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Excavations in the Medieval Centre of Mazzano Romano

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Timothy Potter
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Extract

The hill towns of the Roman Campagna form a distinctive class of nucleated settlement, characterised by strong natural defences, strengthened with ditches, walls and towers. There are two main classes of site: those situated at the end of promontories, and those built on ‘pedestals’. Suitable locations, the product of rapid dissection of the soft volcanic tuff, are common throughout the Campagna. The majority of these medieval sites is now deserted, a trend which reflects the isolated position of these settlements. Few of the medieval villages have been examined archaeologically and little is known of their origins and development. Documentary sources suggest that they grew up in the ninth and tenth centuries, with the decay of the classical estates, which was briefly arrested by the foundation of the Papal domuscultae in the mid to late eighth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 40 , November 1972 , pp. 135 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1972

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References

1 The term ‘hill town’ is strictly a misnomer, since these sites are rarely built on the tops of hills. Monterosi is a notable exception in this area.

2 For a typical promontory site see Mallett, Michael and Whitehouse, David, ‘Castel Porciano: an abandoned Medieval Village of the Roman Campagna’, PBSR xxxv (1967) 113–46Google Scholar. The geologic origins of the pedestals in the Mazzano-Calcata area have been studied by Dr. Walter Alvarez, to whom I am indebted for many valuable conversations. The pedestals represent the remnants of an eroded volcanic ash flow tuff (tufo rosso a scorie nere).

3 Of these, the more important include: Santa Cornelia (Capracorum), which remains unpublished except for preliminary notes in Antiquity xxxvii (1963) 38–9Google Scholar, and by Murray-Threipland, Kahane and Ward-Perkins, in PBSR xxxvi (1968) 164Google Scholar; for a photograph, see Llewellyn, Peter, Rome in the Dark Ages (London 1971)Google Scholar pl. 2. Three deserted sites excavated by Hans Stiesdal at La Torraccia (Pietra Pertusa), Belmonte and Torre Busson, and published in Analecla Romano Instituti Danici ii (1962) 63–100Google Scholar; there are only scanty notes on the pottery. Castel Porciano, excavated by Michael Mallett, and with notes on the pottery by David Whitehouse, in PBSR xxxv (1967) 113–46Google Scholar. Santa Rufina, excavated by Lady Wheeler; preliminary note in Antiquity xlii (1968) 90Google Scholar. The Torre d'Orlando at Capranica, published by O. Mazzucato, Not. Scav. (1970) 372–93. For a study (without excavation) of Monterosi, see Ward-Perkins, J. B. and Mallett, Michael in Hutchinson, , ‘Ianula: an account of the history and development of the Lago di Monterosi, Latium, Italy’, Trans. American Phil. Soc. lx, part 4 (August 1970) 10–16Google Scholar.

4 The principal study is by Tomassetti, G., La Campagna Rotnana. Volume iii (1913) refers to this areaGoogle Scholar.

5 For the domuscultae see particularly Partner, Peter, ‘Notes on the Lands of the Roman Church in the early Middle Ages’ PBSR xxxiv (1966) 68–70Google Scholar.

6 For the interpretation of some of the textual evidence for estates in Central Italy in the early Middle Ages, see Jones, P. J., ‘L'ltalia agraria nell'alto medioevo’, Settimam di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo XIII: Agricoltura e mondo rurale (Spoleto 1966) 57–92Google Scholar, and also the discussion, particularly 236–41. For an archaeological view, see Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘Etruscan Towns, Roman roads and Medieval villages’, Geog.J. cxxviii (1962) 389–404CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where he states that ‘the classical estates survived at least as late as the closing years of the eighth century’ (401); for a counter, see D. A. Bullough, Italy and her Invaders (Univ. of Nottingham Inaugural Lecture 1968) n. 52, p. 29: ‘it is impossible to accept the claim … (that the classical estates survived to the closing years of the eighth century) … in any sense in which those words would be understood by historians.’ See also Kahane, A., Murray-Threipland, L. and Ward-Perkins, J. B., ‘The Ager Veientanus, North and East of Veii’, PBSR xxxvi (1968) 161–4Google Scholar. This whole question will be discussed in greater detail by the writer in his topographical survey of the Ager Faliscus, PBSR forthcoming.

