Early urban and colonized regions of central and south Italy:A case study in comparative landscape archaeology

Systematic field surveys and topographical research undertaken to date in various Italian regions south of Rome shou, that responses to early urbanization in central and south Italy, and the interplay of early urbanization with Greek and Roman colonization, differed widely between regions.In this paper a tentative comparison is presented between the early protohistoric and subsequent Hellenistic and Roman settlement dynamics in two regions in central and southern Italy, the Pontine region and the Sybaris plain. The focus is on the transitional period between the tribally organized Iron Age societies in these regions, and the development of early urbanized societies. It is argued that, while early urbanization in the Pontine region (south Lazio) in the late Iron Age and Archaic periods (seventh-sixth centuries BC) can be viewed as a gradual and internally-triggered peer polity process, the process of early urbanization in the Sibaritide (Calabria) was strongly influenced by seventh and sixth century BC Greek colonization. In the latter region the process of urbanization depended on the centrally located Greek colony of Sybaris, its successor city Thurii and the later Roman colonia of Copia which was established on the same spot. The process is here described as occurring on the level of long-term settlement dynamics rather than as one of a priori Greek political domination. It is observed that although urbanization of the tribal Iron Age landscape followed Greek colonization, the political, ethnic and cultural implications of this process are still very unclear and need to be examined in much more detail.In the Pontine Region urbanization spread over the landscape from the seventh century BC onwards, radiating from the Alban Hills and slowly pushing into peripheral areas. A similar process was taking place in the area around Rome. In the archaic period, and certainly after the fifth century BC, Rome itself became the determining factor in promoting (and later curbing) urbanization in the Pontine region through the installation of colonies, while at the same time influencing the development of the marginal areas along the coast.This paper, then, is intended to outline in general terms two of the models of urbanization and colonization that are currently being developed by the Regional Pathways to Complexity (RPC) Project at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of the Free University of Amsterdam. The implicit methodological problems are also discussed.