Integration of survey, excavation and historical data in Northern Picenum

In this paper it is argued that an integrated non-invasive survey approach, with a large contribution of aerial photography and remote sensing operations, is one of the best ways to achieve diachronic site characterisation and typology of Roman settlements during some of their stages, without having to fall back on large scale and expensive excavation work. Thanks to such an approach, preferably applied on partially or completely deserted sites and areas with a high potential for surface reconnaissance, we are in the position to look not only at such important matters as size and shape, but also at function and functional zoning. Interesting aspects about functional zoning that can be studied thanks to this particular intra-site approach are: discontinuity in the use of space, fluctuations in the size of the built-up area and gradual shifts in the location of the nuclei of the settlement sites. Field survey experience in the Italian landcape has demonstrated that intensive and repeated artefact survey combined with geomorphological operations, geophysical prospections, and systematically checked and monitored by aerial reconnaissance and (if available) compared with regionally or locally available stratigraphic data, is one of the best approaches to detect all three of these dimensions of change. To demonstrate the possibilities of such an integrated approach a case study from Central-Adriatic Italy is chosen. Selected results are presented of systematic archaeological survey work, carried out since 2000 in Northern Picenum (Le Marche) in particular around the coastal Roman town of Potentia and the inland cities of Trea, Ricina and Septempeda