7 For the alleged Faliscan origins of Mazzano, see Tomassetti, op. cit., in n. 4, 111. The excavations took place for two weeks in August 1971, as a sub-project of the excavation on the Faliscan site of Narce. I am indebted to Dr. Mario Moretti, Superintendent of Antiquities for Southern Etruria, and the Sindaco of Mazzano, Sig. Bruno Guidi, for permission to excavate. The site was supervised by Denys Pringle, University of Southampton, who also prepared Figs. 3 and 5, and did much of the work on the pottery. The plan of Mazzano (Fig. 1) was surveyed by Sydney Robinson. Frank Sear kindly lent accommodation for a dig house near the site. Antonio Fantini was our foreman, and Sig. Enzo Cursi represented the Italian authorities, and helped us in innumerable ways. Hugo Blake kindly helped us with our pottery and Anthony Luttrell offered useful criticism. I am especially grateful to the British Academy for financing the work. Finally, special thanks are due to Anna Fazzari and John Ward-Perkins, who made many of the arrangements. To all of these, and the many others who helped with the work, I am deeply grateful. This paper was completed while I held the Sir James Knott Fellowship at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

8 Tomassetti, op. cit., in n. 4, 120–5 surveys the history of Mazzano; see also Tomassetti, , in Archivio della Soc. romana di storia patria V (1882) 149–51Google Scholar, and Silvestrelli, G., Città, castelli e terre della regione romana (3rd ed.) (Rome 1970) 515Google Scholar. For the foundation of the domusculta of Capracorum, see Liber Pontificalis (ed. L. Duchesne) i (1886) 501–2 and 506–7; and Peter Partner, op. cit. in n. 5.

9 Tomassetti, op. cit., in n. 4, 123.

10 See Michael Mallett and David Whitehouse, op. cit., in n. 2, 137.

11 M. W. Casotti, Il Vignola, Istituto di Storia dell'Arte Antica e Moderna, n. 11 (1960), ii, 180 and fig. 174; Willich, H., Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (Strasburg 1906) 48–50Google Scholar. For a sketch of the church, see Mon. Ant. iv (1894) fig. 34Google Scholar.

12 I am indebted to Mr. Bryan Ward-Perkins for examining this coin.

13 I cannot find the site of the fifteenth to eighteenth century cemetery. The present cemetery, at the top end of the town, has no graves earlier than the nineteenth century.

14 On Forum ware, see Whitehouse, David in Med. Arch, ix (1965)Google Scholar fig. 16, 1 a and p. 59. For combed ware in seventh century Lombard contexts, see Hessen, Otto von, Die Langobardenzeitlichen Grabfunde aus Fiesole bei Florenz (Munich 1966)Google Scholar plates 14 and 15 and 10–11; and idem, Die Langobardische Keramik aus Italien (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom, Wiesbaden 1968)Google Scholar fig. 9, no. 79 and plate 20.

15 Whitehouse, David in (i) Med. Arch, ix (1965) 55–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; (ii) PBSR xxxiv (1967) 48–53Google Scholar; (iii) PBSR xxxiv (1967) 139–40Google Scholar. For the original discovery of Forum ware in the Lacus Iuturniae, see G. Boni, Not. Scav. (1901) 41–4. For an Italian view of Forum ware (‘ceramica a vetrina pesante’) see Mazzucato, Otto, La Raccolta di Ceramiche del Museo di Roma (Rome 1968) 11–12Google Scholar; idem, ‘Ceramica medioevale romana; la produzione attorno al Mille’, Palatino 4th ser. xii (1968) 147–55. For a reply, and the latest information see Whitehouse, in (ed. Hurst, ) ‘Red-painted and Glazed Pottery in Western Europe from the Eighth to the Twelfth Century’, Med. Arch, xiii (1969) 137–42Google Scholar.

16 The pottery is so far unpublished. I am indebted to the excavator, Lady Wheeler, for permission to examine it.

17 Whitehouse, D., ‘Medieval Glazed Wares of Lazio’, PBSR xxxiv (1967) 53–5Google Scholar.

18 Whitehouse, D., PBSR xxxiv (1967) 82–3Google Scholar.

19 See footnote 6. In the Ager Faliscus and the Ager Veientanus, Forum ware has been found on only 10 sites with earlier Roman occupation; in the same area, Forum ware has been found on six medieval village sites. Dr. Michael Mallett has recently found Forum ware on three medieval village sites in the Ceri region (personal communication). Dr. Whitehouse tells me that Forum ware is also attested at the acropolis site of San Giovenale, and that Luni sul Mignone has yielded coarse wares which may be early medieval in date.

20 See footnote 15.

21 Whitehouse, D., Med. Arch, xiii (1969) 140Google Scholar.

22 Whitehouse, D.. Med. Arch, xiii (1969) 141–2Google Scholar.