Introduction |
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South Etruria lies immediately to the northwest of Rome, defined by the Tiber to the south and east, by the rivers Paglia and Fiora to the north and by the Tyrhennian coast to the west. The survey focused on a south-eastern portion of this region and covered an area of over 1000 km2. Directed by John Ward Perkins, then Director of the British School of Rome, during the 1950's to 70's, the survey was a milestone in Mediterranean landscape archaeology. Preceding the urban expansion of Rome, it coincided with the first period of deep ploughing which brought a vast quantity of fresh archaeological material to the surface. More than 2000 sites were identified. A synthesis of the survey results is presented by former chairperson of the Tiber Valley Project, Tim Potter, in his classic volume, the ' Changing Landscape of South Etruria. |
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The data has never been fully published and the original study of the material was greatly limited by the poor knowledge of ceramic types at the time. Consequently, the re-evaluation of this potentially rewarding and unique data set has been the core element of the Tiber Valley Project.
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The Re-Study The four year re-study of the South Etruria material at the British School was completed in 2001 by 14 specialists (Prehistorians, Etruscologists, Romanists and Medievalists) who studied primarily the pottery, which forms the bulk of the material, but also marble, mosaic, glass and building materials, collected by John Ward-Perkins and his team. It was an enormous task; the material, comprising well over 90,000 diagnostic sherd fragments, filled over 300 large wooden crates, however the results have left no doubt as to its potential. |
Results Rapid developments in ceramic typologies and methods of dating have now made it possible to map with confidence landscape activity over time. Initially, attention focused on the material from the Ager Veientanus, immediately to the north of Rome itself. The collections from the major Etruscan centre of Veii (once the chief rival to Rome for supremacy in the Tiber valley area) and its necropolises are particularly spectacular, and have allowed us to distinguish probable domestic areas and cult areas, as well as several pottery kilns, giving new insight into the development of this important centre. With the completion of the restudy, preliminary results already suggest significant modification of the original synthesis of Tim Potter. The fully re-evaluated data have now been transferred into the school's integrated GIS and database system (central to the management and analysis of the data collected). The database now records nearly 100, 000 artefacts relating to well over 2000 sites, thus making the South Etruria data-set by far the largest within the Tiber Valley Database, presently housing 5000 plus sites. Additionally, a further and until recently untapped, source of information is the plans, maps, notes and photographs left by Ward-Perkins and his team. Michael Craven, one of the original directors of the South Etruria survey, has been systematically archiving this information at the BSR with a view to salvaging any way-laid archaeological data and preparing it for publication. |
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Material specialists:
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