The
British School at Rome’s ''Tiber Valley Project'' (1998-2002) studied the changing landscapes of the middle Tiber Valley as the
hinterland
Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associated ...
of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
through two millennia. It drew on the vast amount of
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
work carried out in this area to examine the impact of the growth, success and transformation of the city on the history of settlement, economy and society in the river valley from ca. 1000 BC to AD 1000.
The wealth of surface survey evidence in particular provided a valuable resource for examining these themes. However, no study has ever attempted to incorporate the wide range of settlement and economic evidence available and the full potential of the data for understanding these processes has been largely undeveloped.
British fieldwork in this area goes back to the beginning of the 20th century with
Thomas Ashby
Thomas Ashby, (14 October 1874 – 15 May 1931) was a British archaeologist.
Family
He was the only child of Thomas Ashby (1851–1906), and his wife, Rose Emma, daughter of Apsley Smith. His father belonged to the well-known Quaker family ...
’s pioneering study of the Roman campagna. However it was the South Etruria survey, directed by
John Ward Perkins’ in the 1950s to 70s, which represented a milestone in Italian and Mediterranean
landscape archaeology
Landscape archaeology, a sub-discipline of archaeology and archaeological theory, is the study of the ways in which people in the past constructed and used the environment around them. It is also known as archaeogeography (from the Greek "ancien ...
and stimulated a series of
field survey
Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...
s and excavations by British and, in particular, Italian archaeologists in this area.
The Tiber Valley Project was funded by the
Leverhume Trust and involved twelve British universities and institutions as well as many Italian scholars.
Tim Potter Tim Potter is an English actor in theatre, films and TV since the 1980s.
Career
Potter's stage work includes playing the role of Salvador Dalí in the original production of Terry Johnson's ''Hysteria'' at the Royal Court in 1993, and Charles I ...
’s classic synthesis of the
South Etruria
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...
survey, ‘The Changing landscape of South Etruria’ published in 1979, represented the first and only attempt to analyze developments in one part of this area through time.
The first phase of the Tiber Valley project and the restudy of the South Etruria data led to a fundamental reassessment of our historical and archaeological approaches to the Tiber valley, allowing a new reading of the historical landscape and the changing relationship between Rome and its hinterland.
The final project monograph, by Helen Patterson, Robert Witcher and Helga Di Giuseppe, was published in 2020:
The Changing Landscapes of Rome's Northern Hinterland The British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project". Since 2015, a consortium has been working to integrate the results of three large surveys in the hinterland of Rome, including the results of the Tiber Valley Project, as part of th
Roman Hinterland Project
External links
Tiber Valley Project
References
{{reflist
Archaeology of Italy