Understanding exchange networks in the basin of the Garigliano during mid-Republican period: evidences from Artena and Alba Fucens

Our knowledge of economic trade in Central Italy during the mid-Republican era is fairly limited. Pottery and terracotta, however, offer some opportunities to further our understanding of these exchanges, but, so far, scholars have focused to a great extent on chronological aspects, such as the chronology of black-glazed ware, or on oversea trade through the study of amphorae. Nevertheless, few studies have considered common ware, whereas it is very helpful to grasp regional exchanges, as the preliminary results of our enquiries on two mid-Republican deposits in Artena (Province of Rome) and Alba Fucens (Province of L’Aquila) suggest. These cities, located in Central Italy, are 60 kilometres away from each other and offer pottery in contexts which can be traced back to the 4th – 3rd century BC. On one hand, the “Piano della Civita” in Artena, a town dated between the 4th and the 2nd century BC, is situated at the beginning of the Sacco river valley, near Rome. On the other hand, Alba Fucens is a Latin colony founded at the end of the 4th century BC near lake Fucino, immediately north of the spring of the Liri river and abandoned during Late Antiquity. The contexts of both these cities are currently under study. Our observations result from a multiproxy approach combining typological study, fabric observations with binocular loupe and pXRF (PIXE/PIGE, XRD and thin sections analysis forthcoming). The obtained information is then compared to other pertinent data from and vicinity to the Garigliano Basin. In a nutshell, this paper will begin with a short overview of the current assertions about Republican ware in Central Italy, centred on black-glazed production with a long-distance circulation. Then the results of our study on these unpublished contexts, focused on common ware, will discussed. The pertinence of considerate the hydrographical network of the Garigliano basin as a vector of medium-scale trade will be examined in detail, considering the different approaches carried out. The conclusion will open the problematic on other networks that could have existed during the mid-Republican era and the connectivity between these areas on a larger scale