplay between environmental and social factors in creating past inequalities, while addressing limitations in evidence and methods.
KEYWORDS (en)
Italy; 1st¬ millennium BC; climate change; floods; drought; inequality; human- environment interactions; mortuary ritual; Roman Climate Optimum; Hannibalic/Second Punic War
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14712/23368144.2025.1.4
SOURCES
Bagolan, M. – Michelini, P. 1998: Tomba 19. In: Bianchin Citton – Gambacurta – Ruta Serafini eds. 1998, 130–139.
Balista, C. 1998: Le sequenze di deposito alluvionale nella serie archeologica della necropoli. In: Bianchin Citton – Gambacurta – Ruta Serafini eds. 1998, 29–35.
Balista, C. 2010: Le risposte del sistema paleoidrografico di risorgive delle Valli Grandi Veronesi Meridionali alle fluttuazioni climatiche tardo¬ oloceniche e agli impatti antropici legati ai cicli insediativi dell’Età del Bronzo, di Età Romana e di Età Tardorinascimentale- Moderna. Padusa 45, 73–131.
Bianchin Citton, E. – Gambacurta, G. – Ruta Serafini, A. eds. 1998: Presso l’Adige ridente… Recenti rinvenimenti archeologici da Este a Montagnana. Catalogo della mostra. Este, Museo Nazionale Atestino, 21 Febbraio 1998 – 21 Febbraio 1999. Padova.
Bortolami, F. 2023: Sweet child O’ Mine. Family ties, inheritance system and representation of infants in Iron Age Veneto. The Case of Mound L from Este, Padua. In: E. Murphy – M. Le Roy eds.: Normative, Atypical or Deviant? Interpreting Prehistoric and Protohistoric Child Burial Practices. Oxford, 122–139.
Broodbank, C. 2013: The Making of the Middle Sea. Oxford.
Capasso, G. et al. 2023: Il problema dell’inumazione nel mondo veneto durante l’Età del Ferro tra ritualità e mobilità. Nuovi dati bioarcheologici dalla necropoli patavina del CUS- Piovego. Preistoria Alpina 53, 107–120.
Cenni, N. 1973: La Verona di ieri. Verona.
Crawford, M.H. 1985: Coinage and money under the Republic. Italy and the Mediterranean economy. London.
Hoyos, D. ed. 2011: A Companion to the Punic Wars. Malden – Oxford – Chichester.
Di Lorenzo, G. et al. 2016. Verucchio. The social status of children. A methodological question concerning funerary symbolism and the use of space within graves. In: Perego – Scopacasa eds. 2016, 111–138.
Farbotko, C. 2019: Anthropocene Shiftings. Humanities 8/4, 158.
González¬ Ruibal, A. 2021: Subaltern Assemblages. The Archaeology of Marginal Places and Identities. World archaeology 53/3, 369–383.
Gamba, M. – Voltolini, D. 2018: L’inumazione presso i Veneti antichi. Il Caso della necropoli patavina di Palazzo Emo Capodilista¬ Tabacchi. Arimnestos 1, 209–226.
Giraudi, C. 2014: Coarse sediments in northern apennine peat bogs and lakes. New data for the record of Holocene alluvial phases in peninsular Italy. The Holocene 24, 932–943.
Goffredo, R. 2010: Persistence and Change in Settlement Patterns in the Ofanto Valley Near Canusium and Cannae (Apulia) (late 4th c. BC – 1st c. AD). Journal of Roman Archaeology 23, 7–33.
Goffredo, R. 2011: Aufidus. Storia, archeologia e paesaggi della valle dell’Ofanto. Bari.
Lambrugo, C. – Amicone, S. – Heinze, L. 2019: Back to Manfria. Continuity or disruption in the countryside of Gela in the fourth century BC. In: Perego – Scopacasa – Amicone eds. 2019, 57–80.
Manning, S.W. 2013: The Roman world and climate. Context, relevance of climate change, and some issues. In: W.V. Harris ed.: The Ancient Mediterranean environment between science and history. Leiden, 105–170.
Pasini, A. et al. 2019: New evidence of Prehistoric neurosurgery in Italy. The case of Castello del Tartaro. World Neurosurgery 128, 556–561.
Padilla Peralta, D.E. – Bernard, S. 2022: Middle Republican Connectivities. The Journal of Roman Studies 112, 1–37.
Padilla Peralta, D.E. 2020: Epistemicide. The Roman case. Classica. Revista Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos 33/2, 151–186.
Perego, E. 2012: The construction of Personhood in Veneto (Italy) between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Roman Period. PhD Thesis, University College London.
Perego, E. 2014: Anomalous mortuary behaviour and social exclusion in Iron Age Italy. A case study from the Veneto region. Journal of Mediterranean archaeology 27/2, 161–186.
Perego, E. 2016: Inequality, abuse and increased socio¬ political complexity in Iron Age Veneto, c. 800–500 BC. In: Perego – Scopacasa eds. 2016, 273–309.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. eds. 2016: Burial and social change in first¬ millennium BC Italy. Approaching social agents. Gender, personhood and marginality. Oxford.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. 2018: The agency of the displaced? Roman expansion, environmental forces, and the occupation of marginal landscapes in Ancient Italy. Humanities 7/4, 116.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. 2019: Micro¬ dynamics of crisis following disaster events in Late Bronze and Iron Age Northern Italy. In: Perego – Scopacasa – Amicone eds. 2019, 1–28.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. 2024a: Big data for the study of lifeways in ancient Italy. The ‘inhumation Veneto’ and ‘Samnium’ databases. Preistoria Alpina 54, 183–196.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. 2024b: MARGA – The MARGinality in archaeology database. Insights and gaps in the bioarchaeological study of marginalized communities, c.1200 BC–25 AD. SocArXiv https://doi. org/10.31235/osf.io/fjsm8
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. 2024c: Natural disaster, climate change, and marginalized social agents in preRoman Italy. Case studies from Veneto and Puglia. In: M. Bentz – P. Zeidler eds.: Dependency and social inequality in pre¬ Roman Italy. Berlin, 195–213.
Perego, E. – Scopacasa, R. – Amicone, S.R. eds. 2019: Collapse or survival? Crisis and social change in the ancient central Mediterranean. Oxford.
Perego, E. – Tamorri, V. – Scopacasa, R. 2020a: Marginal identities in Iron Age Veneto. A case study based on micro¬ scale contextual analysis and burial taphonomy. In: A. Bistáková – G. Březinová – P. C. Ramsl eds.: Multiple Identities in Prehistory, Early History and Presence. Nitra, 81–96.
Perego, E. – Tamorri, V. – Scopacasa, R. 2020b: Child personhood in Iron Age Veneto. Insights from microscale contextual analysis and burial taphonomy. In: K. Rebay- Salisbury – D. Pany¬ Kucera eds.: Ages and abilities. The stages of childhood and their social recognition in prehistoric Europe and beyond. Oxford, 174–192.
Piovan, S. – Mozzi, P. – Stefani, C. 2010: Bronze Age paleohydrography of the southern Venetian plain. Geoarchaeology 25/1, 6–35.
Piovan, S. – Mozzi, P. – Zecchin, M. 2012: The interplay between adjacent Adige and Po alluvial systems and deltas in the Late Holocene (Northern Italy). Géomorphologie. Relief, Processus, Environment 4, 427–440.
Polemio, M. – Dragone, V. 2004: La siccità e la disponibilità di acque sotterranee in Puglia. In: La siccità in Italia. Atti dei convegni Lincei 204. Roma, 187–93.
Samuels, J. 2019: Recovering rural non¬ elites. Commoner landscapes and rural infill in the Roman Middle Republic. PhD Thesis, University of Michigan.
Scopacasa, R. 2015: Ancient Samnium. Settlement, culture and identity between history and archaeology. Oxford.
Terrenato, N. 2019: The early Roman expansion into Italy. Elite negotiation and family agendas. Cambridge.
Trentacoste, A. et al. 2023: Isotopic insights into livestock production in Roman Italy. Diet, seasonality, and mobility on an Imperial estate. Environmental Archaeology 28, 1–23. doi:10.1080/14614103.2023.2282866
Volpe, G. 1990: La Daunia nell’età della romanizzazione. Paesaggio agrario, produzione, scambi. Bari.
Zamboni, L. 2021: The urbanization of Northern Italy. Contextualizing early settlement nucleation in the Po Valley. Journal of archaeological research 29/3, 387–430.
Zonneveld, K.A.F. et al. 2024: Climate change, society, and pandemic disease in Roman Italy between 200 BCE and 600 CE. Science advances 10. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adk1033
